Anti-Arsenal Media Bias

[Letters]

Is there any? I'm generally one to try and keep objective about this sort of thing, fans of all clubs tend to be a bit paranoid. But in the wake of the Bayern game there were no fewer than 3 articles mocking us on Newsthump

http://newsthump.com/category/sports/

Fairly amusing ones, but still. And the BBC ran a video showing various memes mocking Arsenal.

Not a sausage from either about Spurs crashing out to a side I've never heard of.

I know individuals are anti-Arsenal - yes I am looking at you, Alan Hansen - and I guess others like Wright and Henry will be partisan. But overall is there an anti-Arsenal bias? Why would there be?

Discuss. Or don't. Meh.

[Marc Overmars]

I think it stems from the media being just as frustrated as we are with the groundhog day nature of what happens to us every season, it must be boring as hell to write and speak about the same things all the time. We're an easy target I suppose.

[Letters]

I guess it's also affected this place. What else is there to talk about?

[Marc Overmars]

It's right across the fanbase.

The club has become a parody of itself.

[Niall_Quinn]

Newsthump is a parody site. You know that, right?

[Niall_Quinn]

It's right across the fanbase.

The club has become a parody of itself.

The football club is a joke. But the club as the owners and manager see it is the envy of the business world. They turned Arsenal into a Japanese car manufacturing style robotic factory, stamping out identical results year after year. I don't think they much care what happens once the product leaves the factory, leave it to the poor fans to break down and go bust.

[Özim]

There's no bias, they're just seeing the same thing that's happened for the last 10+ years and they're probably wondering how this never changes, it's almost like the club never learns.

Frankly we deserve a bashing in the press, we've had too many embarassing results in the last 10 years, too many thrashings and never any lessons learnt, moreover the lack of hunger and desire on the pitch is unacceptable for players earning such huge fortunes.

Wenger has created this give them everything before they achieve anything culture at the club so it's no surprise players aren't hungry, Iwobi signed a new contract (somebody said twice) based on a handful of half decent performances this season and being pretty average for a big part of it and it's happened many, many times before.

[Özim]

The football club is a joke. But the club as the owners and manager see it is the envy of the business world. They turned Arsenal into a Japanese car manufacturing style robotic factory, stamping out identical results year after year. I don't think they much care what happens once the product leaves the factory, leave it to the poor fans to break down and go bust.

Spot on, there's very little to admire about this club these days and the people in charge are 100% to blame for it, including Wenger who has been very much involved in shaping the club into what it is today.

[Letters]

Newsthump is a parody site. You know that, right?

Really?

That does explain a lot now you say it.

[IBK]

Wow - you've managed to get me to write on here again (good topic - Letters). I stopped doing so because there are only so many ways of approaching the groundhog day that we have seen at our club for years now - and there is very little new to say these days!

Re media bias - inevitably there is a degree of subjectivity about this. Because we are more involved in AFC than any other club and therefore pay more attention to what is said and written about us (as well as feeling defensive about Arsenal to a degree) we are bound to feel that there is an anti Arsenal agenda. Look at the media frenzy surrounding LVG last season; or Maureen's last disastrous season at Chelsea - and the criticism of management and playing styles that went along with that - this provided more negative copy than our limp failure to prevent Leicester from winning the title.

But on the other hand, I think that there ARE factors that make us a convenient target for negative press. These are:

1. Many of the 'establishment' journos and commentators spent their formative years in the 1980s and 1990's - during Liverpool and Manure's heydays - and both clubs still enjoy greater national support than Arsenal. These clubs are undoubtedly 'favoured' in the press - by their supporters and even neutrals.

2. AFC is in a unique position in the UK game. Big enough to be a club that people want to talk about, but without proper success for almost a decade and a half now. It is achievements that counter negative comments - and in terms of lack of achievements for a club of the size and resources of Arsenal, we are fair game. This is a factor, I think in the lack of sympathy with the treatment that some of our players seem to receive on the pitch, because the feeling is that we are, and should be big enough to look after ourselves. Unfair, perhaps, but understandable to a degree.

3. For this reason, the likes of Citeh and the Chavs get an easier ride - people respect success, and they have earned their right to an easier ride. No-one outside Arsenal is particularly interested in how they have achieved this - and we are nowhere near deserving of the sympathy of an underdog in relation to the big money teams - we are one of them and degrees of affluence are irrelevant.

4. It is considerably easier for armchair and professional pundits alike to identify the flaws in our manager's regime, and to see that these mistakes keep coming back to bite our club season after season - than it is for the other so-called big 6 teams that people like to talk about. There is little objectively to say in defence of these flaws.

5. I think that negativity in the press reflects the negativity around our club. We have stagnated. Our style and approach to the game has stagnated and year on year there is very little for pundits and fans alike to get behind in terms of progress/hope for something different. Any 'bias' reflects this general negativity.

6. Wenger has a deserved reputation for arrogance and defensiveness. He is not unique in this approach, but again, this is something that will be glossed over where a manager is successful, and highlighted when he isn't.

7. There is and has been very little for the past decade to get really excited about. The press love a marquee signing; they love a result that defies expectations; they love something different to get behind to change the pre-existing narrative. All our main competitors have provided this in different ways. We, on the whole haven't.