Manchester City having to show record breaking form to keep up with Arsenal

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“Arsenal have bottled the title”
“Going to finish 2nd in a one horse race”

After being top for so long (and we still are top), it had to be expected that some noise would come from opposing fans after we lost two 2-nil leads in a row to draw 2-2.

But this “Arsenal bottled the title” and “going to finish 2nd in a one horse race” really is a myth. A falacy.

Yes, we had an 8 point lead at one point, but that was only after 18 games.

Later on in the season, we once again had an 8 point lead. And that league table is being used to highlight our downfall. But little is mentioned of Man City having a game in hand at that point, and us having to travel to the Etihad.

At no point were we romping away with the title. At not point were we lengths ahead. It was always just one body length. And now it is a head.

This has always been a close title race.

We held a real 5 point league from 24 to 29 games. That has now been whittled down to a 3 point lead after 30 games. Anyone who actually lives and breaths football rather than sits behind a laptop and builds their opinion for clicks will now a 3 point lead after 30 games is not huge. And neither is a 5 point lead with 9 games to go.

In our last 9 games, we have won 7, drew 2. That is an average of 2.55 points per game. Enough to reach 97 over a 38 game period. This is not the sign of a side stumbling in the title race.

In Manchester City’s last 9 games, Manchester City have won 8 and drew 1. 2.77PPG. That would have them on course for 105 points. 105 points would break the Premier League record by 6 points.

So Manchester City are showing record breaking form, whilst Arsenal’s last 9 game form would have seen us get more points than all but 3 previous Premier League champions.

I remember before the World Cup, fans up and down the country were saying “Arsenal will collapse after the World Cup”. But we did not.

Since the World Cup, Man City have gained 1 more point than us. they have played 16, we have played 17.

This Premier League title has always been a two horse race. At no point were Arsenal out front in a comfortable position. We were not streaking away with it only to hit a fence and fall. Manchester City have always been holding on to our tail, not letting that gap grow.

On Sunday we hit a fence that saw us stumble. But we still have 18% of the season to go. Another 7 fences to jump.

I will be disappointed if we do not win it. But I will also be proud of what we have done this season.

It would not be a surprise if Manchester City win every game between now and the end of the season. That will be 14 games won in a row.

To bring that run into perspective, Tottenham have never won more than 9 in a row. And never gone unbeaten for more than 14 games.

Manchester City have been up there with us throughout the title race. We have maintained our form whilst they are looking like they are kicking on.

At no point has this season been a one horse race.

Keenos

Mascotgate – The Final Word

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The Arsenal first-team has suffered a massive social media pile-on in the last 24 hours, following a well-intentioned Twitter post from the club showing the players signing a shirt held by the mascot for the game at West Ham as she looked wide-eyed at her heroes. What the players didn’t do in this clip was seem to acknowledge her in any way.

I don’t know his football allegiances, if he has any, but being a media personality you’d think he’d know the pitfalls of offering his opinion on a short video offering the briefest of snapshots of the mascots experience on her special day – I’ll return to this later.

Taken out of context that possibly looks bad. And of course it was taken out of context and copied liberally on Twitter, first by some pretty awful click-bait blogs, and then by the BBC’s own Nick Knowles (from DIY SOS I believe).

You might have guessed that TalkSport would pick up this Twitter furore, and so they did.

What’s disappointing is that, from what I understand, Arsenal supporter Laura Woods availed herself of their own sticking in of the boot. This is disappointing not just because she supports Arsenal and should be shouting down the clowns that pervade that channel, but because one of her previous jobs in the media involved her working in the area of the players tunnel on match days and she will absolutely know that this video was not representative of the experience of the Arsenal mascot at any game.

I guess when you take the dollar of the reactive phone-in type of radio show then you end up toeing the line.

How do I know that the matchday experience of the Arsenal mascot isn’t accurately shown in the video? Well the answer is simple – my nephew has been one.

At Sunderland in 2012, the final game of Thierry Henry’s second spell (at which the great man scored the last minute winner) our Freddie was the Arsenal mascot.

Like every other Arsenal mascot he was given the time of his life by Arsenal (and Sunderland). He met the players in the dressing room, had his photo taken with everyone, then was taken on to the pitch by the club photographer Stuart MacFarlane for more photos with the players.

Anyone who goes to watch Arsenal, home or away, will see this happening at every single game.

Freddie then led the team out with Robin Van Persie on to the Stadium of Light pitch, lined up with them for the pre-match formalities, and then met the Sunderland skipper and match officials at the coin-toss. Stuart took more photos. Then Freddie joined the family in the away end for the game.

Arsenal gave him a full away kit for the match. They sent through the photographs taken by Stuart.

He had an amazing, never to be forgotten day as the Arsenal mascot. And it didn’t cost a thing – as a member of the Junior Gunners he was selected at random for the day of his life.

The way in which the Quy’s, Debs Wakeford, Sue Campbell and others ran the Junior Gunners has thankfully remained part of the clubs main values.

Most of the other clubs charge for this experience, and it isn’t cheap – West Ham had 10/11 kids there the other day whose parents had paid literally hundreds of pounds each for the privilege.

A friend of mine had to pay for her boy to do the same thing at Spurs a few years ago, 500 quid plus, and she then had the option of buying a match ticket for herself to accompany the lad!

Now back to Mr Knowles and his Twitter platform, given to him by his role in the BBC, and his irresponsible use of it – all a bit Lineker, this.

He was tweeted by the father of the young girl who was the Arsenal mascot in the video. In this tweet we found out that she’d had a brilliant day and loved every single minute.

Mr Knowles has not apologised, nor has he deleted his own tweet that caused the pile-on to Arsenal’s players overnight. In a week where Bukayo Saka has once again been abused online for missing a penalty (and these idiots claim to follow Arsenal, albeit from afar) it shows a frightening disregard from someone who also lives in the public eye to ignore the power of social media as a stick with which to beat someone.

Shame on you Mr Knowles.

Dover Marksman

More Arsenal fans share their mascot experience

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Following yesterdays blog sharing the mascot experience of Max and his family, more Arsenal fans have reached it to share what happened on their big day (or their childs!).

My son was met on arrival as the team entered the stadium.

Once they settled he was invited into the dressing room and was also accompanied by the club photographer. He was invited to go around each player and they kindly each had a photo taken.

He was then invited on to the pitch during the warm up where again he had some photos and obviously joined them for the coin toss.

Additionally a few days later an envelope arrived with a series of photos taken by the club of his day. Not many clubs would do that – in fact the old boy who looked after him from the opposition commented how good Arsenal are and different from other clubs.

Mark

Day, start to finish, is a dream as a kid.

I was 12 years old walking out of the tunnel with Robin van Persie live on ITV1. The guy who looked after me all day got the coach up there with us and sorted free tickets for me and my family.

They gave me a free kit. I had taken my own home kit to wear but as we were playing away, they wanted me to match the players.

I walked into the dressing room with the players and had a chat with them all whilst they signed a match ball Arsenal had given to me. I particularly remember Francis Coquelin and Theo being very welcoming and helping with the lads who’s English weren’t great.

I played on the pitch with some of the subs and then got a photo with every player as they were getting changed for the match.

As the game kicked off walked round to the arsenal end to a huge applause from the fans.

Henry

Obviously it’s a while ago. It was at Wigan.

They supplied a full kit for the lad and 4 tickets in the Arsenal end. Wigan gave a tour of the stadium (they were also very good) and we met the managers.

All mascots went in the away changing room, but ONLY the Arsenal mascot was allowed in our changing room.

Then usual kick around with the players and lead them out. Afterwards AFC submitted an article to our local paper (with photo) and sent A4 copies of all the photos they took.

The club were brilliant – My lad is now 24 still talks about it.

Steve

I was mascot away to Fulham in March 2006. Everything about the day showed the class of The Arsenal.

The players walked into the changing rooms with their game face on (like the video shown this week), and that had no impact on the day I had.

I then got to go into the changing rooms and meet all the staff and players. They were all superb, Bergkamp, Freddie and Cole were the standouts. Freddie even remembered me from a Junior Gunner Christmas party 3 months earlier, so the players must interact with the kids!

I then got to have photos on the pitch during the warm up, come out with Thierry and take a few shots with mad Jens. The whole day couldn’t have gone any better.

I’ve also been on the pitch for Bergkamp’s testimonial, carried a flag out at Highbury on 3 occasions, had a nerf gun fight with the first team at the training ground, two Christmas parties and also won competitions for my junior gunner brother and now my own kids. And on every single occasion the players and the club have been first class.

To me it’s the same old story, we are back and everyone else is finding anything to try knock us down. UTA.

Adam

My eldest was a virtual mascot during lockdown. Obviously it wasn’t the full experience because the stadium was closed so we didn’t get to meet the players.

They both had an interview with Nigel Mitchell which went out on the big screens and social media, got sent some merch (including a full kit) and had a personalised video sent from a player (ESR & Partey).

My youngest was then a mascot for the Brighton game so we got given 2 tickets (was a very small crowd, 10k I think?). Unbelievable considering it was free.

They also both got to take penalties on the pitch. The news articles suggesting that Arsenal don’t care about kids are absolute bollocks

They also both got a programme with their name listed among the subs!

Damian

I was actually a mascot in a home match in the early 90s.

Got four tickets in the east stand I think, had a form to fill out asking favourite player, band , hobbies etc.

Got a free kit and a football. Had a few shots at David Seaman in the warm up.

There was a function after the match and got their autographs.

FWF

We also had lots of fans share their mascot experience with us on Twitter:

As we said yesterday, judging Arsenal’s mascot experience by a 102 second video is just lazy journalism, and promoted by those that look for easy hits as they montise their accounts off your gambling losses.

The real lived mascot experience over at Arsenal is “incredible”.

SheWore