Greetings Positives,
Despite repeated claims to the contrary, it is remarkable how football reflects real life. This may be shocking to those who see football as some form of escape from the every-day challenges of our human existence; stuff like work, home, family, politics, economics, you name it. The harsh reality, however, is professional football has become big business and like all big business it is institutionalized with various stakeholders fighting tooth and nail for their respective self-interests.
As in the broader society there are various ideological points of view; in football there is a desperate need to avoid anything political so we are left with the highfalutin concept of “football-philosophy”. Most of this so-called philosophy is deceptive, at least when it comes to the Premier League. Making money is the primary goal and the standard of football is secondary. In contrast to the PL, the German Bundesliga has a mandate to improve domestic football. So while commercially inferior to the PL, it produces more world class footballers and arguably the world’s best national football team.
Fact is the Premier League is driven by the need to maintain its commercial domination of the international tv market which is a multi-billion pound source of revenue. They care very little about improving the standard of domestic English football or even the standard of refereeing for that matter. I will get to the latter in a moment. The dominant narrative in the PL is money; super-transfer fees, super-salaries; super-managers, super-agents, super-owners, super-stadiums, you name it.
With the fantastic amounts of money going in and out of PL clubs, it is certainly a tempting attraction for international money launderers acting on behalf of the various oligarchs, despots and carpetbaggers who automatically enjoy the protection of the Her Majesty’s government once they become an owner of a premier league club. In the world of international finance London is one of the major money centers and the PL is a significant player. No wonder it is so important to protect the PL narrative and to punish those who may upset the apple cart. I am absolutely positive this reality is not lost on Arsene Wenger and Arsenal Football Club.
To convince the masses worldwide, that they have the best show in town, the PL has the mainstream media, both home and abroad, in their pocket. There is clearly an unwritten rule in both the English and American media; never broadcast or print anything that shows the dirty underbelly of the league. It is a known fact that those media, with rights to broadcast PL football, have a contractual obligation to not broadcast anything that brings the league in disrepute, no matter how true or factual. From the many reports online and the little I have seen of BBC’s flagship football program, Match-Of-The Day, they conceal and and edit most of the egregious refereeing decisions. As in Orwell’s “1984”, news reports are consistently rewritten and edited to sanitize the product; controversies conveniently disappear down the “memory hole”. In the words of that great Nobel Laureate and English playwright, the late Harold Pinter, describing the manipulation of public discourse by the mainstream media:
It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest.
This to me is symptomatic of what is currently happening with respect to the diabolical standards of refereeing in the premier league. Again readers must be reminded that the refereeing organization, the PGMOL, is a body bought and paid–for by the PL. It is currently headed by Mike Riley, who was the official-in-charge of the greatest match-fix any of us have ever witnessed in modern PL history in October 2004, i.e. Arsenal’s Game-50 versus Manchester United. In front of a worldwide audience, with the almost absolute complicity of the broadcasters and the football establishment, Riley did everything to enure a victory for United. According to Wikipedia:
The match saw a series of unprofessional fouls that were overlooked by referee Mike Riley, such as Rio Ferdinand on Fredrik Ljungberg in the 19th minute and striker Ruud van Nistelrooy’s studs-up challenge on Ashley Cole. Arsenal dictated much of the early play and created several openings, but as the game progressed Manchester United threatened. The home team were awarded a controversial penalty in the 73rd minute, as Wayne Rooney allegedly tumbled over Sol Campbell’s outstretched leg. Van Nistelrooy converted the penalty kick and late in the game Rooney scored for 2–0. The result ended Arsenal’s record-breaking 49-match unbeaten run. Many Arsenal fans were disgruntled, as they believed Rooney had dived and the penalty should not have been given.
[As always the above report fails to mention Riley’s “carte blanche” to the Neville brothers to kick Arsenal’s then in-form striker, Jose Antonio Reyes, out of the game without fear of penalization.]
Is it any wonder that the one top club in England that refuses to join the premier league merry-go-round; not over-spending, not paying the highest transfer fees, not paying the highest salaries, not firing managers at will, not engaging super-agents, is not the preferred club by Riley and the PGMOL and by default, not preferred by the PL. This is despite the fact this club has long played the most, modern progressive football which the media now suddenly discovers to be worth fawning over Pep Guardiola and Manchester City. This is despite being the first PL club to build a brand new modern stadium out of its own pocket and still retain its top-4 status for 20 years. Not preferred, despite developing an academy which constantly produces top English talent who regularly represent the club as well as appear in English national colors. Etc, etc, etc.
Arsenal Is #1 In The Top-6 Table
Is it any wonder the PGMOL referees, reflecting the outlook of their paymasters, the Premier League, have made Arsenal, over the past 10-years, the most penalized club in the top-six League in terms of Penalties-Against. As always, the unbiased data tells the truth despite the attempts of many to bluntly reject any information that does not fit the narrative, peddled by the mainstream media, of a poor beleaguered PGMOL desperately trying to do a fair and unbiased job among a mass of cheating players. Apparently the recent video of referee Moss and his assistant making a penalty decision in favor of Tottenham despite being uncertain of a prior offside and the fact the ref is heard to ask something along the lines of “what do the tv people say”, is for some not convincing enough evidence that the refs have other motivations apart from what happens on the field when they make their decisions.
| Pens Against | Goals Against | PA vs GA | Correlation | |
| Arsenal | 58 | 423 | 14% | 77% |
| Chelsea | 32 | 369 | 9% | 50% |
| Man City | 38 | 443 | 9% | 32% |
| Tottenham | 47 | 499 | 9% | 22% |
| Liverpool | 45 | 428 | 11% | 22% |
| Man Utd | 35 | 358 | 10% | 1% |
Primary stand out from the data:
- Arsenal has the highest correlation by far, i.e. 77%, of Penalties Against vs Goals Against of all the traditional top-6 clubs. In other words, as far as the PGMOL is concerned, in the case of Arsenal, the greater the goals-against the more likelihood of a greater number of penalties.
VS:
- Clubs like Manchester City, Tottenham and Liverpool who have conceded more goals than Arsenal but have a far lower correlation of PAs vs GAs. It is as low as 22% in the case of both Tottenham and Liverpool and no higher than 32% for City. How do the PGMOL and its apologists explain this blatant disparity?
Secondary stand out:
- Manchester United may have 10% of PAs vs GAs but there is almost no relation between the two variables, only a 1% correlation. It leads me to the conclusion United must be the greatest defensive team on earth despite the likes of Rojo, Vidic and Smalling who routinely foul their opponents in the box.
As I have often emphasized in the past, like the mainstream media, almost none of the big accounts in the Arsenal blogsphere, on twitter and on podcasts want to engage the PGMOL and the PL in these glaring statistical disparities. They are either intimidated or corrupted by the mainstream media (from whom many hope to one day get a gig) that truth-seeking is forbidden, a clear example of self-censorship. Meanwhile the club they claim to love and support is being screwed over year-in, year out. First it was the Riley fix, then the kicking and physical intimidation of Arsenal players that lead to Ramsey and Diaby being literally broken in two and Diaby’s ankle destroyed, rotational fouling, the penalty embargo after spurious allegations that Eduard dived and this year a rash of phantom penalties-against.
(PS: In 2017 I did a major study covering 20 years of PL data showing that the PGMOL was able to significantly victimize Arsenal with Penalties-Against; a 120% growth which far exceeded any of the traditional top six clubs many of whom had an inferior average league position.)
Already I have warned that the arrival of Aubameyang will result in the offside flag being used to sabotage his runs off the shoulder of the last defender. Based on the history of biased PGMOL officiating when it comes to Arsenal, the odds of my prediction coming true is as certain as night follows day.
Rather than a campaign against PGMOL bias and for a robust, transparent Video Assistant Ref (VAR) outside of secretive PGMOL control, many it seems default to the typical PL solution; have the current boss fired and employ a super-manager who sees football as a defensive war of attrition. Only a coward who has been corrupted by the money and the resulting negative football on show most weeks would welcome such a fate for Arsenal Football Club.
To all my fellow positives and especially my English friends, the words of Pinter is inspirational:
Truth in drama is forever elusive. You never quite find it but the search for it is compulsive. The search is clearly what drives the endeavour. The search is your task. More often than not you stumble upon the truth in the dark, colliding with it or just glimpsing an image or a shape which seems to correspond to the truth, often without realising that you have done so. But the real truth is that there never is any such thing as one truth to be found in dramatic art. There are many. These truths challenge each other, recoil from each other, reflect each other, ignore each other, tease each other, are blind to each other. Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost.
Extracting truth from the unbiased data and its dissemination to our fellow gooners and the football public at large is our duty.
Positively Arsenal 
Correction to above text:
“If you have attackers who CANNOT dribble into the box with the ball at their feet at speed then your team will earn more penalties, whether they dive, dribble (they can’t) or not.”
eg.: as theTottenham manager recalls during his video tutorials to his players: Owen was quick, could finish, but he wasn’t famous for dribbling (but to be fair much better then some current ‘superstars’).
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was thinking more of Sane Fins – he seemed bloody expensive at the time Citeh bought him but he has transformed their attacking play. Similar to Salah at Anfield with attacking the defence inside, outside and powering into the box. Both can finish, both can create chances for others. Not sure if we were looking at Malcom to do a similar job.
LikeLiked by 2 people
< at least Hazard who is a diver as well can actually dribble…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Andy, we might have been looking at Mkhitaryan
LikeLike
Sane!
And KDB in the same squad!!
(Backed up by Sterling a rare Englishman who can dribble).
– the agent of Sterling and Chamberlain signed up two English talents who can dribble, that’s a fair achievement for an agent. let no one say we are prejudiced against anyone because of their profession, all who deserve respect will get it!
Sane is a scary footballer when you think about it. Gnabry lurking in the background.
These Germans. Copying the coaching styles of Ferguson and Wenger (in their own words!) and churning out a pool of talent that would even make the Spanish FA blush with envy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I see Mkhi as more of a Freddie Ljunberg rather than an out and out winger G. A six yard box finisher.
LikeLike
Looking forward to see how Miki settles into this team.
That cross from the wide right to set up Ramsey after he’d won the ball off the Everton goal scorer was dreamy.
Positively Cazorla-esque.
Had Miki arrived at AFC at a similar time/stage in his career to Cazorla, when he’ll make a similar transition from a wide attacker/AM type into more of a CM?
LikeLiked by 2 people
FP, he was a central midfielder. I’m pretty sure that’s how he started out, so it would be a natural move. I remember him deep midfield when that decent Shakhtar side were spanked by Barcelona, but should have been four up in the first 15 minutes.
LikeLiked by 2 people
And I know how good he can be so I’m not worried, but what the hell was Mkhitaryan’s Spurs performance about? Mourinho must have really done a number on his confidence. That sweeping cross-field pass when he had one man to beat in the box was an unusual choice.
LikeLiked by 2 people
birdkamp
He just looked over the top, i.e emotionally spent , it may not be too far a presumption that he may have been pretty frustrated at Man U and the Everton game was a release of emotion. Hence his next game was better but no where near the level of Everton,I expect him to be better tonight and even better next thursday.
LikeLiked by 2 people
WwwB, that makes sense. Though I hope he wouldn’t be too affected by off the field stuff. I don’t know how bad life is under Mourinho if you don’t see eye to eye.
Another point is that you can’t be surprised if things don’t work out when 1/5 of the outfield team (2/3 of the attack) is brand new, and you’re playing them in one of the hardest fixtures of the season. It can take seasons to cultivate an understanding, but just dropping them into a cauldron and playing on the counter when they have only one or two opportunities to connect – well in retrospect, that doesn’t seem like a great idea.
But then just imagine what people would have said if either Aubameyang or Mkhitaryan had been benched!
LikeLike
LikeLiked by 1 person
very surprised to see Bellerin, Wilshere and Iwobi start, as all 3 likely starters on Sunday
LikeLike
I thought we might see St. Jack start, last week he was below the level we’d seen him hit playing every few days during the Xmas crunch after that mini break/niggle, so I’m guessing he just needs to “run around a bit” in order to be ready for a final.
Though it could also mean that Rambo had a stonking session in training today!
Iwobi and Welbeck have had good combinations especially when Iwobi first broke through playing on the left with Welbeck at CF. Happy to see them start together.
COYG!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bellerin. The lack of a younger covering RB (Not Mustafi a starting CB, though he is good there…) is the issue there I guess. AMN can do it more easily then at LB but he’s earnt the chance to play some games in midfield.
Then again maybe the gaffer and Bellerin is want to troll the AFTV brand and dismantle it just a little bit more then young Hector has already done. not all publicity is good publicity, not for panicking branding experts and PR whizz kids.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Eds
Imo the “brand” peaked with crucial Robbie busting his rhymes on the BBC before the last cup final. I could be wrong, BT/Sky might have these actors in the studio and not out there mixing it with the plebs (classic Aunty Bleeb that was), AFTV could yet evolve into being a regular TV pundit/clown but first they’d have to displace Kermit I mean Garth Crooks in order to take up that hallowed mantle.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLike
On Mourinho and his relationships with flair players:
From Robben (& Duff!) onwards it seems that only “lazy” Ozil has truly prospered under the special one. Is that fair? Andthe player and his former manager appear
At least now everyone else can see what it is that truly makes Mourinho special (spending a lotta lotta Wonga!).
LikeLike
< appear to still get on.
LikeLike
Celtic out of EL, after losing 3-0 to Zenit, 3-1 on agg
LikeLike
I wonder has anyone thought of complaining on twitter about AFC not wearing our home kit tonight
LikeLike
the swedes have scored
LikeLike
Do they actually practice defending? I am really beginning to wonder
LikeLiked by 1 person
0-2 down, second best so far, and in real trouble,
team started very complacent and its got worse.
pathetic
LikeLike
COYG
LikeLiked by 1 person
Words fail me….
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am not going to write what I nearly wrote, still 45 mins to turn this around.
We are told Wenger is calm at half time no matter what, well if that’s true, he needs to change the habit of a lifetime for his own sake as well as the clubs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
U guys are pulling my legs right?
is there anything wrong with scoring more goals?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not quite what I anticipated in the first half – I admit I’ve been surprised before though.
As we appear to be playing like the U14s Arsenal I anticipate a big pick up in the 2nd 45
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve seen some poor performances from our team over the years, many in recent seasons, but that 45 minutes really takes the biscuit, awful stuff, going through the motion from start to finish, no urgency, almost say no interest.
the old problem of quickly letting in a second goal once we let in one has struck again.
There are real problems with this team/squad
LikeLiked by 1 person
We have been unimaginably poor. A Sunday park team would be better. Can’t believe this is the Arsenal. Shocking.
LikeLike
And….calm. Another half to make things better, boy they need to
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great thing about football
Marvellous 45 coming up
Drama tragedy joy horror laughter
LikeLiked by 2 people
If you don’t repect football
If you don’t respect the game
It will punish you
LikeLiked by 1 person
we have woke up, Kolasinac makes it 1-2, and 4-2 on agg
LikeLiked by 1 person
we brought xhaka on for AMN for the second half, AMN had been booked, so maybe we were safe guarding from going down to 10
must say nothing clinical about Welbeck at all.
LikeLike
we are as shaky as fuck at the back
LikeLike
nearly a 3rd for the swedes, opsina to the rescue, oh my lord
LikeLike
welbeck not sharp enough
LikeLike
Nacho would’ve scored that header
LikeLike
still second best this half. awful
LikeLike
WwwB I’d have scored that header
LikeLike
willock on for the ineffective wilshere
LikeLike
willock changing his boots after 3 mintues
LikeLike
this is really really poor stuff from afc
LikeLike
the swedes almost score, my God this has been woeful stuff from Arsenal.
LikeLike
3 minutes plus stoppage time to hold on, can’t believe that I’m writing that
LikeLike
welbeck wouldn’t score in a brothel
LikeLike
Iwobi limps off, Nelson on for stoppage time
LikeLike
Cor that was a bit dull – fair play to the Swedes who kept at it – the result never in doubt though
LikeLike