“Entitled Arsenal”: Is Arsenal hatred an epidemic in modern football?

There is anti-Arsenal bias argues Isaac Sweetman 

Post another Arsenal masterclass for England, there is once again a feeling of an anti-Arsenal rhetoric being pushed.

Since we reestablished ourselves on the world stage, as a team to fear playing against, the growth of anti Arsenal coverage has been worrying to see.

Whether it comes from respected media outlets where pundits like Gary Neville who labelled Arsenal as entitled, are seemingly paid to deliver controversial and commonly anti-Arsenal opinions or if it just comes from general football discourse where the Gunners achievements are often discredited, it seems as if there is an unspoken rule of dislike towards our football club.

This anti-Arsenal bias was obvious again for me after England’s win against Serbia where both Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze scored to secure England the win.

Despite the win, what surprised me was the coverage of the game where rather than giving the deserved praise towards Eberechi Eze that he deserved the pundits on ITV and beyond seemed more interested in praising Phil Foden after his seemingly record breaking 5 yard pass for the assist.

This over representation of Foden’s role in all pieces of post match media massively surprised me with even Eze being seemingly bewildered by it in his post match interview where he was asked whether Foden is the main reason for the goal being scored. This represented to me once again a case of Arsenal discrediting with Eze’s astounding finish being forgotten amongst the praise for Foden instead.

Regardless of just this one recent example, the trend of disparaging Arsenal is always a common one throughout the world of football.

This can be recently demonstrated again through the treatment of signings like Victor Gyokeres who, despite his six goals to start his Arsenal career, is criticised heavily as a failure whilst both £120 million pound Alexander Isak as well as British transfer record Florian Wirtz are excused.

This shows another example of biassed sports journalism with players who are failing at their new clubs being excused as to not stray away from the anti Arsenal agenda.

These examples are just a small taste of the constant anti-Arsenal rhetoric which spouts from respected media outlets in an effort to discredit Arsenal and Mikel Arteta’s great rebuilding effort.

Overall, this anti-Arsenal bias seems fuelled by a constant need to talk down upon Arsenal as well as Mikel Arteta’s achievements with many criticisms being made over Arsenal coming from no statistical basis but rather a matter of opinion.

These opinion pieces from the media cause a constant feeling of external negativity around Arsenal with things as trivial as how we celebrate being drawn into question. This leaves me with the ongoing question of where does the negativity end and how long will it take for both Arsenal and Mikel Arteta to get the praise they deserve.