Anti-Arsenal media bias

Was reading the article earlier about the double standards of the media and how we have been treated this year. It was a good article with good comments but I think maybe we need to have a bit more of a think about the situation. While I do believe their is an element of an anti-Arsenal ethos in the British sports media, I do think that we as fans over-emphasise its severity, obviously as a way of making us feel a bit better when we come up short.

At the end of the day, the ways in which the sports media reports the theatrics of the Premier League is through each individual team's specific context - in terms of their continued narrative across the seasons and the club's history.


Here are what I consider the key themes of Arsenal's context and therefore influence everything said about us in the media:

1). Arsenal have not won the league since 2004
2). Arsenal haven't won a trophy since 2005
3). Arsenal have the longest serving manager in the Premier League
4). That manager was very succesful in the first half of his tenure but has won nothing in the second.
5). Arsenal do not spend extravagant amounts of money in transfer windows...
6). Reason number one for this is they are ran by a manager who is frustratingly stubborn
7). Arsenal consistently achieve top four (Champions league) status, yet haven't convincing challenged for the title in a decade.
8). Often when they do challenge, they crumble when the pressure gets higher.
9). Arsenal have a aesthetically pleasing but fragile style of play. One that prioritises attacking over defending, which means...
10). Arsenal try to walk the ball in and...
11). Arsenal cannot defend
12). Overall this represents an element of tactical naivety
13). Arsenal were the first team in the Premier League to field a first eleven of entirely foreign players - Arsenal have no lion-hearted British core which is essential for success.
14). Arsenal don't just have mentally weak players, they have physically weak players too.
15). Arsenal have never won the European Cup



Together these themes have elements of truth, some are clear facts and others are cliched points which are reproduced despite having very little truth in them anymore (this is where I do believe the media has been biased against us). However until we address points one and two the others will continue to be a staple component of our narrative.

We must admit that this narrative focuses undoubtedly on the more negative aspects of Arsenal's recent history rather than the positive, but lets face it there hasn't been a whole lot to be positive about. Many of the themes combine to an overal sense of monotony, boredom, lack of passion, accountant-like logic which in the end is fruitless in terms of glory. It is understandable that we are seen in such a negative light because despite being very close to success, it feels as if in the current era, Arsenal lack the desire and passion to go out and grab success by the balls. Consistenly good isn't as interesting as glory, followed by a free fall from grace, followed by redemption.

We can't really compare what has happened to us this year in terms of our title challenge with what has happened to Chelsea, City and Liverpool. The reason being our story has fitted perfectly (so far) within our narrative. All we need to do now is bottle the FA Cup final and all is normal in the world.

Whilst we do suffer from a lack of forgiveness in the sports media, Liverpool are the darlings, and they will be for the forseeable future. Reason number one being they simply have lots of ex-players, fans and combinations of both in influential positions in the sports media. We have to accept this. However despite Arsenal being more successful than Liverpool in the Premier League era we are continued to be seen in a more negative light becuase Liverpool's narrative is bit more interesting. It doesn't represent monotony and the mundane. A frustrating consistency in being good but not great. It has seen them win a lot of trophies. It has seen them play terrible football and fall to mid table mediocrity. This year they have come dangerously close to the winning the title despite not even getting close to the CL spots last year. A media-based Liverpool love-in conspiracy doesn't make that it good story. The good story makes it a good story.

Teams are judged according to their own context.Chelsea and City spend loads of money and have both won the league recently. That is interesting. This is why these three teams are judged differently. They have a different narrative in the media and therefore are judged according to that, not mutually exlcusive standards that every team is judged by.

So frankly we need to get over it, take control of our destiny, win a trophy and begin to change our story. When we can make our context more positive than negative, we'll begin to see some more favorable attitudes in the sports media I'm sure.