Sunday 1 November 2009

Partisan media and Redknapp out of his depth

It is strange that Arsenal Champions League matches always play second fiddle to those of Chelsea/Manu/Liverpool when it comes to getting on tv, especially given how few supporters Chelsea have. It is strange how rarely an Arsenal game is featured early on in Match of the Day, invariably tedious games involving Manu/Chelsea and Liverpool feature earlier on. It is strange how Sky's advertising campaign earlier in the season involved Manu, Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City, they assumed Arsenal would not be part of the top four. This is all rather strange and cannot be explained solely by chance.

The media reaction to Eduardo being toppled against Celtic was also rather strange. He was public enemy no 1, he was written off as a cheat despite an unblemished career record, the tag lives on despite him actually being a rather honest player. In recent weeks we have seen numerous blatant acts of cheating routinely ignored by the media, something strange is afoot. Arsene has hit the nail on the head with comments in the screws:


"Last week, Scott Parker dived. No one spoke about it. You start to think the media make the rules. If they made a big thing of Eduardo then why did they not do that against Parker?"

Why indeed? The silence following Parker's blatant dive was deafening, the lack of comment regarding Cole's compliance with gravity was also notable. Yesterday Didier Drogba was back to his best, he was put clean through against Bolton, Jay Lloyd Samuel pursued him, Drogba took too heavy a touch and the chance appeared to have gone, Samuel made a slight attempt at a tackle, Drogba slowed himself down and took the most minimal of contact, he then went down as if shot, writhing around in fake agony as only he knows how, the game was changed, a penalty to Chelsea and Bolton down to ten men. Drogba's cheating has again been rewarded. The media have been silent on this, so what hope is there that cheating will be stamped out when it is so routinely ignored by the media?

Harry Redknapp has again revealed himself to be the most sore of losers. Redknapp tried to put down the defeat to just suicidal defending, he failed to admit that his inferior side were comprehensively outplayed for the duration. He even tried to claim that the spuds controlled the game in the first half, it's a bit strange to control a game without creating any chances while seeing the opposition have more possession and chances. He gave no credit to RVP for his excellent finish for the first goal, Redknapp tried to put this goal down to the third person as if the ball 'had squirmed in somehow'. In fact our excellent striker was too quick for your crocked centre back and he managed to control the ball into the bottom corner, that is not 'squirmed in somehow'. Redknapp pretended the spuds were comfortable until the 42nd minute, in fact it was more of a case of the spuds riding their luck, only one team looked like scoring. The fact that at 2-0 down they never looked as if they had the ability or belief to get back into the game was also ignored by Redknapp.

To put Cesc's goal to just bad defending is bizarre as well as disgraceful, it was a majestic piece of play, not many players could do what Cesc did yesterday, the fact that we have players who can do this is what makes us a class or ten above the spuds, something Redknapp would do well to acknowledge rather than pretending it was a self inflicted defeat. It is strange that the media give this average manager such a free run to say what he chooses, it is strange that he is never labelled a sore loser when he is always so very ungracious in defeat.

This is all very strange. At least at the end of the interview Redknapp effectively admitted that he expects to lose at Arsenal, he denied the result was a 'blip', to me this is an inadvertent admission that he didn't hold out much hope of a victory at the Emirates. At least bitter 'Arry got one thing right, it was indeed 'sunday morning football' and this came from his sunday morning players that have been assembled at double the cost of Arsene's squad, well done 'Arry, what a lovely cheeky chap you are.

7 comments:

Obsinho said...

My issue with Redknapp is that he is part of the partisan media. He has a weekly column in the Sun and is very much part of the establishment, so he does get a lot more support than he deserves.

It does annoy me (to a small extent) that the North London Derby is 4th on MoTD, that Fabs' goal is not being replayed over and over again in the same way it would if Rooney/Gerrard/Torres had scored it & that refs are so inconsistent in the making of key decisions.

But ultimately we won 3-0 it should have been 5 so bollocks to them all.

Ted said...

I agree.

It was bizarre watching MOTD last night. Shearer and Hansen gave no commentary of any substance on anything.

Jamie Carragher has been playing rugby with strikers for years. Its not debatable whether he should have been sent off or not, its amazing that he did not go for the first offence against Fulham. But its all harsh in Hansen's eyes because its Liverpool.

Drogba went down under minimal contact against Bolton, gets a penalty and a red card for J Lloyd Samuel. But its fair game for Shearer, who spent half his career elbowing people in the head and complaining to the ref.

The amount of diving in the Pompey-Wigan game looked unbelievable. Even Kanu was at it, comically throwing himself to ground under minimal contact from the back.

That said, and this is the problem in my eyes, refs do almost nothing to punish defenders who constantly offend, like Vidic and Carragher, so a striker almost HAS to exaggerate the foul to make the ref understand what is happening.

But who cares really today. Fuck Rednapp, fuck MOTD, fuck the ref. Who cares. We beat Spurs 3-0.

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s3 said...

That's because they know that people like me will sit through all the boring sh1te to see the Arsenal highlights. If they showed the good stuff first, folks would switch off and they would have no audience for the rest of the programme.

Uncle Mike said...

Is there not one media outlet that will give The Arsenal credit for shutting down the bigmouthed Spurs? There's a saying in the U.S.: "An alligator mouth and a hummingbird ass."

Third team in London, they're just the third team in London! Maybe fourth, considering Fulham. Maybe fifth, considering how West Ham came back against us. At least they don't have the problems of Crystal Palace or Charlton.

Osbinho said the magic word: Harry the Hobbit writes for The Sun. A paper whose boss wouldn't know "THE TRUTH" if Cesc dribbled halfway across the pitch and blasted it right past his ear. Just ask any Merseysider. (Some of them are decent people who know football and won't even pick your pocket.)

Since Ted mentioned him, perhaps he can enlighten me: Why exactly DO Scousers "all dream of a team of Carraghers"? Do they want all 11 players in their lineup to be over the hill? Do they want all 11 sent off for rough play? Maybe they want all 11 to get embarrassed by Thierry Henry. (Not his best goal but close.)

Ted said...

Hansen and Barclay have both written columns that say quite nice things about Arsenal in the Telegraph and the Times respectively. Well, Hansen tries to.

In answer to Uncle Mike's question, i think the answer is that fans love players who are 100% effort and commitment. Also, whilst Carragher is not the world's best, he is extremely good at persistently fouling a striker without getting caught. Which slightly reminds me of Keown, although Keown was a far better player in every other department, save for the last ditch blocking tackle, which Carragher and John Terry appear to have perfected into an art form.

Until this season, it used to be that Benitez's teams were rock solid at the back. The absence of Hyppia and Carragher's loss of form appears to have turned them into jelly.

Until Vermaelen turned up, I would have liked us to sign someone like Carragher, although not actually him. A good old fashioned defender who likes heading the ball, kicking strikers and will happily spill his own blood to win the game.

1979 - why is there no option for "none" on the voting? Those monkeys wouldn't last 10 mins in the less rarefied atmosphere on the Hackney Marsh.

1979gooner said...

good point ted,
changed accordingly