Norwich / Arsenal – all the things they might have said, but the agenda won’t let them « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

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“Making the Arsenal” – the book of Arsenal’s rebirth

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Tony Attwood reflects on the way the broadcast media reacted to our win at Carrow Road.

Played 12, won 10, drawn 1, lost 1 is not a bad headline but you would have struggled to find it over the weekend, after the Norwich game.  Indeed you would have struggled to find any mention of it anywhere.

We had just played a game in which we won, we had 57% of the possession, and 20 goal attempts.  But was that the news?  Was it hell!

We ended the weekend on the same number of points as the fourth team in the league.  True our goal difference is worse, but not that much worse.   People forget how quickly goal differences can change (although I should add that when checking the league table it is best to avoid the official version on www.premierleague.com   As of monday morning at 7.45 they still had us 3 points behind Chelsea!)

The reality is that of the four teams on 22 points Chelsea have the best goal difference (plus and we have plus 3.  A 3-0 to us and a 0-2 against them, and we are not only three points above Chelsea, but with a better goal difference.

Of course that is fantasy land until it happens, but then following the media on a weekend when you can’t get to a game is exactly like living in fantasy land.

By midnight on saturday (I was just on my way home from a dance since you ask) BBC Radio 5 Live was running the headline “Arsene Wenger was forced to re-iterate his commitment to the club after…”

Forced?

Well you know what that was after – it was after L’Equipe ran its infamous piece and the BBC tangled this into Mr Wenger saying he would only leave if the team underperformed.   That was 11 hours after Mr Wenger, smile on face, had firstly helped Sky get its cardboard cut out set up and running, so he could be interviewed, and then listened patiently to the interviewer, and told him what he had really said in that interview.

Sky, to be fair, said something along the lines of “It looks like a statement which has been cut short and had its meaning changed”, and they also showed pics of Mr Wenger helping them build the set, which was nice.

But in summary what I think Mr Wenger said was that if he, Mr Wenger, failed to deliver to his own high standards, he would consider his position.  (Given that his standards are 14 years in the Champions League, putting us on a par only with Real Madrid and Manchester United, while keeping the club in profit, it is a very high bar.  That is a story – but not the story the BBC ran).

Elsewhere we got a little less of the “one man team” about Robin, but we did still get “what happens if he gets injured?” stuff.

The funny thing was that we never really had that about earlier Arsenal teams, although the scoring was dominated by Thierry Henry (hi Terry, nice to see you back at the club).  Everyone could marvel at Thierry, but they worry about Robin.  Odd that.

And yet he (Robin) i’s well on his way – 13 goals already, when the target for most years for the top scorer of the season is not many more.  Drogba in 2007 did it with 20, Anelka in 2009 with 19, Tevez and Berbatov last season with 20. This season, with Robin out front, the target must be something higher, like Ronaldo’s 31 in 2008, perhaps.

So we move on.  Will Arsenal end up in the top four, the Sky interviewer asked the guy in the studio who once played for Norwich.   No, he said Tottenham will.   And why?   Ah, well, you see, there was no time for that discussion and we had to cut to the adverts.

(Meanwhile back on the BBC Garth Crooks told us that no one has attempted more forward passes in the final third of the pitch this season than Joey Barton.  Well fancy that.)

Wondering what the Daily Mirror was making of it all I put Daily Mirror Football into Google, and got this story at the top.  It wasn’t from today’s news, but I can see why Google kept it at the top of their listing for the Mirror.  It is just so funny.  It is from August…

Wenger has got bids of £15million and £20m-plus respectively in for Rennes midfielder Yann M’Vila and Lille forward Eden Hazard. And the Arsenal boss is also going back for another crack at Everton defender Phil Jagielka, having already had two bids turned down.

Nothing to do with reality of course, but you have to laugh…

Especially when reading the Sun which today says,

THANKS to Arsene Wenger we now know the real reason why Robin van Persie is stalling on a new deal.

For how can the goal-scoring hero commit his long-term future to Arsenal when even their legendary manager questions his own continuity?

Add to that the rising concern about Theo Walcott, who like Van Persie only has 18 months left on his deal, and instead of an upbeat Monday morning read you get a sense of impending doom.

Same points as Chelsea?  No.  Van Persie almost home and dry as the season’s top scorer?  No.  A truly wonderful run of victories? No.  All set to qualify for the Champs League?  No.

Here’s the Express.

And while Arsenal continue to find solutions on the pitch, the ticking time bomb off it remains an unwelcome distraction.

Each Robin van Persie goal increases the desperation for him to remain at Arsenal past his current contract, which expires in 2013.

The only solution to restore one’s sanity and sense of balance is, as it so often has been, the wonderful Robert Pires.  As I mentioned in the summer Robert has written a second autobiography, which (at least as far as I know) is still only available in French.  I mentioned it before because of its wonderful title…   “Les Canards ne Savent pas Tacler”    There is something of a debate as to how you translate that, but one interpretation relates to Le Canard enchaine the eternal French satirical weekly.

The other interpretation is that Robert’s autobiography’s title says something extremely rude about journalists.  And I rather like that.

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