After years of consistently failing to gain any traction with their lies that Arsene Wenger is under-achieving, the mainstream media is now giddy with delight. For the first time in 12 years Arsenal is seriously struggling.
All the enemies of the Arsenal-way and their fellow travelers are now “jizzing” with delight, practically drooling in their underpants. Now is a real chance to sow fear and doom, to split the fanbase and to put pressure on the Board to fire the manager who has not only been its most successful but, only last year, guided the club to second place in the Premier League and one year earlier completed back-to-back FA cup victories.
But then again, most sensible Arsenal supporters with two functioning brain cells and a working synapse are aware, long before the current political uproar concerning “fake” news, that Arsene and AFC have been victims of bias and slanted journalism for years. None of the following headlines come as any surprise.
The Sun:
“Arsene Wenger is taking the p*** out of Arsenal fans by continuing his selfish soap opera”
ESPN:
“Arsenal top-four failure would be a disastrous end to Arsene Wenger era”
It is entirely predictable that the mainstream media’s will use a poor run of form to convince the fickle public that this is sufficient reason to condemn a manager who has been the most consistent in the Premier League over the past 20 years not to mention being the most successful in the history of Arsenal Football Club. Is there a better example of George Orwell’s double-think. For those who celebrate Orwell but conveniently forget his writings, let me remind you of his definition of double think:
“To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic… “
A perfect example was Jim Beglin, who was Jon Champion’s sideman in their commentary of Arsenal’s match versus West Brom as broadcast by NBC here in the US. He, at around the 2 minute mark, could without contradiction, make the following comment with respect to Arsene:
“He doesn’t deserve the criticism cause he has been an Arsenal great….The problem with Arsenal fans is they feel they need to voice their frustration (be)cause he is no longer an Arsenal great.”
Isn’t that a precise example of double think?
Neither Beglin or Champion, like the rest of the other sock-puppets in the mainstream media, have the “cojones” or the integrity to admit that Arsenal’s bad spell has nothing to do with Arsene’s ability to coach or to manage a team. Even Wenger’s most fervent defenders are the first to admit the team messed up on defending two corners but a fair minded observer would disclose that West Brom is very, very good at corners having scored 12 prior to the Arsenal match. Why should it take Wenger to point out that so far this season the team has been quite good at set pieces and corners?
What is even more abject is the refusal of almost all the pundits and experts to acknowledge that Arsenal was greatly weakened by the absence of its two most highly accomplished midfield technicians, Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla. As I have repeatedly emphasized the data shows the team relies on the creativity of both players to offensively dominate the opposition by creating chances and scoring goals.
Surely it is clear to even the least perceptive of the mainstream media that Ozil is very important to Arsenal. It was only one week earlier, in the FA cup game versus Lincoln City, that in the first 20 minutes Arsenal huffed and puffed without creating chances until Ozil joined the proceedings. The visitors were eventually spanked 5-0 as the German orchestrated the offence. Surely the mainstream media has access to even better sources of data than this lowly blogger which demonstrate that in the absence of Carzola, Ozil is more vital than ever to Arsenal.
| 2016/17 | Win | Draw | Loss |
| With Ozil | 67% | 14% | 19% |
| Overall | 55% | 19% | 26% |
| Difference | -12% | 5% | 7% |
Without Ozil, there is a 12% decline in the number of PL games won and a concurrent 7% increase in games loss compared to overall team performance
This has been the general trend ever since Ozil joined the club in 203 but is even more pronounced this year. The table below illustrates.
| 2013 to date | Win | Draw | Loss |
| With Ozil | 60% | 23% | 17% |
| Overall | 57% | 23% | 20% |
| Difference | -3% | 0% | 3% |
To back up my findings, I did some further analysis of the Squawka data I published early March and the offensive disparity between Carz-Ozil and The Rest of midfielders quite alarming. By the way: this is not to put down any of the The Rest but there is a reason why Carzola and Ozil are winners of World Cup and European Championship medals versus none for their midfield colleagues.
| Carz-Ozil | The Rest | |
| Avg Performance Score | 26 | 17 |
| Avg Appearances | 15 | 18 |
| Shot Accuracy | 59% | 26% |
| Avg. Pass Accuracy | 89% | 88% |
| Avg. Pass Length (m) | 16 | 16 |
| Avg. Chances Created | 1.97 | 0.80 |
| Avg. Goals Scored | 0.24 | 0.05 |
| Avg. Defensive Actions | 1.5 | 1.83 |
| Avg. Duels Won | 41% | 49% |
The midfielders available to Arsene on Saturday are collectively inferior in quality to Carzola and Ozil.
· 34% disparity in Avg Performance Score,
· Shot Accuracy is 33 percentage points inferior
· Avg Chances Created is 59% worse
· Avg Goals Scored is 79% less
On the defensive side, The Rest has much better statistics in terms of Avg Defensive Actions and Avg Duels Won. But at the end of the day football games are won by having the ability to score more goals than the other team.
It was therefore no surprise that despite being nice and tidy and mustering over 77% possession Arsenal was unable to create sufficient Chances and Shots on Target to keep West Brom at bay as evident by the the following statistics from whoscored.com
| West Brom | KEY STAT | Arsenal |
| 12 | Shots | 11 |
| 8 | Shots on target | 2 |
| 58% | Pass Success | 88% |
| 41% | Aerial Duel Success | 59% |
| 10 | Dribbles won | 10 |
| 14 | Tackles | 10 |
| 23% | Possession | 77% |
In fact, once Pulis and his players recognized that Alexis was the main offensive threat, they set about fouling him rotationally with referee Swarbick, like most English referees, unwilling to protect the most skillful player on the field. He was fouled four times before a call was first made. The sixth foul by Rondon was a cynical clatter to prevent a breakaway, no yellow card. The seventh and most severe by Mclean was a full bloodied studs raised challenge from the side, infinitely more forceful than those which earned Xhaka his two red cards; yellow card only. Job done, however. Alexis’ ankle had been smashed and he was never the same after.
Meanwhile the representatives of the mainstream media, Beglin and Champion, treated it as one big joke:
Beglin: “McLean tackles like a fullback not a winger.”
Champion: “Tackles like a lumberjack”
The clear assault on Alexis Sanchez did not earn West Brom, its manager or players any reproach, any sanction from the combined wisdom of Robbie Earle or Kyle Martino who did the half-time analysis for NBC’s PL broadcast aimed at us rubes in North America. Nothing happened. Nothing to see here.
By the end of the game however the sock-puppet media lost no time in declaring Arsene was solely responsible for Arsenal’s loss, was somehow out of touch and should be hounded out of the club. Like any lynch mob, the mainstream media and the mindless screeching WOBs, Scarfists and assorted malcontents have no intention of letting the facts come to the fore, they hope mob rule will prevail.
Last week Sir Chips told them to eff-off. Isn’t time for more good people to step up and put the lamestream media in their place.
Positively Arsenal 
No chance of Hunter coming back here? He always does a fine job, even if without much elegance…
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Ive seen Hunter on Untold a couple of times, they let the odd wob on there and you know how Hunter loves to destroy them.
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While BG has the final say my guess is not, lovely chap though he can be.
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Tremendous Shotta; I’m just too Mr Angry with the refs, the disgusting media channels, including the BBC, and the fake fans to say anything more.
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Apparently, Piers Morgan has called the disaffected to arms on Talkshite.
They have a willing ally, and Piers is good at listening….allegedly
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GP-8.45pm -I agree with how your viewing things,it does seem that way.Seems pretty frightening at times.If he stays, in one way it will be very amusing to seem them meltdown, but who knows how far things would then go?
Shame we had to get Piers, just think it could have been the Spuds, they would have deserved him! Odd thing is the wobs are helping the Spuds and the other teams anyway, but are so ignorant to what they are doing.Or are they?
Rantetta, I liked your post, I also had similar feelings towards everyone here and at PA tonight and was glad to read your post..
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Interesting suggestion concerning “assassination” as a means of resolving the Arsenal management job tonight. Given the psychological fragility of the fan base I can imagine at least one wierdo’s imagination has sparked into life. Social media eh.
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Odd times in football world.
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A5-I wasnt thinking along those lines, I meant more how far would their protests g?.But saying that I have seen pretty vile stuff across some blogs over the years.
But as you say you never know-its a shame that people are so fragile now in their minds. Its been one great thing by some on UA and everyone here at PA is that voices of reason had their say.Seems pretty important to me.
But the cries of the mob are across the board now in all cultures. Will Salingers ever come forward again, or just write only for themselves, and Mozart just play around at home or in a pub for a bit of scratch, even a guy like Dan Clowes wasn’t immune to some weird poop going his way.
Who would want to be famous these days? Im not sure the AFC team do!
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The chances of some maniac seizing their moment in the limelight are vanishingly small Mills. I wonder about the relentless, drip drip drip, of hate on line and its effect on the feeble minded. Jo Cox though – chances of that – a single nutcase nourished by online madness year after year. Hopefully no one is forcing Henry out of a window as I type.
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I hope so Andrew.As you wrote, odd times in football.But then one way or another it seems to have always been odd! Tony at UA did his research and the boo boys have been with AFC from pretty early on.
I wonder how long the likes of AFTV will last before people get bored?
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AndyNic – Thanks for the hat-tip to our boy Hunter. Had to check him out at Untold. You can’t miss his writing style. He really loves a scrap, that Hunter. He would fight in a phone booth. Lol.
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So the Wenger is a dictator surrounded by yes men narrative is back. Surely these hacks could at least come up with something original.
I would bet anything Sutton wouldn’t be saying this if Pat Rice, Liam Brady or Steve Bould were sat in the studio with him. Maybe they should book an appearance on TV and confront him. Think of the ratings!
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That’s a good point, Shard baby!!
So how about, ‘Wenger is a ‘yes man’ surrounded by dictators.’ or maybe, ‘Wenger is a ‘yes man’ surrounded by dicks’.
I do not charge much, and I am available for all functions! lol
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Shotts
A headline from the oligarch’s orifice (the Evening Standard now edited by our apolitical frothing extremist former chancellor, earnest supporter and friend of the Wexiteers)
“Arsenal have no reverse gear” or something like that
Today from the Manchester Grunt we have this exclamation: “Arsenal need major restructuring” this coming from a hack writing for a business that were appealing to their readers for wonga like, well, like some kind of YouTube channel *coughs aftv coughs: yes this is the lofty status of the modern football hack I think therefore that we can understand and appreciate exactly why their quality and standard have plummeted into the soiled depths of Riley’s underpants.
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Beglin’s underpants, now Riley’s underpants !
Come on boys – keep it classy – (and wash your hands afterwards).
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Luke Millar @LukeisPremium 3h3 hours ago
I think the notion that Wenger is a bad guy because he believes he knows better than us is strange. I’d want any manager to believe that.
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Oliver KayVerified account @OliverKayTimes
Mesut Ozil ruled out of Germany-England game tomorrow. Slight hamstring problem, Joachim Low says
wait, what, Ozil is actually injured, but, but, but, but, the malcontents told us it was a fake injury, and that he was refusing to play for Wenger.
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seen a report in the telegraph that despite Arsenal showing a cash reserve of £100M, the club has to pay “£42 million between now and November on previous player buys and a further £23 million beyond that”, so a full £65M owed on transfers, that brings the £100M, down to £35M, yeah no reason at all why Arsenal should not have bought several £50M players last summer.
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http://news.arseblog.com/2017/03/liam-brady-lack-of-clarity-is-affecting-the-team/?utm_source=feedburner.com%2Farseblognews&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arseblognews+%28Arseblog+News+-+the+Arsenal+news+site%29
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I see Lukas Podolski will earn his 130th and Final cap for Germany on Wednesday, and will captain the national team for the first time.
Love that boy
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Poldi certainly brought something with him to AFC, shame that there was too much pressure on him from Löw (etc) to fight for a place in the DFB (if you dont place first team reg. you aint playing for the NM.)towards the end, AW didnt want him to go, and Im not sure he did either really.
Saw him come bombing past us on his bike a couple of years ago with that big grin of his while we were in the local park.
When he was hot he was bloody hot! Hes of to Japan now/soon?Does a lot of good work supporting local kids etc.Prinz Poldi!
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He is only 31 years old Mills – probably has 3-4 years in him yet (in a slower league)
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I hold out hope that Poldi might one day land at an MLS team like his buddy Schweinsteiger. I’d pay good money to see Lukas play again, and now I’ve got an MLS team right down the road in Atlanta.
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Bring back Der Prinz! Andy the news I heard hes off to Japan, as you say hes young enough to go on for sometime yet.Alabama-hope he goes over to yours and you get to see him play again!
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New post up
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