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What was striking after Arsenal’s grim 1-0 win at Brighton on Wednesday was less Brighton manager Fabian Hürzeler’s attack on the Gunners’ style than the way his criticism seemed to resonate. In England, it feels as though almost nobody, other than Arsenal supporters or anyone-but-City fans, wants them to win the title.
“If I would ask everyone in the room: ‘Did you really enjoy this football game?’ I’m sure maybe one raises his arm because he’s a big Arsenal fan but, besides that, no chance,” Hürzeler said.
Successful sides always generate a degree of distaste. There probably hasn’t been a league champion who hasn’t felt in some way like the country is against them and that they don’t get the credit they deserve in the press. It shouldn’t be forgotten that a Manchester City fan invaded the press box at Wembley during the 2019 FA Cup final as his side beat Watford 6-0 to complain that the media were against them.
But that doesn’t normally set in before a team have actually won the title. There was a definite sense that familiarity had bred contempt as Manchester United racked up 13 league titles between 1993 and 2013, or as Liverpool notched 11 between 1973 and 1990. But Arsenal haven’t won the title since 2004, so that can’t be the reason.
What, then, is going on? There seems to be a sense, perhaps resulting from City’s recent domination (six titles between 2018 and 2024, eight between 2012 and 2024) and their obvious financial advantages, that they are the default. City winning the league is factored in; fans of other clubs have already accepted that. They can even point to the 115 Premier League charges for financial rule breaches, which remain unresolved three years on, and console themselves with the belief that City are only winning because they cheated (City, it should be stressed, maintain their innocence). Arsenal, meanwhile, would be a rebuke to other upper Premier League sides, as Leicester were to smaller clubs. If they can win it, why not Liverpool, or Chelsea, or Manchester United, or …
There’s probably also a degree of schadenfreude, which has been brought to the fore by social media. People like rubbernecking on the pain of others. Tottenham facing relegation is a majestic twist in the great Premier League soap opera. There is a subsection of online Arsenal fans that is extremely sensitive and obsessed by imagined plots against the club; there’s a reason that fan TV reached a mainstream audience at Arsenal rather than any other club. Their frenzied anxiety has entertainment value to those who enjoy the comedy of embarrassment.
But the feeling seems more deeply ingrained than just people thinking: “Wouldn’t it be funny if Arsenal finished second again?” Perhaps there is something in the nature of the club itself. Arsenal are seen as an establishment club: the prime minister, Keir Starmer, supports them, and so does his predecessor as leader of the Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn. The Emirates Stadium is in the London borough of Islington, the spiritual heartland of New Labour, a place of, at least in stereotype, dinner parties and faux intellectualism. When they still played at Highbury, much was always made of the marble halls, the grandeur of the club. Whether that is justified or not is not relevant; that’s how fans of other clubs saw them and it’s easy to see why they may then find sport in pricking at perceived pomposity or self-importance.
What Hürzeler’s comments brought into the open, though, is how much Arsenal’s style of play is disliked. It should be acknowledged that complaints about boring football are common, and often led by those who support teams who are having bad seasons. That the International Football Association Board (Ifab) is taking action to speed the game up is indicative of an issue, although the board has probably become too reactive recently. Its recent record on tweaking laws does not suggest a body with its finger precisely on the pulse of popular feeling or what is best for football.
But equally, it does seem that there is something in Arsenal’s approach that irritates people beyond opposing managers. Arsenal fans seem to have spent much of the last week digging out statistics to prove their games are not actually unusually disjointed, but that’s certainly how it feels. There is a pragmatism to Mikel Arteta’s team that may deliver the title but will not gladden the hearts of many neutrals. When City were at their peak, their standard goal was a multi-pass move ending with the ball being cut back from the goalline for Raheem Sterling to turn in. Arsenal’s is an inswinging corner nodded over the line by Gabriel Magalhães. It’s not difficult to see why a casual observer would struggle to derive much aesthetic pleasure from that.
Arsenal could argue, with some legitimacy, that they don’t have City’s resources and, besides, football is about winning; no marks are awarded for artistic impression. Within the laws, win how you want to win – but don’t expect to be popular.
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This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email [email protected], and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.
