swimming against the stream

What a difference a day can make.

I feel like the characters in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers:” I went to bed last night, having read an article in which Sir Alex Ferguson is quoted coming to Wenger’s defense, and awoke to a shiat stream of highly negative attack pieces. Fergie? Defending Wenger? Even though he sneaks in a back-handed complement, still, he’s showing some respect for Arsene and I don’t think we see that too often.

Of course it’s unfair [the negative press Wenger’s received], it’s not easy buying players in January as I’ve said time and time again. There’s not a lot you can do then. They lost [Abou] Diaby for a while, Denilson, [Tomas] Rosicky, [Robin] Van Persie and, I’m telling you, you cannot win games consistently without your best team

Wow. Sure he goes on to tell everyone how he’s “got the squad” and thus gets in a little dig. And Fergie lets slip that he has a bit of a selfish motive to the statement by saying “You would tell me quicker than you tell Arsène” when asked how he thought the press would react if Man U went three years without a trophy. But make no mistake, Fergie outright defended Le Boss against the wolves in the press.

Common enemies or something, eh?

And then this morning. Ugh.

First, I’m sitting here with a hangover and I start the morning by reading Arseblog in which Arseblogger is “having a moan” about the moaners. Actually, it’s less a “moan” and more of an angry screed against some of his fellow bloggers and the press. Now, as far as the press is concerned, I hadn’t seen anything unusual last night so I opened up my RSS reader and did a quick search for Arsenal and…

Jesus.

The Guardian published a commentary which wheels out the old “Arsenal needs more Englishmen” warhorse.

The same site also published a commentary disguised as a news story which is just 500 words ripping Arsene a new arse.

Not to be outdone, the Telegraph LITERALLY prosecutes Wenger.

Wow.

I’ve seen some bizarre shiat in the press, but a prosecution? Using quotes? That’s just sick.

When Cesc made his comments last week about how the English seem to revel in Arsenal’s downfall I dismissed and sort of ridiculed him. Similarly, when Wenger was fuming about press treatment, I just let it slide with some kind of snide comment.

That’ll teach me. I honestly don’t know how these people can call themselves reporters. No wonder Fergie felt the need to defend Wenger. No wonder why Arseblogger was so mad.

As Wenger said yesterday Arsenal are “swimming against the stream.” If that’s true, today’s spate of articles have shown that it’s a stream of shiat.

One last thing: I’ve been meaning to change the format of my match day posts to a post match roundup instead of a pre-match blurb. This is simply a function of the fact that matches are often played before 7am local time and I usually have team news the day before. So, tomorrow you will get a post around 11am my time.

See you then.