ARSENAL ARE TOO TRIGGER HAPPY!

It's the 2nd September 2009 and Gordon Brown is hosting prime ministers question time in Parliament. In between discussing important issues, like the economy and fundamental policies to run the country, a footballers name is raised who had been involved in an incident the previous week which was causing diplomatic tensions between England and Scotland. UEFA were threatening the player involved with a 2-4 game ban, and the club affected by the actions of the 'offending' player were planning legal action. So I hear you ask, 'Woweee what has this player done to warrant such anger and attention?' He is alleged to have dived during a football match to earn his team a match winning penalty. The player? His name is Eduardo. The team? Of course, The Arsenal!

Never before and never since has a 'dive', of which there have been thousands, attracted such a commotion and anger as that in the game at The Emirates against Celtic in the Champions league. But are we surprised? Not really, its Arsenal, and they just have a habit of triggering people, it's what they do!

The recent charges against Arsenal by the FA for them failing to control their players has just once again highlighted this fact. Listen, I have no issue with the FA making a stand against players behaviour on the pitch, we do not want to return to the days of when Manchester United used to bully the referees throughout games, the picture of Roy Keane's vein popping screaming face always come to mind, but hey, let's have some consistency here. Only last week in the Brentford v Liverpool match we saw at least 8 Liverpool players literally surround the referee. Last night during the Fulham v Chelsea match the same occurred by both teams during the Felix incident. it is also worth noting that the commentator made no mention of this, whereas they were quick to point out the actions of the Arsenal players during the Oxford match! Strange that! The fact is this happens most matches, so yes the FA need to take action, but not just against teams spelt 'Arsenal'!

We dig deeper. Only two teams in history have been docked points by the FA (not counting points deducted for financial reasons). Yes, you guessed it, Arsenal are one of those teams, the other being Manchester United. Why? Well there was the battle at Old Trafford in 1990 which resulted in Arsenal having 2 points deducted whilst Man Utd with1. Arsenal were given a larger deduction on the back of them being involved in another earlier fracas at Highbury against Norwich. The FA at the time of the Norwich incident to their huge frustration had no power to deduct points so changed this and were more than happy to make up for the previous restrictions when handing out the penalties this time round. Manchester United must feel unlucky that they were basically victims of the Arsenal agenda as the FA in their sheer willingness to punish Arsenal had to be seen to hand something out to them as well, almost like collateral damage. Now neither of these incidents were pretty. However it was not as if they were all swapping haymaking punches, rather pushing and shoving with the usual peacemakers sucked into it prompting headlines of '22 man brawl' and 8 page spreads in the Daily Mail with huge debates about how the players seen as role models have let the world down, calling for huge punishments. Despite the internal punishments Arsenal handed out in a bid to soften the blow the media were given their wish. We have seen so many incidents like this since, but of course not even a suggestion of such penalties being handed out, and of course no such knee jerk reaction from the media.

Arteta has been triggering many people lately, with pundits like Richard Keys gnashing his teeth in fury at the sight of the Arsenal manager daring to show emotion during key points of a football match. These people are probably the same who criticised Wenger for not being expressive enough during games. It was only a few weeks ago we witnessed Klopp scream into the face of an official, he had totally lost control and as a result felt the full force of the FA with his 0 match suspension. Mr Keys and co were also very quiet. Strange that!

Arsenal have also triggered people over the last year because the players and the fans have had the audacity to celebrate goals and winning matches, again Mr Keys has been quite vocal about this. It goes hand in hand with the Arsenal teams celebrating making the top 4 which they did with such regularity it was belittled. Oh look, they always end up in the top 4, what is the point of that if they never actually win the Champions League....boring...! Now of course it is seen as one the biggest achievements in the game, 'The Race for the top four!' is SKY SPORTS mantra, dare I say...almost treated like a trophy!

Am I being paranoid? It's a legitimate claim. However, I ask you this, when Zinchenko opened the letter from the FA earlier this season which warned him about his behaviour after the Fulham game, celebrating winning the game, do you think he would have been sent this if was still at Manchester City? Yes you read that right, it was suggested his celebrations were over exuberant! Let us cast our minds back to last season when Manchester City scored the late winner at the Emirates and ran up to the Junior section screaming at them, I guess this is not over exuberant then? You really could not make it up. However that appears exactly what happens when it comes to the reasons Arsenal can trigger people.

So to this weekend, my palms are starting to sweat just at the thought. It's strange isn't it. When the fixtures are released its the first match we look for, we look forward to it but once it arrives and once it kicks off it's complete hell, even if 3-0 up! As has been said many times before, form goes out of the window and anything can happen. Of course, the referees scare me in this game especially at the Tottenham Stadium. All we can ask is Arsenal turn up, play to their best and if they do the result should take care of itself. They have proved themselves time and time again this season, and with Arteta calling the shots in the pre match routine I am sure we will do just fine. It would be a huge win if we pull it off, but in the meantime let us hope Manchester United do us a favour in the Saturday lunch time match.

No ref watch this week, I so hope I do not have to bring up anything in this section from our game on Sunday in my next blog....unfortunately I'm not too confident of that!

Thanks for reading, feel free to subscribe and speak soon.

Rob - @Gooner145