A bullish Arsene Wenger has aimed both barrels at lazy criticism from pundits dismissing their televised opinions as often lacking substance.
While the boss admits everyone is entitled to air their views he reflected that he is unmoved by criticism on shows such as Match of the Day where Arsenal’s title-winning credentials are regularly written off.
“I have enough experience to analyse what we do and how well we play,” the Frenchman told The Times (paywalled).
“I do not need someone else to tell me. When I arrived in England, people said I could not win the title because I am foreign. Everybody has their own logic. I just think you win the title through your quality.”
While he neglected the chance to name check the likes of Mark Lawrenson, Robbie Savage, Alan Hansen and Alan Shearer – presumably because they aren’t worth his time – the boss did swing a wet smelly fish in the general direction of the BBC’s football analysis team.
“If we have not won the league for eight years, it is because we were not good enough in the important moments of the season. We have a good opportunity to show we are good enough, so let’s take it.
“Sometimes I watch Match of the Day, sometimes not. It depends whether I can watch a German game or a French game somewhere else. I do sometimes take something [from a pundit] but I try to analyse whether he has a point or not.
“Often they do not sustain an opinion by showing what work they have done to support their argument. If you write tomorrow that Arsenal will win the championship because of this or that, or that they will not win it because of something else, and say look at these numbers, these statistics, [which show] they always make the same mistake, you are offering something.
“If you just say Arsenal will not win the championship because they have not won it for eight years, that is just an opinion. It may be right, it may be wrong.”
There’s not a bone in the collective bodies of the Arseblog News team that doesn’t quiver with excitement at the prospect of them being wrong this time. That’s partly because we’ve already put in a bulk order for pikes and can’t wait to wave the dismembered heads of the MOTD team (replete with severed testicles instead of eyes) outside Islington town hall while the team loft the Premier League trophy in our direction.
We can but dream.
I really think MOTD pundits should be feeling the pressure. They can’t get away with lazy, cliched opinions anymore. The fans are demanding better quality punditry and TV networks know it.
What is it with the Alans? Especialy hansen, this guy knows nothing about football
There is him, and any other uneducated mindless sheep who says that man marking is better than zonal when defending a corner. God I loathe them.
There seems to be a huge sense of entitlement with Hansen and Lawrenson; they’ve been there so long and clearly lost the passion for it. Occasionally Hansen will begrudgingly proffer some analysis or insight, but Lawrenson just sits there and scoffs and moans.
I think Alan Shearer’s a bit dim and slow, but at least he tries! I’d like to hear more of what Gary Lineker has to say, some of his Twitter outbursts are excellent!
Alan Hansen knows nothing about football. Yeah I did read that right.
One thing people like about the Gary Neville/Jamie Carragher team is that they are not afraid to get nuanced; see Neville’s discussion of diving as a good example, which simultaneously complicated and illuminated the issue. By contrast, guys like Shearer and Hansen tend to offer one-dimensional opinions. Occasionally they come up with something insightful, but a lot of the time it goes no further than “he’s really good” or “you shouldn’t do that, that’s bad.”
It’s laziness plain and simple. Even a quick cursory look at Arsenal’s defensive stats over the past two calendar years, shows that Hansen’s statement “they’re not the best without the ball”, is at once ignorant and shows his complete lack of journalistic rigour.
So BT Sport have signed up Michael Owen and David James.
I will never understand why people think that ex-footballers make good pundits. They simply don´t, with a few exceptions though, like Neville and Garragher (who would have thought, eh?). And in my mind it´s purely because footballers lack the intelligence to go in-depth with their analysis and they lack the charisma to be interesting and stand out among the others.
I wouldn’t put Carragher in Neville’s bracket just yet,stills seems very biased towards the mugsmashers.
Neville is wonderful. He’s objective, interesting, and best of all, has actual thoughts from his brain rather than regurgitating the latest media ‘narrative’ (e.g. If Giroud gets injured… or Arsenal haven’t won any ‘big games’).
Carragher is reasonably good too, but looks even better because he and Neville have great chemistry.
I agree about Carragher, but Dixon is up there with Neville. It’s just a shame he’s swanned off to the states as though he’s some kind of prophet, trying to educate the yanks in the finer points of the beautiful game!
You say it’s a shame, and that BBC’s MOTD is lazy but we Yanks are so goddamn thankful we don’t have to listen to the ridiculous shit that ‘Fox Soccer’ comes up with. My god, even BBC MOTD sounds like top top quality compared to them.
You think Fox is bad? You should see what the panel on Sportsnet in Canada routinely come up with in pre-games and half-times! Most of the time all I can think is that they’ve never actually seen a football match, or even a football, in their lives. They’re also about a year to two years behind on their media cliches, so we can expect to hear them moan about Arsenal’s weak defense until the end of the 2014-15 season, I’m sure – even if we keep 95 clean sheets in 100 matches between now and then. That said, I have… Read more »
I remember Gary Neville at the end of last season. The man saw through all of the bullshit and predicted Arsenal would come good this season. This makes me very, very happy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjPVZwhddG4
Fans I know are not really demanding better punditry, but watch MoTD as a good, lazy way of consuming HD highlights (too many clicks needed to navigate websites!).
The punditry is freqeuntly ignored.
The problem with these pundits are that they don’t realise that they are now journalists as well, and need to adhere to the rigours of journalistic standards.
The second thing about these pundits that annoy me is of course the fact that they don’t manage, or haven’t shown any achievements in managing actual teams to success.
I know that the BBC are trying to improve the punditry at the moment. They really need to sort this out.
If we’re going to have out of touch sports presenters doing it, then can’t they at least get Alan Partridge to do it? At least it would be more entertaining than Shearer and Hansen’s drivel.
I demand Di Canio as a pundit!
. . . Di Canio, with Ian Holloway.
I quite like Holloway, at least he’s entertaining
Although I am no great fan of his, Robbie Savage has been quite outspoken about Arsenal’s chances. He says that we are the most consistent of the title challengers. He reckons it’s between us, Man City and Chelsea. He thinks the best Man U can achieve this season is 4th but adds that they will have to battle it out with Liverpool, Spurs and Everton.
When asked about the critics evaluation of Arsenal’s title chances, Wenger Said, “Fuck You and Fuck You and Fuck You and Fuck You too. Alan Fucking Cunt Hansen”
Imagine Allan Hansen Ian wright and Pier Morgan in a room doing punditry and Arsenal is having one of those games……..wait scratch that. dont imagine that shit. go offline and quickly enroll for therapy.
Where’s Robson? Did Morgan eat him?
None of them got the balls to manage a football team….any football team! let alone of Arsenals calibre yet when they talk you’ll think they’ve done it all. Muppets!
Didn’t Alan Shearer manage a football team… once?
Yes and look what happened.
Yea doc, look what happened!
Tried to.
Failed to
And so they say “Arsene knows”!
To be frank I am thoroughly enjoying Arsenal being the underdogs and being written off on all trophy ends.. It unites us that bit more, doesn’t it?
I’ve had enough of the TV pundits and I can’t wait for them to eat their own humble pie when the season ends with the gunners winning the league with 3 games to spare, and celebrating St. Totterringham’s day on the 32nd game!
i know this will come as a shock but pundits are just normal people! with opinions. mostly shitty opinions. its up to you to care or not to care.
But as Arsene points out, they never back their opinion up with anything even resembling a fact to make their opinion mean something.
Yes they are normal people, but when your job is literally to talk about football, at least do some sort of research during the full week you have before the next load of weekend games. I could be that Arsenal lose despite you being mentally ready for a win so you just change what you say slightly but you’ve already got your facts straight and can provide an informed opinion.
It’s true. On MOTD they get away with saying (unchallenged) that Arsenal have fallen away at the end of the season in the last couple of seasons. They ALWAYS say that.
When actually they have put together a fine run of results hence getting 4th.
You see pundits like Gary Neville who gives brilliant analysises (analyses?) of football backed with logical explanation and rationale – and you compare it to the “I don’t think they can win the league. Why? Because they can’t” explanations given by some of the guys on MOTD and you it baffles me.
Pundits paid enormous fees (espcially if from the public purse on the BBC) annoy my sense of justice as much as bankers do. Wished it wasn’t so and I can be not bothered by it.
Fuck Alan Hansen. Still crying inside about ’98. Notice how he disappears on MOTD when Arsenal win or Liverpool lose? Awful awful pundit.
U mean ’89. Hanson is still stuck up with that.
Sorry, numbers mixed up. ’89 is what I meant.
If Hansen says “grit and determination” one more time, I’ll throw up!
In his face?
The thought of that is hilarious – his squared face full of sh*te
Isn’t it already that way??
You throw up shite?!?
Depends how constipated he is……
only if you eat through your arse. south park said so.
in this life theres a difference between being opiniated and being informed some people dont know the difference.
Who cars what Aaron Hansen say because basically he doesn’t got no biscuit and that make him a custard creme bitch ass frond pusher
What he said.
That’s all very well, Jammathon; but what did he say ?
He shared a tart recipe that involves Alan Hansen
Very interestingly put. I gather you’re not approving of Alan Hanson, so you get a big thumbs up from me. Unfortunately I’m afraid I’m going to remember the phrase “custard creme bitch ass frond pusher” for far too long.
Dear gooners I want all pundits to continue criticizing and underestimating our team.Every match we have to work hard and show our team and individual strength and get our lovely three points.Even around the end of the season,during the last 5 or six matches,we can secure the trophy in advance,even at that time,i want the pundits to criticize and underestimate us.We fans may think that the behaviour from the pundits may disturb us,but for experienced manager and professionals players,it is just a piece of rubbish.Today,we will make the game quicker and unpredictable and break Hull into pieces to earn at… Read more »
To be fair to them, they all did say that the reason they don’t think arsenal will end up first is because we have no back up to giroud. Fair point I think. Most people now agree our first team is the best in the country (table doesn’t lie).
BREAKING NEWS: BBC axe Lineker, Hansen and Shearer from MOTD for poor punditry; Keown, Wright and Adams to take over
“The Times They Are a-Changin’ “
Jesus, not Ian Wright. He’s only slightly less irritating now that Arsenal are winning so he has less to moan about.
If we’re having Wright, then you might as well include Robson and Morgan for a proper set of opinions…..
…. only joking.
How annoying was Stewart Robson during the summer? He spouted the same shit everywhere for 3 months,seems to have shut the fuck up about it now…….
No Adams either. Hes (or was) gunning for Arsene’s job, trying to kick us when we were down after the Villa game. I dont really hear a lot of ‘horrible defense’ quotes from him anymore.
From Singapore I don’t get to see MOTD. But from what I see I really love Nigel Winterburn and Tony Adams on the rare occasion where they’re the guest pundits!
I think the BBC overlook brains when they appoint pundits. I think they should make every effort to get Gary Neville and maybe try out someone like Clark Carlisle who has the ability to think for himself, which should be a minimum requirement!
I take this like a clear message from Arsene that he dont give a shit about that motd morons. When I am looking at motd these weeks and when we are playing some terrific football you would expect some fuckin credit from them. Instead of it we hear all that bullshit how we will not win title..
If we went and strengthened up front by bringing in benzema/rooney/suarez in Jan, you think they will have any doubts then?
We can all see the elephant in the room…
And if Liverpool were forced into selling Suarez, I think Hansen would just take voluntary retirement.
Please let that happen! cant stand Hansen s Mug on the TV!
Talk sport pundits are other guys who are always against Arsenal. What’s wrong with these English pundits. We all know you. You either support Liverpool or Manu
I was gutted that Hansen wasn’t on after the Liverpool game. Really wanted to watch him squirm or just sit there with a blank face. Fucking coward.
Ehm. Fact: No English manager has ever won Premier League. Ever.
Facts may not be that important.
Putting some more or less well thought though idea out there may offer better TV (or sell more papers/clicks) than the dry facts.
In addition it gives us fans the possibility to measure our own opinion against that of others – which we do love.
…AND we get the joy of calling pundits names.
Why is this not a WIN situation?
I beg to differ, I won the Premier League title 2 days ago with Bath City FC….
Do Stoke know you’re moonlighting as the manager for a better team?
Hey Oh!!!
FIFA 13, or 14?
Football Manager 2014
I used to love champ man! Is FM14 any good?
I personally think so. Having played them since about 1997, it’s definitely the most in depth and structured version I’ve played.
And while were on the subject of pundits. Can somebody please lend Adrian Chiles something interesting to say, because he clearly hasn’t the capacity himself. How that’s his job I’ll never know.
He confuses himself. Even statements look like questions.
Still, he’s less irritating than Colin Murray I think.
The BBC “pundits” (we’re paying their wages for the guys who think they’re entitled to have shit opinions) are feeling the pressure.I mean who cares about a manager criticising but a colleague from a different network?Ups…For the unlucky ones Arsene has s brilliant show on Eurosport re Champions League
I heard the reason they say the same old shit on motd every week is cos the beeb wont fund electricity fot their autocues. Shearer hansen lineker murphy I look forward to seeing lots of egg on your faces, bloody halfwits.
In fairness to Mark Lawrensen (Christ, I feel dirty), he’s actually been fairly kind to us of late and a least entertains the possibility that we could win it. But how that twat Garth Crooks ever gets a payslip from the Beeb is beyond me.
Can’t wait till the day they have to eat there words
I don’t have a problem with pundits saying they don’t think we’ll win the league, it’s just annoying when you hear idiots like Hansen say we won’t win anything until we sort out our goalkeeper and centre halves which shows he can’t even be bothered to watch our games to see they’ve been 3 of our most consistent performers this season.
All of these are the same pundits who mocked Wenger for having the audacity to suggest we could go a season unbeaten. They likened him to Comical Ali for fuck sake. Now they are all terrified having said we were a bunch of shit eating surrender monkeys who are to be proved wrong (i hope!!)
Motd has always been a platform for skewed, cliched statements from ex-pro’s. A sorry bunch of either failed first time managers, too scared to fail for a second time in a managerial position or those who decided to jump on Alan Partridges BBC gravy train of “jobs for life, for the boys“. Lazy cowards for the most part, afraid to state a fact for fear of contradicting their collective fictional account of the situation.
It could be worse, MOTD could be on ITV…then we’d have Andy Townsend
Most of them can barely speak English too (I’m looking at you, Shearer)
Thats why they call it opinion…we have to be strong and prove them wrong,…am gonna make myself a name or maybe get into the Guinness book of records, because am gonna bake the biggest ‘Humble Pie’ and have it shipped from Lagos Nigeria to each of those pundits who will eventually walk tail between legs when Arsenal lifts trophies come May 2014….
(i’ll gladly pay to have it shoved down their throats on live TV maybe dedicate a youtube channel to airing it..it might just surpass the 1 billion views gangam style got…i’ll be a proud gooner)
Hate to be the Gooner that points out Arsené’s mistake but we have already gone 9 years without winning the league (2004-2013). Should we do it this year it will be a decade (May 2014).
Despite that CMON YOU GUNNERS!!!
well , there is that small matter of building the best stadium in europe and having to lay low for a while…dont let that stop you from having a moan though. hey if you dont moan about trophies then what kind of fan are you?
Stating a fact =/= moaning.
Moan: verb- to complain, lament or grieve.
Has nothing to do with the veracity of the topic subject to the moan. It may be fact but the person is still lamenting and hence moaning.
Wasn’t having a moan… just pointing out that what he said was inaccurate.
Big clubs are ultimately judged by the trophies they win. I hope that annoying record is vanquished this season and many more times in the next few seasons.
The reasons for failing to win the league or any other trophy over the last 8/9 years and whether Arsené has done more good or bad, can be debated all day long and I’m not going into it.
Add in that nob Michael Owen lol he hasn’t a clue when it comes to football punditry – common theme is that the Muppet pundits are x manure, liverdross and spud-u-like players each with their axe to grind lol at Hansen 89
Seems too many if you think too much what these people le think. I for one don’t give a sh*ta$$,coz in the end its the title I am looking for and once we got it, then I can take them to the cleaners.
Blame the BBC….
Wenger should keep his gob shut. Last time I checked we’ve won nothing for eight years. I’m desperately hoping that this we be the year when we finally put things right. But we’ve achieved noting yet. The time to start crowing is when Arteta lifts the Premier League trophy, or, better still, the European Cup. Until then the Professor should shut up: you don’t get a trophy for being top at the start of December. If we do win it then at the final home game of the season Wenger should drop his trousers and invite Hansen and Shearer to… Read more »
Yeah!
What a strange way of interpreting what Arsene said. If anything, what he said was the complete opposite of what you seem to think he said. He brought up the fact the Arsenal hadn’t won anything in 8 years – “If we have not won the league for eight years, it is because we were not good enough in the important moments of the season. We have a good opportunity to show we are good enough, so let’s take it – but made the point that it’s lazy for pundits to write the club off this season with that as… Read more »
Two things.
Mark Hughes?
Liverpool did not win the league in 1989! They did so the following year.
I do apologise, I should have put the 1989-90 season
And yes, that’s my name and smug face in the corner. What of it?
only hansen and shearer ?? …id say half the emirates crowd too after all the abuse they’ve given him
Fucktard
Err… It’d be Vermaelen lifting the trophies, what with him being club captain and all. The best story I heard was after the Invicibles lifted the trophy and were on the team bus, Wenger was sat with Pat Rice, planning out the next season. I doubt he’ll gloat even one iota. Partly why I love him. Wenger was asked about MotD – “keeping his gob shut” wasn’t really the option. And he’s not saying we’ve won anything, he’s saying what we all say – the MotD pundits don’t know their arse from their elbow and say the same bollocks week… Read more »
Hate those MOTD “experts” … always anti arsenal and not because of any real reasoning … disgusting ! Let’s show em ! Arsenal4Life
We also have to regularly endure our own high level of ignorant punditry from Arsenal bashers here in the States in the person of Craig Burley of ESPN FC and Eric Wynalda of Fox Soccer. Funny thing is Burley got ganged up by the Espn crew today for not accepting Arsenal being a Title contender or favorite. His denial of Arsenal’s credential even got called out as clownish by Hislop. Now Wynalda is something else. He’s now joining the bandwagon saying he’s now an Arsenal fan ever since we got Ozil. Such a pathetic host. You can see the painful… Read more »
Craig Burley…. you poor bastards.
Wouldn’t want to wish Craig Burley on anyone!
But NBC Sports has been a revelation! No more shitty FOX!
Sorry for incomplete line in the end.. Sleepiness now taking over my anger
Ok so I don’t really mind the feckless buffoonery of the likes of Shearer, Savage(The Retriever) or Owen because at best it is just buffoonery – they kind of cough up a garbled version of whatever the other said in the previous week and it carries over until too stale and poisonous that a new flavor of “opinion” is formed (probably nicked off Garth Crooks). Alan Hansen however rarely even smiles. I read somewhere that he gets 40k per show on MOTD and he can’t even muster an afflicted grimace (esp. when talking about the Arsenal). I am glad it’s… Read more »
I think gunnerblog should make a spoof video about that match and Hansen and adapt Summer of 69 to Summer of 89.
Who gives a real shit about what they say? They laughed at Wenger when he said it’s possible to go a season unbeaten. They even said manure couldn’t win anything with kids(but fuck them anyway). These guys are always full of crap.
To be fair to Mark Lawrenson, he is the only one this season at least to say Arsenal might win the league. The other idiot pundits seem to be guided by partisanship. Our own Martin Keown can’t back Arsenal when he is on air.
One would love to hear what twitcher Harry has to say after another failed prediction of Spurs doing better than Arsenal this season!
Hansen nodding sagely by his side “No Arsenal have no chance. No chance”.
I remember it vividly!
Going out on a limb here, but…
How about replacing ‘The Alans’ with John McCrirrick?
He’s right. Like this Saturday when Danny Murphy was asked about us all he could say was , ‘they lost to Man Utd’ then he repeated it but couldn’t come up with anything else. But instead of Lineker going ‘yea, but they have beaten Dortmund, Spurs, Liverpool and Napoli’ he just says, ‘but they have played a lot of games though!’
As for Hansen and Lawrenson, they’re still bitter about Anfield 89 🙂
Sometimes its good to stand against all odds just lk all d armchairr critic. They should all give back to soceity what soccer gave them and down teams. Haters.
Remember when Kompany made an absolute fool of Hansen last year on MOTD? That was great. He also defended Arsenal in the same showing. Guys like Hansen are part of a dying breed of conservative old school British football value conoisseurs. In Shearer they’ve managed to find another traditionalist. It’s people like this and their kind of attitude that is stopping the England national team from developing as they cling desparately to an obsolete vision for the game. Whoever is in charge of the BBC sports department should just fuck off and retire at this stage. They’re a disgrace to… Read more »
Every time I pay my TV license I stop and think.
I’m paying this money right now. My hard earned money.
It’s not easy earning money. We all know that.
And a small small part of that money which I just paid goes to Alan Hansen.
I’m paying Alan Hansen.
I’m paying Alan Hansen.
That’s when i start to think very bad thoughts.
MOTD is crap anyway if you are looking for credible and original views, when was the last time any pundit actually came up with anything original which nobody has said before…
most of the pundits lack creativity and don’t have any lateral thinking what so ever..
It will be much better to see Gary Linker speak for whole of the show…
The only good pundit in Lee Dixon, left,
so yeah BBC what the f are you doing my license money…
its like I am paying you money to blow it on thought-challenged farts…
I’ll get thumbsed down for this but the boss’s comments have been taken way out of it’s original and conciliatory context. Just watch the bloody press conference and make your own mind up. I’ve been noticing inflammatory AVB style headlines from the BBC about this – they are priming their next headlines in the event of our defeat. It’s standard agenda driven journalism. If you don’t agree with me, you watch this story get referenced in the wake of any defeat we may have! What I don’t expect is for Arseblog to fall for the bait and also produce a… Read more »
These comments weren’t from the press conference. They were from the separate meeting the manager has with the written press after the press conference.
My bad!
In that case, I just think it’s ill advised for the boss to say these things. It’s way too early.
I’m a much more happy Arsenal man when we are underestimated at the moment 🙂
I agree with Heroldgoon’s point about pundits being normal people with opinions we can ignore if we choose, but when it comes to having to fuck off MOTD through annoyance of septic criticism it’s gone a bit far.
IMO the BBC should realise the need for fair punditry in what is meant to be a universally oriented football programme.
Personally can’t be bothered to even watch it.
When we beat Hull, hansen will say yes they beat Hull but they are championship team, when we beat everton at the weekend, hansen will say yes they beat everton at home they have no fellaini they have new manager they dont play the same aggressive football as moyes did at everton, when we draw at city hansen will say we were lucky with the draw city didn’t take their chances as szczesny save two great chances from city, when we beat Chelsea hansen will say yes the beat chelsea at home wait till the play them at the bridge,… Read more »
Sadly pundits were not the only lazy critics after the Villa game.
I remember a whole bunch of fans turning into experts overnight. Blogs included (Sadly!)
And true we haven’t won anything yet but we’ve been the most consistent team in 2013.
Food for thought.
I’ve never been an expert, or ever set myself up as one.
And look, in hindsight it’s easy to look back and see the Villa game as an aberration, but the reality is there were genuine concerns over the state of the squad at that time, and the way the summer had gone.
That we’ve come through it so well is a credit to the players, and the manager, but let’s not pretend things were perfect.
Here’s a reminder: a team that gave EVERYTHING to scrape for fourth last season, most of the senior players came out one by one to call for reinforcements and we had money to spend and NOTHING was done, whereas most if the teams around us were strengthening.. It was at best a huge wasted opportunity, at worst it was gross negligence.
I congratulate you on your 20/20 hindsight, but that reaction most (if not all) of us had after the Villa game was the natural one to have.
Look, believe me, all some of us were saying was that after Villa game the window was still open and that the management was still working hard to bring players in.
And yes, the way the summer had gone wasn’t perfect but you can’t argue that our fans’ overreactions had become the butt of all jokes after that.
Loved the hotlink to liverdross v arsenal 89 – how many teams can boast winning the league in such dramatic and exhilarating fashion? Beautiful just beautiful
MOTD2 (Dion Dublin and Lawrenson) on Sunday plumbed even greater depths, as if it were possible. So lazy, complacent and asinine, as if we are paying part of our licence fee for the privilege of listening to ordinary blokes in the pub but without the beer. and the other thing that gets me is that they always do analysis on the assumption that the winning team was simply superior and the losing team rubbish and the result was inevitable. Completely neglect the fact that all games can turn on minuscule margins – like Hull v Liverpool. Hull got 2 goals… Read more »
I believe the MOD team are wrong. And we will prove them wrong this season.