Tag Archives: Premier League

The Premier League set to ruin your weekend

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Tomorrow the fixtures are out. This news is always met with a great deal of excitement from Arsenal fans (and fans of all clubs). The key dates people look out for include Spurs home & away, who we will play Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day. You always get that analyst who tries to show the Premier League computer is corrupt by highlighting how many (and how few) away games top sides play after Champions League ties.

This week the Premier League has also begun floating ideas in preparation for the next TV deal.

The ‘leak’ of information certainly feels political. When a party leaks a policy to garner public opinion to then decide whether to go ahead with it or not. Or they leak a more extreme version of the policy so that when the actual policy is announced, people think that’s not too bad even though it is still disastrous.

The Premier League is already planning to increase the amount of games sold to TV companies at home and abroad by around 25-30. This will leave them attempting to schedule more games in an already crowded weekend. With a ban on 3 o’clock Saturday games and the lunch time, early evening Saturday, and lunchtime and afternoon kick offs already talent up with various Premier League and Championship games, the schedulers will have to try and come up with new times and days to get everything scheduled.

The Friday night kick off proved to be very unpopular with a TV audience, and the Monday night kick offs fill match going fans (and the travelling faithful) with dread.

In recent days, the Premier League have floated / leaked two new options.

The first is to have an earlier kick off on a Sunday. Either an 11.30am kick off or noon. This will be horrid for away fans.

12.45 on a Saturday is already a nightmare. Especially if you have to travel the length of the country. I remember a game against Wigan resulted in a 6.30am start at Euston. The beer was flowing much to the horror of the general commuters. To then introduce an even earlier kick off on a Sunday morning – and perhaps over an hour earlier, simply does not take away fans into consideration.

Of course, we occasionally do get pre-noon kick offs on Saturday and Sunday. I remember Arsenal playing Spurs at 11.30 and noon previously. But these have always been local derby’s for security reasons. Not Newcastle travelling to Bournemouth for an 11.30am kick off.

If Arsenal were drawn away to Newcastle on a Sunday in August at 11.30am, it would be impossible to get a train from London to Newcastle. The first train in is at 11:38. Even for a noon kick off, this train is pushing it tight to walk up the hill to St James Park. This will be replicated up and down the country.

The Premier League could offset the issues by ensuring these kick offs involve local sides only. Arsenal playing Crystal Palace, or Manchester United against Everton. Southampton v Bournemouth. But they have never taken this into account previously and have always just given TV companies free reign over which games the pick for which TV slot, no matter the logistics of travel.

The early kick off would be for one reason, and one reason only. To increase the TV ratings abroad.

Noon would be 7pm in Bangkok, 8pm in Beijing, 4pm in Dubai. The early kick off will be to maximise profits in the East, ensuring they have at least 1 game on a Sunday in their prime time slots.

Now the foreign fans reading this will probably be thinking that’s brilliant, no more waking up at 2am to watch the EPL. Thank you much EPL. Well my response to the is F**K YOU. If you do not want to get up at 2am, support your local club. This will just be another move by the Premier League that shows they have 0 interest in the real fans, the local fans, and are simply just chasing the foreign billions.

The globalisation of football is ruining the game for the local fan.

Today we then have an announcement that the Premier League are also considering night games on a Saturday. 7.45 kick off.

This is the opposite of the early Sunday games. Instead of fans not being able to get to games, they will no longer be able to get a train home. Of course, this targets the lunchtime USA audience in the west.

The aim will be to attract a larger share of the TV audience in the UK, but it will be doomed to fail. Remember when BBC lost Match of the Day and ITV started broadcasting the highlights (I think it was called The Premiership? – Beautiful Day was the soundtrack). The show flopped. Why?

Because Saturday evening is family TV time. X-Factor. Britain’s Got Talent. Strictly Come Dancing. Beadles About. Noel’s House party. Light entertainment for all the family. The kids then go to bed. Watch the 10 o’clock news. Send the misses to bed and watch Match of the Day in peace.

7.45pm Saturday is simply not a popular time to attract big TV audiences for football.

All these floated ideas highlight is once again, the Premier League are more interested in the TV audience then the match day fans. Away sections will be empty for the early kick off Sunday games. Saturday evening will see grounds half empty as families decide to stay at home, as people have other things already arranged.

Match day fans are already stretched time wise. These moves could be the straw that breaks the camels back.

When we started SheWore.com in 2013 it was a risk. No one involved had ever ran their own website before. And with the Arsenal blogging world so over crowded, we wondered if it would really be worth it

Previously the articles and blogs ran alongside message boards creating a natural flow of traffic as people looked for a corner of the internet to discuss Arsenal. With the advent of Social Media, it became clear that message boards were about to die out, so the decision was made to create the blog as a stand alone to run alongside the Twitter and Facebook pages.

Yesterday we passed through the 2,500,000 views.

We would like to thank every contributor, every reader, everyone who has shared the blogs on social media, or emailed them to their friends (or in one case printed it off and bought it to the pub to show their mates

A special thanks to all those who have ever contributed to The Arsenal and Me. A brilliant collection of stories from old and young, around the world, male and female.

In 2013, even a hundred thousand viewers seemed a lot. We now get over a hundred thousand views a month. 2.5m views is an incredible considering we are not experts, not wannabe journalists, just a bunch of simple Arsenal fans who want to share their view.

We will as always strive to be better, increase the quality, and not stoop low with click bait headlines chasing the hits.

As we look forward to hitting 5m, the offer is always open to anyone who wants to share their view on the club, whether you be Wenger In, Wenger Out, or are simply Arsenal and have a story or view you wish to share. We want your blogs.

Thanks again to everyone. Up the Arsenal.

Keenos

The Premier League and Sky Sports rewriting football history

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Last night Chelsea won the league. Fair play to them. Well done. They were the best team in the league, but I wake up this morning to see that Sky and the Premier League are at it again. They are rewriting history.

In England, the FA Cup was founded in 1871. The Football League in 1888. No country has a grander, longer history of the game than us. We are the originators. The forefathers. It is something to be proud of. But time and again, Sky Sports have attempted to rewrite that history.

Alongside the Premier League, over the years they have tried to promote “Premier League era only statistics.” IE since 1992.

The key reason for this is commercial. Sky hold very few highlight rights for anything that happened before this time. So they continually show more recent events, events that they do not need to pay extra for.

They are in hand with the Premier League, who in 1992 decided to ‘break away’ from the football league, and have spent years building up the Premier League brand, and disassociating themselves with what went before.

With both in collusion with eachother, they have been able to brainwash many fans, usually younger who did not know football before 1992, to disregard anything before that date as pointless.

We saw it a few years ago when Manchester City won the league title with the last kick of the game. Sky Sports billed the event (and reported it after) as the closest title race in history, and the best end to a title race. They have since continually shown the footage of Sergio Aguero’s goal. It completely ignores Anfield 89.

Last season Leicester won the league. Greatest story in English football was what was written. Really? Is it a greater story than Nottingham Forest in 1977/98 under the great Brian Clough who got promoted, then the next year won the First Divison Title, and the year after the European Cup? I do not think so.

So we go on to Chelsea…

So Sky Sports report it as Chelsea winning their 5th Premier League title. Moving two ahead of Arsenal into second place. What it ignores is the 100 years+ of football that happened before 1992.

Chelsea last night won their 6th league title. This brings them level with Sunderland, 6th on the all time list. Behind Manchester United (20 league titles), Liverpool (18), Arsenal (13), Everton (9) and Aston Vila (7). Not quite as impressive now is it?

That is a tweet from the Premier League’s own Twitter feed. Not some shitty little photoshop created by some 14 year old in the UAE.

Chelsea are the first team to win the Premier League title on a Friday

Chelsea have not made history. By my reckoning, the top flight of English football has been won on a Friday night at least 5 times. Including Arsenal at Anfield in 19889 – that season Sky refuse to talk about.

Chelsea yesterday made history by winning their 6th league title. But it was personal history. In the grand scheme of 140 years of English football, it was not historic. They now have as many league titles as Sunderland, who just got relegated.

Of course, some Chelsea fans (and even some Arsenal fans) will comment on things such as your’e turning into Liverpool fans, banging on about history. You might be right, by it is not me who bought up history. It is the Premier League who claimed that Chelsea were making history, and Sky Sports that count league titles from 1992. They are the ones bashing on about historical moments, whilst ignoring history.

The Premier League is not a new league established in 1992. It is the top flight of English football which dates back to 1888. All that has happened is it has changed its name, got a new trophy, become more about making money then the football, and slowly killing the English game for most real fans.

English league football. Est 1888, not 1992.

Keenos

The Arsenal Revival Continues

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What is it about Arsenal performing once there is little else to play for? We have seen it time and again in recent years, a late end of season run when we have a dozen+ points off the title, off the pace from top 4, and then we put a run together to secure Champions League football.

It is almost as if our mindset changes when we start to be written off in the press. Disregarded by the footballing public. The odds on top 4 extending. And this season it is déjà vu.

After we as a club, a fan base, a team, hit rock bottom on a Monday night 3-0 defeat against Crystal Palace, we were all done. It was time to pack up and go home. 4 wins in 12 games, 2 of which were against the might of Sutton United and Lincoln City. After the defeat to Crystal Palace, an FA Cup exit against Manchester City was on the cards.

A month to do the day of that defeat against Crystal Palace and things look a little better. A run of 5 wins in 6 games has seen us get into the FA Cup final and claw back points in the race for the top 4. The only game we dropped points in was that awful defeat against Tottenham Hotspur.

The revival comes as Arsenal moved to the 3-4-2-1 formation.

Personally, I refuse to give Arsene Wenger any credit for changing formation. It is too little too late. And this is where this positive happy blog takes a darker turn.

Just because I am happy Arsenal won, it does not change the fact that Arsene Wenger needs to go.

The fact he took so long to try out another formation is sickening. By the time we moved to 3-4-2-1, the title had gone, finishing ahead of Spurs had gone, we were 6th. Fans have been calling for a change in tactics for years, and it took an awful run for Wenger to react. It sums up Wenger’s second half of his Arsenal career. He is a reactive manager rather than a proactive one.

He follows other teams tactics rather than develops his own. If his side wins a game one week, he puts out the same side the next, not thinking about the opposition. He has struggled. He has been left behind. Winning 5 games from 6 does not suddenly make him a poor manager. Does not justify the 2 year contract that has allegedly already been signed.

Too many of our fans are fickle. The protests have dwindled. The noise on social media hushed. A couple of victories and everyone has fallen back in line. You do not have to be one or the other. You can want the team to win, whilst still calling for the managers head. Still celebrate victories whilst demanding Wenger Out.

I glance across at Juventus and see them in the Champions League final. Their second in 3 years under Massimiliano Allegri. Allegri flirted with leaving Juventus at the end of this season. He has since signed a new contract.

Was it just a power player to get more money from The Old Lady? Or was he genuinely looking to leave? It certainly felt on Tuesday, whilst watching them celebrate making the final, of a bit of Bully “here’s what you could have had”.

Did Wenger’s situation at Arsenal stall the club on making a move of Allegri? How many other top managers will we miss out on as Wenger digs his heels and stays? Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola have already gone, Carlo Ancelotti and Unai Emery also recently made moves. Reports are today that Diego Simeone could be making a return to Inter Milan. Another we have missed out on.

Wenger’s arrogance, his ignorance, his stubbornness is damaging Arsenal. It is meaning we can not move one. Then again, if you were due to earn £19m over the next two years, why would you step down?

Lets turn this blog into a shit sandwich and finish on a high.

Beat Stoke on Saturday afternoon and the pressure is on Liverpool on Sunday when they visit West Ham. Victory will leave us a point behind Liverpool, 3 behind Manchester City (assuming they beat Chelsea in the early kick off).

With home games against Sunderland and Everton to finish the season off, you would not beat against us sneaking into the top 4. 8 wins out of 9 will give us great momentum to face Chelsea at the end of the month. And ultimately that is the real trophy.

Give me the FA Cup over top 4, over progression any day of the week.

We are all in this together.