Tag Archives: Tottenham

Tottenham v Arsenal; Cheats v Winners

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This week has kind of flown by for me. Usually in the lead up to a North London Derby, I get giddy from the beginning of the week and write a few blogs to try and wind that lot up the road – I still love the fact that the official “Spurs Media Watch” on their website is their News Now stream, meaning plenty of anti-Spurs / pro-Arsenal blogs get published by them

Bar calling a cheat a cheat in yesterdays blog about Pochettino’s pro-diving comments, I have hardley thought about them this week.

As I said, the week has flown by. Although yesterday I was disappointed that it was not Thursday and the last episode of the Hunted was not on. Gives me something to look forward to tonight anyhow.

So on to this weekend.

Wembley, Wembley, we are the famous Arsenal and we are going to Wembley.

https://twitter.com/KeenosAFC/status/956285689754202113

It is going to be interesting Saturday. A 12:30pm kick off at Wembley has left everyone scratching their heads on where to drink.

The White Swan on Highbury Corner usually starts serving at 8am, but for recent North London Derby’s, they have not served until 11am. With it being a near enough 1 hour round trip from Highbury & Islington to Wembley Central (note: The London Overground from H&I going West towards Finchley is shut this weekend), that lease time for just one pint.

Now normally, you would think “head to Liverpool Street, Kings Cross or Euston, there will be a boozer there open”. But with Spurs now at Wembley, these areas will be heaving with that lot having a couple of pints before getting the same trains up as us. It does not really leave us with many options.

Maybe a bit of breakfast at the Breakout Cafe on the Cally, before heading to the Swan in the hope its serving? If not, then the only option is to emulate the Cologne fans and grab a couple of cans and head down to Highbury Fields.

Wherever we drink, it is going to be an interesting day…

At the minute, Spurs might be winning the battle. They finished above us last season, and sit 3 points above us this. But Arsenal are winning the war, having won the FA Cup last year.

Talk of the power shift and Spurs now being the bigger, and better, club are redundant until Spurs actually start winning trophies. I will continue to laugh at them whilst Arsenal win things and Spurs fail to do so.

If they start winning trophies on a regular basis, and finish above Arsenal more than a couple of times in 3 decades, then we can start talking about power shifts, etc. Until then, they are just our loud mouthed neighbours. The closest they have come to winning the league is when Arsenal won it back in 2004.

The fact that they have had to hire Wembley to get an opportunity to play their sums them up. Meanwhile Arsenal are about to play there for the 10th time in recent years – through being successful in the cup competitions.

Whilst Arsenal speak about winning real trophies, Spurs fans cling to statistics. Like Harry Kane scoring most Premier League goals in a single calendar. Meaningless. Or him being the 2nd fastest player to 100 Premier League goals. Again, meaningless.

There was football before the Premier League, and it does not really matter how many goals you score, or how quick you score them, if your team does not win any trophies.

Mo Salah, for example, recently because the 5th quickest player to score 20 Premier League goals. The quickest was Kevin Phillips. It really does not matter how quick you score goals, if those goals do not lead to trophies.

This weekend will be fun, and regardless of the result, Arsenal have a real trip to Wembley to look forward to this month.

Keenos

Lies, Trophies, Top 4 & Diving

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Lies

So during the early hours of Sunday morning, a Blue Tick Twitter account Tweeted what he had seen on the London Underground the evening before:

He was called out as a liar, so to justify his lie, he gave out further details of the incident:

So at 18:20 on Saturday after, a group of Arsenal fans got on the train at London Waterloo, proceeded to abuse some “well-to-do Italian tourists” and then got off at Leicester Sq.

Can anyone see the hole in his lie?

18:20 was half time of Arsenal v Everton.

So he is claiming that a group of Arsenal fans were on a train from London Waterloo to Leicester Square whilst the game was on?

Now some people do change pub at half-time, but for fans to be drinking in Waterloo, and then decide to go to Leicester Sq at half-time, I just do not believe. Neither area is exactly the type of place a group of Arsenal fans would go to seek out a pub to watch the game.

Odd that someone would lie over such a thing.

Also is it just me or do Twitter now give out blue ticks like Jimmy Saville giving out sweets at a children’s hospital. It seems like anyone can now get one, regardless on if you are a “personality” or not.

I imagine for some people, like Alex above, being verified on Twitter is the best thing to happen in their lives.

Trophies

I actually read an article yesterday saying “you can not judge Liverpool and Spurs on trophies”. It claimed that they were “2nd tier” clubs financially and therefore it was unfair to compare them with “1st tier” clubs.

It is interesting that the press spent years saying Arsenal should be judged on trophies, not Top 4 finishes despite us being financially inferior to Manchester United (through commercial activities) and Manchester City and Chelsea (sugar daddies). And the press were right to dig out Arsenal’s philosophy of seeing Top 4 as a success.

So why are things so different for Liverpool and Spurs?

At the weekend they played the Trophyless Derby. Just 2 League Cups in about 10 years for the two clubs. 57 and 27 years without a league title for the pair respectively.

The article was basically saying that the likes of Liverpool and Spurs should not be judged on the trophies that they win. It was basically defending both clubs for having won sweet FA between them in recent years.

Odd concept that in the media’s eyes, winning trophies is no longer a barometer of success, but finishing Top 4 is.

How the goal posts have been moved to fulfil their anti-Arsenal; pro-Liverpool and Spurs agenda.

Top 4 still on?

As above, Top 4 is not an achievement. I would much rather win trophies – and we are still in with a chance of 2 – then finish in the Top 4.And it is interesting to see how the press perception has changed on the Top 4 since Arsenal fell out.

Looking at the league table this morning, Arsenal are in lowly 6th. We are 3 points off Spurs in 5th, and just 6 points off Liverpool in 3rd.

Wouldn’t it be enjoyable if this season we won trophies AND finished in the Top 4.

Wonder what narrative the media would then write against Arsenal for their hits and advertising revenue…

Diving

When an individual dives, he is a cheat. He has taken a choice to attempt to gain an advantage through cheating.

When during a game, 3 team mates all dive, then you have to bring into question the philosophy of the club and integrity of the coaching staff.

During yesterdays 2-2 draw in the Trophyless Derby between Tottenham and Liverpool, Spurs players dived (or simulated) on 3 occasions.

The first was the well known cheat Dele Alli – who got booked for the second time this season for diving. Secondly you had England’s Golden Boy, Harry Kane. Finally it was Erik Lamela in the final seconds.

The later two were successful in winning penalties.

Will the FA have the testicles to follow their own rules and ban Lamela and Kane for 2 games? My bet if it was just Lamela, they would, but as we have seen with many an England player in the past, the likes of Harry Kane are above the rules.

 

Every team has divers. Robert Pires, Ashley Young, and more. But when a team is cheating en masse, it is clear and obvious that they have been instructed to do so by the manager.

Keenos

How many Twitter followers does your club have?

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In November 2013, I did a little analysis to see who was the most followed football club on twitter. Arsenal came out on top, but what was surprising was that, at the time, Mesut Ozil had more followers than any Premier League football club.

As it is quite at work in my industry with the lead up to Christmas, I have decided to review the blog and update the figures.

To get a proper provisional analysis, the above is a list of teams who were in the Premier League in 2013, and are in it now.

The first interesting analysis is just how much Twitter has grown over the last 4 years. On average, Premier League sides have increased their following by 552%.

Secondly, Manchester United, who in 2013 were the 4th most followed side in the Premier League, are now topping the table.

In 2013, I noted that I was surprised to see Man U in 4th place as they are easily the most supported club in the UK, and one of the most supported in the world. It shows how poor their media team probably were back in 2013.

The growth of Manchester United aside, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool have shown a similar growth pattern.

With regards to Liverpool and Arsenal, it shows how strong and historic the clubs are, that they have been able to continue to grow their support without league titles at a quicker rate than the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea who have won league titles. It shows success is not everything.

Saying that, Spurs now languish a long way behind Manchester City. I wonder how many of those fans that follow City had heard of the club when Twitter was first launched back in 2006?

City’s growth over Spurs does highlight that success is very important, especially when it comes to gaining new fans, and foreign fans.

Spurs have not much bigger a following than Everton, an equally unsuccessful side over the last 20 years. It perhaps shows that Spurs fans claim that there has been a power shift, and that they are a massive club, are false.

In terms of Twitter following, Spurs are the 6th most followed in England. They are probably also the 6th biggest club in the country.

It probably also shows the brand of the Premier League that the biggest growers (bar Manchester United) were smaller clubs, lower down the table. I feel a lot of their followers are general fans of the Premier League, rather than fans of the clubs they follow.

The second table is the clubs who were not in the Premier League in 2013, so I have no original data on them. What is interesting is Leicester City.

At 1.1million followers, they would be placed just behind Newcastle. It would have been interesting to see their 2013 data in comparison. I imagine it would have been not too much higher than Southampton. Leicester’s does show just how much success can increase support.

Like success has boasted Leicester, relegation is also clearly damaging.

Those clubs who went down have still grown their twitter following, but at a slower rate than those who stayed in the Premier League.

The 6 teams who are no longer in the Premier League have increased their Twitter following by, on average, 398%. The bottom 6 teams in the Premier League by followers have increased by 557%.

And finally we come on to how the Premier League sides compare to the rest of the world

The first observation is that Real Madrid have overtaken Barcelona since 2013. Although by the time you include alternative languages for both, Barcelona are still ahead.

One interesting thing to note is the Spanish version of Real Madrid’s twitter is followed by more than the English version, but the English version of Barcelona is followed by more than the Spanish version.

Perhaps this indicates that Real Madrid are more popular in Spain, whilst Barcelona are followed more by foreign fans. I know what I would prefer.

Another interesting thing to note is once you remove the English sides, the rest of the world has only grown by 293%. That against the Premier League’s growth of 522%. It shows that in terms of leagues, the Premier League is still the most popular in the world, even if Barcelona and Real Madrid are streaks ahead in terms of individual club.

The last thing to note is how small Celtic are.

With just 551,000 followers, they are not much bigger than Norwich City, and are well behind the likes of Crystal Palace, WBA and Swansea. They might be a big side in Scotland, but it certainly shows they are a big fish in a small pond. And if they ever did join the Premier League, they would be a very small fish in a big pond.

Until next time

Keenos