Arsenal play is ‘bordering on garbage’ as ’embarrassing’ star is singled out – but Arteta attacks are wrong
An Arsenal fan admits that the Gunners are ‘bordering on garbage’ to watch but the personal attacks on the manager and players is going too far.
Meanwhile, one Tottenham supporters looks to fix Spurs as he suggests five signings if they manage to avoid relegation this season.
Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com….
Defending Arsenal, Arteta and fan frustrations
I enjoyed Michael Lee’s description of us erstwhile Arsenal mailboxes as 24/7 unpaid ambassadors – goodness knows what cancer cures, successful moon rovers and clean energy systems could have been invented had my fellow compatriots not felt obliged to instead write in for decades on how Coquelin is now the answer at DM, Ozil is underappreciated and Mustafi’s underlying numbers means he will eventually come good (whoops).
But defending Arsenal under Arteta has taken on a different element and maybe upset us a bit more than even when we were just a bit pants all the time and a reasonable source of mockery, for a pretty specific reason, which might explain a little why you can have us on one hand write ‘nah nah nah, no-one likes us and we don’t care’ but still stump up an outraged email to the latest bile and invective about our club.
It’s the language and the malice.
Really? Worm of a man? You as an adult actually write that about a football manager whose crime is having his players take a bit longer to take a corner than average, or ask Ben White to stand in front of a goalkeeper.
We remember, not that long ago, when it was the publicly accepted approach to commit acts of violence against Arsenal players because ‘they don’t like it up them’. We remember watching our players being stretchered off with season and sometimes effectively career ending injuries by unrepentant, meat-headed players who’d been told to rough us up to stop us playing our game. And you know what? No-one called Pulis scum of the earth in public debate. Allardyce was praised for getting in our faces. I’m not suggesting they were unique, or culpable for all their player’s actions, but nonetheless, this was how players were instructed to play us, that frequently went well overboard and referees rarely enforced games to protect our players.
The bile this Arsenal team receives now then for things that are a pale shade of that is maddening. Our defenders are exceptionally clean and technical in the challenge, we cause virtually no injuries or fly into dangerous tackles (that is actually why we don’t concede many penalties, funnily enough, not because we’re cynical cheats).
Do we hold on corners? Yes, but everyone does, you could pick a corner from any era of the PL and see 5 fouls. Do our players emphasise contact dramatically? Yes, but this is a criticism in football 20 years old at this point and these are fouls they are claiming on.
On Gabriel specifically, his theatrical flopping to the ground is embarrassing. Trust me, we don’t love it either. But a) it was a foul and b) when a defender doesn’t do it AND is fouled more, like Romero against Liverpool, you don’t get it given, so if you’re trying not to concede a goal and look like a complete prat, might as well theatrically go down and look half a prat instead.
And yes, we know our football is pretty dour watching these days, bordering on garbage. There’s a million different rationalisations (oppositions defend almost 10% deeper against us than any other team in the league by point of defensive action, play more defensively once going behind to keep games close) but ultimately Arteta has overrefined the team into a point gathering machine rather than an expression of footballing pleasure.
But the way he is talked about, my goodness. I actually don’t think any manager has attracted this level of hatred. He seems to be the locus now of all that is wrong with football, forgetting all that preceded him. And for what? Occasionally he says something a bit sour grapes/ridiculous (best team in Europe, sure we didn’t need that). Arsenal are coached to find every margin in a game, but every innovative team has been doing that for a while now, Arsenal were just the first at the top level to throw money at the problem.
READ: Ranking every Arsenal player by how much they deserve the Premier League title
Within the game? He’s quite well liked, by players, by other managers, just in general. He’s seen as a pretty good guy, drama free, always has his player’s backs. He talks eloquently on things like race, supporting the women’s team and game. He doesn’t say much any more about games or football in press conferences, which means he can be criticised for being a bit short, but when he used to be more open in what he said, everything he said was twisted or misquoted for a good soundbite, so what was he supposed to do?
You don’t have to love him of course. It’s fun to have a cartoon bad guy and a pantomime villain. The PL needs drama, and in the absence of good football, he provides some, I give you that. We do revel in it too, how it harkens back to George Graham Arsenal where our defensive habits became so ingrained in pop culture they appeared in films like The Full Monty.
But personal attacks on the players and manager go too far too frequently here and in other places and are frequently justified by people based on how ‘annoying’ we are as a fanbase. And that will always provoke a response.
I actually think winning a title will be good for loosening the pressure on the team and maybe relaxing our fixation with marginal games a bit, and maybe Arteta will settle into the ‘grudging respect’ category Simeone occupies.
But until then (or indeed never, if everyone just gets to revel in another bottling narrative) you’ll keep having us fans write in despite the fact we’re not bothered our football is shite on the eyes. And it’s not contradictory at all.
Tom, Leyton
Whinge more…
I can’t help being amused by Arsenal criticism in the mailbox coming from people supporting and/or citing teams involved in all sorts of unpunished financial shenanigans. The cognitive dissonance and lack of self awareness is astounding. We all see what we want to see, don’t we?
But back to whinging about style. When Arsenal were getting compliments for playing lovely football (and failing to win against financially doped clubs), we at least existed as an alternative to some of the more boring football closer to the top of the table. I’m old enough to remember Jorge Valdano describing a Chelsea v Liverpool tie as “sh*t on a stick”. Now everyone’s moaning about Arsenal choosing to attempt to win games by being efficient instead of flowery, but there isn’t a single other team this season consistently providing an attractive alternative to the “boring” football Arsenal plays. I listened to 4 journalists on a podcast respond with silence when asked “if all the Premier League teams are on TV at the same time, which would you choose to watch?”
Arsenal’s approach this season is undoubtedly more cynical than it was in the past, but it’s largely in response to the tactics other teams have chosen to deploy against Arsenal over the last few seasons. Meanwhile, no one else entertaining the neutrals regularly, but only one team is getting criticized for this perceived lack of entertainment. I’d suggest that if no one is playing consistently entertaining football, then maybe the team that’s managing to win regardless isn’t the enemy here.
What’s everyone else’s excuse for the boring football they’re playing this season? What are your club’s principles besides losing to the best of the boring teams?
Selling hotels and women’s teams to themselves and avoiding adjudication for 115+ violations because of geopolitical influence is fine, but scoring from corners is the issue? A certain Ballon d’Or winner openly criticized the referees over a month ago and got charged by the FA, but hasn’t been punished (in the same time, several other players and clubs have already been charged and punished for a variety of lesser offenses), but Arsenal is what you’re all whinging about.
You’ve all turned Arsenal into a villain… but there’s no hero in sight. Keep on whinging. Everyone is stupid on purpose when it comes to Arsenal.
Cheers,
Deen (Boring, Boring Arsenal…)
READ: Tudor sacked after triple loss as Tottenham caretaker’s final straw at former clubs remembered
Sam fixes Spurs part two
Hi f365,
I recently wrote in with my suggestions for who Spurs should keep and sell, assuming we stay up, which I still think we will….just.
As a follow up, I present a Tottenham shopping list for summer 2026. I tried to keep it realistic, so no Mbappe or Messi!
1. Marcin Bulka
The giant Pole needs rescuing from Saudi and we need rescuing from Vicario.
2. Andy Robertson
I thought it was a great move when we tried it, he was up for it and I was gutted when it fell through. We should revisit in the summer. Experience and leadership in spades. Give that man the armband.
3. Leon Goretzka.
A free agent with top level experience in the middle. The wages will be high but no fee.
4. Savinho.
Brilliant opportunity for Savinho to make his name as the big fish in a small pond rather than being a occasional sub at a mega-club.
5. Brennan Johnson
He’s good that lad. No sensible club would let him go in the middle of an injury crisis, eh?
If you are thinking, “These guys wouldn’t come.to Spurs”, I say “They would if you sell them the chance to lead the rebuild of a club with, for all its faults, considerable long.term potential. Earn yourself club legend status by turning disaster into glory in 2027-30.
Well, a guy can dream!
Kind regards
Sam
Improving VAR
THROW AWAY THEIR LINE TOOLS FOR OFFSIDE DECISIONS!
These are extracts from two random match reports on Thursday’s Spurs Palace game.
1. That opener came just moments after Palace had seen Ismaila Sarr’s deflected strike ruled out for an offside check which appeared to judge his face ahead of play.
2. To his eternal shame the Senegal attacker had failed to keep a bit of his face onside.
That decision is yet another very clear case of a goal being disallowed by VAR for reasons that were never intended by its introduction. It’s worth looking again at what VAR should be doing and I found this definition. “The official aim of VAR (Video Assistant Referee) is to increase fairness and accuracy in football by reducing “clear and obvious errors” in key match-changing situations, acting under the philosophy of “minimal interference, maximum benefit”.
The referee’s assistant cannot possibly judge the situation described above as being offside so it cannot possibly be a “clear and obvious error.” VAR is therefore being WRONGLY used to improve the strict accuracy of offside decisions. They make us wait, for far too long in many cases, to then deny us many goals that could not possibly have been correctly flagged as offside by the match officials.
OFFSIDE HAS NEVER BEEN AN EXACT SCIENCE AND VAR SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO CHANGE THAT.
There’s a very simple solution, one that I’ve suggested before, to throw away their line tools and to give the VAR officials, say, 20 seconds to make an offside decision. That is plenty of time to decide whether or not the assistant referee has made a CLEAR AND OBVIOUS error. That would mean that assistant referees would need to return to their old way of working, making immediate offside decisions instead of waiting and flagging later because they expect VAR to make the decision for them.
VAR can and does contribute positively to many other situations. Is anyone willing and able to instruct them to forget their line measurements and to judge offside situations in the way that was intended?
Chris Feather, Eagle in Exile, By the sea near Athens in Greece
Weak underdog
Yeah, don’t particularly like Wrexham but dislike Chelsea even more.
I’ll tell you though that player Dobson has single-handedly lost his side a very winnable cup tie. Been awhile since I’ve seen such a poor individual showing, the kind Marca or L’Equipe assigns 1 or 2 to. Ten minutes to see it out. Baffling decisions and failing, flailing legs. No case of Aviation gin (or whatever piss them owners are brewing these days) for Mr. Dobson. Take a bow, son.
Eric, Los Angeles CA (We’ve an exo vs Wrexham stateside this summer… perhaps Dobson will have been bought up by a North London club by then and found his level.)
READ: Guardiola summed up Newcastle pentalogy – and upcoming Arsenal series – with Mourinho quote
Jammy Liverpool at it again
I presume Will Ford thinks Wolves were robbed last night? The Xg battle was almost identical to Tuesday night as was possession and much of the actual gameplay. Difference is Wolves didn’t score with their only shot of the game by the 78th minute nor did they get a fluke of a deflected winner.Makes one wonder though, if Liverpool won like that last night, would Ford think they deserved it? I doubt it.
Sick of jammy Pool getting these undeserved victorys when all they do is play literally all the football in the match when the opposition plays Orcball
Patricio Del Toro
Laura Woods
I believe Laura Woods should take a long, hard look at herself and question why she chose to drop her guard and act like a football ‘team’ supporter, rather than a supposed unbiased expert commentator.
And that’s the operative word – ‘bias’ because a commentator should always take two steps back and save their opinions for tactical assessment, rather than revealing their own allegiances.
I remember an England game where Ian Wright (I like him) was filmed off-air in the commentary studio dancing in delight when his beloved team scored a goal. A similar unprofessional moment.
And that’s brings me to another gripe of mine. There are few football fans. What remains are thousands of football ‘team’ supporters who hate everything about every other team and their players. Hate, hate, hate.
Estuaries
