Why it would actually be ‘a bad thing for Arsenal to win the league’

Arsenal have to not win the title to prove the point that nobody but Man City can win the title apparently…

What’s your excuse this time?
Arsenal have over-achieved to be in this Premier League title race. But Arsenal are still f***ing it up. Both of those things can be true at the same time. There is no doubt that having got themselves in this position, they may have irredeemably screwed things up by throwing away two two-goal leads. The performance against West Ham was unforgivably careless.

Which makes this Independent headline jar a little:

‘Arsenal’s flaws aren’t the reason their title race could be doomed.’

Hmmm. They are a pretty bloody big reason. But when you have decided to dedicate your career in football journalism to the inequality created by Manchester City finances like Miguel Delaney has, then Arsenal f***ing up against West Ham can always be traced straight back to City.

He writes that Arsenal ‘were killing their own build-ups with bad passes’ and pointed out poor decisions from both players and manager against West Ham but then excuses them all because they are up against this City and this City do not allow you to make small mistakes.

‘It is after all only two away draws, regardless of the nature of them. In a normal run-in, of the type that has existed for over 130 years of English football history, drop-offs like Arsenal’s would be considered part of the drama of it all rather than potential conclusions. These 2-2 draws, even allowing for the concern of the comebacks, wouldn’t have such stakes.

‘Back in 2011-12, for example, City themselves drew two and – coincidentally – lost 1-0 at Arsenal, in a bad run that looked like it could cost them the title. The difference then was that Abu Dhabi had not yet owned the club for years, and everything was still in its formative stages.’

Where to start with this? How about that in April 2012, when ‘City themselves drew two and – coincidentally – lost 1-0 at Arsenal’, they weren’t even leading the Premier League. They started that run one point behind Manchester United and ended it eight points behind. And that run was not merely ‘considered part of the drama’, as evidenced by a BBC report at the time:

‘Manchester City’s faltering title challenge lies in tatters as Mikel Arteta’s late goal left them eight points adrift of Premier League leaders Manchester United.

‘Arteta’s 25-yard shot three minutes from time gave Arsenal a deserved victory and struck a devastating blow to City’s hopes of preventing United claiming a 20th crown with only six games left.’

It sounds awfully like a ‘potential conclusion’ to Mediawatch.

What then happened is that Manchester United contrived to drop eight points (including an oft-forgotten defeat to Wigan) while City won all their remaining games. You could certainly say that United had a bad run that cost them the title.

And the final winning points total from these more ‘forgiving’ times when City were still in their ‘formative stages’? 89. Which is considerably higher than the average points City have claimed per season since then and slap bang in the middle of their points totals from the title-winning 20/21 and 21/22 seasons.

‘An autocratic state has bought a club for political purposes and built it up to a level where it is the most lavishly funded in history, a gleaming worldwide project. That has meant that, in order to have a chance at winning the league, any challenger has to get at least 90 points. The likelihood right now is that City end up with somewhere between 90 and 94.’

They won it literally two years ago with 86 points. And have only reached 90-plus points three times in total. Which is exactly the same number as Liverpool over the last five years.

‘It would arguably be a bad thing for Arsenal to win the league because it perpetuates the illusion that the Premier League is still as competitive as ever, and doesn’t have a huge problem here.’

Mediawatch cannot help but think that he means it would be a bad thing for Miguel Delaney.

‘Instead, if City win yet another title – to make it five in six, a historic third in a row, to potentially go with a treble in a grand display of power – it might wake more people to the reality.’

Odd how that list of total domination is exactly what happened with another Manchester club in the six years between 1995 and 2001.

Crooks of the matter
Congratulations to Brighton’s new potential superstar Julio Enciso, who now knows he has truly arrived in the Premier League after being crowbarred into Garth Crooks’ BBC team of the week at wing-back.

Obviously, we know that Crooks’ criteria for choosing his team can be broadly reduced to ‘who scored?, which can prove tricky when choosing a goalkeeper.

Which kind of almost explains the choice of David De Gea.

‘The most difficult period for a goalkeeper is when he has nothing to do and then is called upon at a moment’s notice’

Pesky fact: De Gea has literally zero shots to save v Nottingham Forest.

Crooks struggles to find goalscoring defenders so reluctantly includes Tyrone Mings and John Stones alongside Diogo Dalot before wondering if playing Stones further forward ‘is something England manager Gareth Southgate might consider’.

Hmmm. We think Southgate might stick to the system that saw England beat Italy and Ukraine just last month.

Other Crooks highlights include describing Nottingham Forest as ‘no longer the soft touch they were at the start of the season’ just as they hit their worst form of the season with ten winless matches, and speculating that Patrick Vieira could have matched Roy Hodgson’s results at Palace while simultaneously forgetting one of their three victories under the latter.

But mostly we enjoyed this insight: ‘There is no doubt in my mind City are a much more ‘attractive’ team without Erling Haaland, but get this: they won’t win the Champions League or the title without him.’

The ‘get this’ is wonderful, even if we ignore the small matter of City literally winning the last two Premier League titles without him.

But Crooks is not yet finished with his insight, as he has this to offer on Spurs. Are you listening, Daniel Levy?

‘Well, permit me to give him a little advice: install Mauricio Pochettino immediately to bolster the fans and reassure the players on a contract until the end of the season. If he can secure Spurs a top-four spot he gets a big, fat bonus and a two-year contract and enough time to win a trophy or he’s gone. Is that difficult?’

Well actually it might be really sodding difficult to persuade Pochettino to take on a job for just seven games when they are three points (and goal difference) behind Newcastle having played one more match. It’s literally a 7/1 shot and you want Pochettino to risk his reputation for a 7/1 shot. Is that difficult? Almost impossible, we would say.

ALL kings of everything
Look, it’s the sodding wild west out there and it can sometimes get desperate for clicks; we all do things we are not necessarily proud of to serve the Google gods in the name of traffic and thus revenue but…this ‘ALL fans say’ sh*t really is utterly indefensible bollocks.

On The Sun‘s football homepage on Monday morning:

‘Man Utd fans convinced City star wants to make stunning transfer after comment on Bruno Fernandes Instagram post’

‘Arsenal fans ALL say the same thing as Declan Rice spotted asking Martin Odegaard for his autograph after West Ham draw’

‘Diogo Dalot performs FIVE celebrations after scoring goal for Man Utd as fans joke ‘that man has been starving’’

‘Man Utd fans laud Ten Hag’s tactical masterstroke with ‘cheat code’ Dalot vs Forest… with even Arsenal fans jealous’

‘Arsenal fans highlight reason why West Ham penalty shouldn’t have been given after spotting incident in build up’

‘Chelsea fans fear ‘managerless’ Blues are ‘actually finished’ as they question Lampard after Kepa clip goes viral’

All ‘news’ stories created solely from comments made on Twitter or Instagram. Sorry, ALL ‘news’ stories created solely from comments made on Twitter or Instagram.

It’s utterly ludicrous that a comment made by Bxhxve_32MC (95 followers) now counts as content.

That particular Twitter user was one of ALL the Arsenal fans saying ‘the same thing’ after Declan Rice – a man who quite famously has an extensive collection of signed shirts – asked Odegaard for an autograph.

He was one of just four fans quoted by The Sun but they are apparently a fair representation of ALL Arsenal fans who are ALL saying the same thing. And apparently that thing is ‘CLICK ME’. Should we be despairing of the publishers or the idiots who click?