ARSENAL CONTROL MARGINS AS RIVAL SPIRALS

Well, the final is set. Arsenal vs Manchester City, March 22nd, Wembley.

The two best teams in the Premier League. The two best coaches in the world. The king vs the prince. No, that sounds weird. Mentor vs mentee. Ugh, sounds like a mint advert. Professor vs graduate? Oof, sounds like a bad incognito tab.

It’s Pep vs Arteta. New era vs old.

The Manchester City manager is quite clearly exiting the club and he’s working a notice period he thought would be rolling more in his favor than it is, and he wants to talk, and talk, and talk.

He has opinions on global wars across three continents, regrets about how little City have been spending of late. He’s even planning to write a strongly worded letter to the energy drinks company about his fury relating to signing a cup-tied player.

You know what my take is from all this? It’s not what you want to be hearing if you’re a player in that dressing room. An unhappy complainer in the dressing room is the sort of thing Pep Guardiola normally aggressively takes care of. Just look at Cancelo and his abrupt exit a few seasons back.

The swirl around City has been bad of late. The charges still hang in the air, their transfers haven’t worked out as planned, Maresca is basically out at Chelsea because he was talking about taking over from Pep, and the three-man shortlist is out in the open (Alonso, Cesc, Maresca). In a fine-margins league, you don’t want the areas your margins are tightening to be of your own making. Tighten or widen? It’s tighten I think.

I’m enjoying it all. Doesn’t mean we’ll win the league. But the contrast to Arteta who has rallied the fans and players is quite striking.

Arsenal have to rally their energy for the Sunderland game this weekend. We’re playing a rested team who stole a draw from us up north. The League Cup semi-final glory will mean nothing if the team is cooked for this home game. But get a win, and the pressure mounts on Manchester City again because we’ll be 9 points clear with a miserable Pep having to take his team to Anfield on Sunday.

For those not paying attention to Liverpool, they have scored 16 goals in their last 4 games. They are SPICIER than the underside of a Man City ownership’s collective collars as they watch Pep talk geo-politics for the fourth time in a week. A tired Man City, heading to Anfield, to face an Arne Slot side that has had 8 days rest… that’s keeping me very interested let me tell you.

It’s a couple of days since our win over Chelsea and the two things I can’t stop thinking about are Rosenior trying to pick that ball out of the air and shanking it into the crowd via his shin. It felt like a credibility moment. How do you recover from that? I’m not sure. I worked at a TV channel that had a very famous American celeb for 6 years. I ran into him all the time. People at my new job knew this. When I recently met him, I said hello, and he said, “hey nice to meet you, so what do you do?” Have I recovered from all my work colleagues laughing at me? No. I still want to die thinking about it. Liam, I’m feeling you here. Might delete this text later.

Ok, now let’s talk about media.

Arsenal fans are the best in the world. Bar none. We’re incredibly online. The Emirates is the best atmosphere in football right now. Brands want to load up on Arsenal commercials because the base is MASSIVE. HR SaaS products have an in and so do hot youth-oriented brands.

So don’t forget that.

The byproduct of that is we also keep dry newsrooms in business. We drive traffic, subscriptions, and attention.

Nicky Butt’s podcast can’t thrive if he talks about United. He needs Arsenal to get an Athlete’s Foot Salve sponsored read.

Arsenal get unfair amounts of attention because if you’re not talking about Arsenal, no one really cares.

You think the media would just breeze past Arteta complaining about a cup-tied player not having the right to play a final? You think the Class of 92 would have nothing to say on Arteta complaining about the location of a Cup final? They’d be dining out for DAYS.

Why don’t they lean into these more interesting topics? Because no one cares.

But this does lead me onto something more concerning.

When fans listen to the constant negativity around their club. Every micro-moment analysed with the worst spin. It puts them on edge.

Don’t believe me? Arsenal are having their best season in 20 years and we are reading:

• Arsenal are boring

• Arsenal are bottlers

• Arsenal only have themselves to blame if they don’t win every game from now on in

How does that manifest? Nerves in the stadium. Booing a single loss in a really unlucky game against a top 4 team in United.

No club gets this treatment so consistently from ALL media organisations, even the BBC.

Would City let it fly? No.

Would Forest? No.

Would Spurs? No. They apparently banned Viaplay for a negative interview with Thomas Frank.

Arsenal are the hottest club in the world right now. Why are we letting the world beat up on us, and impact the team? The fans? The mood?

Shouldn’t we be throwing some weight around? Aren’t we the big dog right now? Alan Sugar made Jamie Redknapp apologise for a comment. Forest’s owner slapped down Gary Neville and banned him from the stadium. Why are we letting all this relentless negativity land on us… especially when it’s agenda driven, and worse, for personal enrichement.

We’re the only club this happens to at the level it does. High access organisations juicing their numbers by saying we’d be the worst Premier League team of all time.

Totally unfair narratives.

But, just my two pennies. My broader message is one that focuses on what YOU can control. Stop clicking on it like you need to rebut the accusations. Don’t give it the attention it doesn’t deserve. If a writer says they are a fan, but Arsenal fans are the worst on the planet, man is not really a fan, is he? A fan wouldn’t do that to his own.

So ignore, know that the attention is because your rage has a monetary value. Don’t sell yourself cheaply.

Ok, now I have to ask you to subscribe here instead. It’s like that whole rant was a play to get you to be a member here? Kind of dirty. Am I… worse than Nicky Butt?

Ok, have the Therapy session for free so I look like man of the people, which actually, I am.

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