Arsene Wenger’s charges are one of football’s most famous names. Go anywhere in the world and you’re bound to see someone sporting a light red shirt with white sleeves – they’re admired by fans, rivals and neutrals alike. But that’s only to a certain extent – after all, this is football. It’s never that tidy – especially not when it comes to the London side.
Arsenal, the team that thrust household names like Thierry Henry, Pattrick Vieira, Dennis Bergkamp and Cesc Fabregas into the limelight is viewed with a scathing contempt and derision by fans of other teams. While neutrals may find it hard to see why Arsenal are mocked so much, we’re going to dig into the details and figure out why people hate the Premier League’s second most successful team of all time.
#1 Pretty football with no trophies
Football is the beautiful game, and in that aspect, Arsenal can’t be compared to any side in the world.
Wenger has got his young, precocious talents playing some of the most beautiful stuff out there. Wilshere’s goal against Norwich still stands as one of the finest pieces of team football that a Premier League fan might be able to see in his lifetime. No matter the players, Arsenal always seem capable of gelling well and creating some delicious football for their fans to enjoy.
But at the end of the season, you have to have something to show for it. Right? When the style of football becomes so much of an obsession that you won’t sacrifice your philosophy in order to win, then you’re kind of missing out on the point of competitive sports, aren’t you?
Football is played for fun, and professionally. At the professional level, its only the champions that matter. Liverpool in 2012/2013 might be remembered forever, but that’s only because people want to laugh about Gerrard’s slip forever.
Which Arsenal team has been the most memorable of the past 10 years? Wouldn’t you say it was the one that finally broke the 9-year trophy drought?
#2 Flat-track bullies
Arsenal are a good team. In fact, they’re a great team – but only when it’s of no consequence.
You can almost never count on the Gunners to influence the title race. A handful of victories against Manchester City aside, Arsenal have the irritating tendency of always losing to the big fish when it counts the most. Then, they’ll meet a smaller club and demolish them by 4 or 5 goals.
It’s not even surprising these days to see a team like Sunderland or Hull City have a better record against the top 6 sides than Arsenal. That’s because they simply can’t be trusted to beat the big dogs.
Look at their ties against Barcelona and Bayern Munich – the results are as predictable as the fact that Arsenal will be bound to draw one of those teams. The performances are even more irritating – they will be beaten about the pitch until the tie is decided, and then in the second leg they’ll suddenly come raring to go. And just when they’re about to nick it, the referee blows the final whistle. Every. Single. Time.
To see Arsenal fans celebrate Ozil’s goal against Ludogorets like it was against Real Madrid was just hilarious.
#3 The everlasting project on the next big thing
Yes, the kids are alright Arsene, and we know it. But do you really, honestly need to play them in all the big games?
Despite Wenger’s claims of having a small transfer kitty, Arsenal aren’t exactly paupers, you know. With the highest ticket prices in England, the Gunners make nearly £100 million from their stadium alone – more than any other club on the planet. Yet even then, the Londoners seems intent on utilising young players wherever they can. It sounds commendable until we look at some of the big demolitions that Arsenal have suffered against their main rivals in recent years:
Liverpool 5-0 Arsenal
Bayern Munich 5-1 Arsenal
Manchester City 6-3 Arsenal
Chelsea 6-0 Arsenal
Manchester United 8-2 Arsenal
Are these humiliations really worth running a creche? Sometimes, you have to buy experience and Arsene Wenger barely ever does that. And when he does, it’s in the form of a 31-yr-old Swedish midfielder who gets injured playing on the beach before even putting on the club’s shirt!
#4 This is my spot
The truth is, most fans just hate Arsenal for being themselves.
High ticket prices? Checked!
A strange ‘moral’ high ground based on some ineffective possession football? Checked!
Inexperienced players. Checked!
Blowing up at every crucial moment of every game? Double checked!
Derailing their entire season in one or two months; it’s February soon, Arsenal fans, and you know what that means! And the worst of all is that even when Arsenal finish second like last season, they’re basically 4th. They’ve spent almost 9 years as the Premier League’s 4th-placed side. And the worst thing is, every season, the Arsenal players celebrate it like they’ve won something!
With the London giants having finished 4th about 5 times in the past decade, they’ve spawned an endless generation of internet memes and trolls. Now, the number 4 has been immortalised in Arsenal folklore – only a league title would break the curse.
So basically, it’s not happening anytime soon.
#5 Arsene Wenger’s myopia
The Arsenal manager is one of football’s greatest ever – despite what Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho may think. With four league titles (one golden one) and eight cup triumphs, his record is one of the finest in world football. Having guided Arsenal from the Highbury stadium to the Emirates stadium – incredibly, at a profit – few people can claim to have the economic nous that Wenger does.
However, the man is also one of football’s most myopic men.
Anytime an Arsenal player commits any kind of rash tackle or ridiculous defensive mistake, he is completely blind to it. Seriously. The man can spot a mistake by a referee from miles away, but it’s his players’ mistake – nothing. That might sound honourable, but the hypocrisy he shamelessly displays when whining about others is incredible. And Wenger, for all of his class, can be a gigantic whiner – he never seems to accept that Arsenal were beaten fair and square, especially not against smaller teams.
His touchline behaviour has also begun to descend into some shameful lows in recent years, with his push on Jose Mourinho being followed up by a furious shove on a fourth official against Burnley. At least against Mourinho, he was losing – but he won this game, so why couldn’t he just wait until the end?
