If Football Pundits Can Raise Their Game There's Still Hope for Arsenal

Filed under: Arsenal, Manchester United, Media, Premier League, Football

If you ever required an illustration of the Special Stuff that sets habitual winners like Manchester United apart from the rest of the pack, last weekend's match between Alex Ferguson's side and Arsenal provided it. Not the 8-2 drubbing on the pitch; anyone can rattle in a load of goals against a gaggle of half-arsed chancers. No, the crucial detail came in the Sky studio after the game, courtesy of Gary Neville.

After United had got fed up of rattling in goals, and Arsenal had scuttled off to the sanctuary of the dressing room, the cameras cut back to the studio, where it was left to Paul Merson to deal with the hideous aftermath. Merson embarked on a spectacular rant, starting quietly but quickly rising with a grand crescendo, firing off salvoes at everyone involved with Arsenal from Arsene Wenger down to the tea lady (with the honourable exception of Carl Jenkinson, who had unluckily got himself sent off with 14 minutes to go, more of whom in a minute).

Merse had a right face on. But then, so too, surprisingly, did his fellow pundit Neville. Viewers who had assumed he would be up on the table high-kicking with his red-and-black pom-poms out (behave) were to be surprised. If anything, the opposite was true, as he displayed the attitude of a true winner.

United were good, of course they were, Neville argued. But he didn't go overboard. He also pointed out, if they gave away as much space as they did in the midfield, and defended as slackly as they did, they would struggle to get a result against a strong, well-organised side (which Arsenal were palpably not). The underlying message: as daft as it sounds, there's no point dwelling on the many positives of an 8-2 victory, when there are still kinks to be ironed out in the team.

He riffed on Arsenal's pain - "I can't believe how high they were playing on this pitch at Old Trafford," he tutted, barely disguising his disgust at the risible defending - but offered some constructive criticism too, showing how the young patsy Jenkinson had effectively been hung out to dry ahead of his sending off by his slackly positioned team-mate Johan Djourou.

Neville is very good indeed. Even Liverpool fans may begin to like him.

OK, that's stretching it a bit. But the point stands.

One thing is clear: Andy Gray isn't missed at all. Egged on by Premier League cheerleader Richard Keys, he'd have just stood there fawning over United's forward play, blurting out superlative after superlative. We'd have learnt nothing. Neville, however, in the immediate aftermath of a jaw-dropping victory, laid out good reasons why both teams still had work to do. There is a reason Neville has so many medals in the cabinet.

And his approach is catching. Over on the BBC, Lee Dixon has always been both informative and likeable, but he's beginning to really raise his game now. On Saturday night's Match of the Day, while Luis Suarez was the obvious star man in the Liverpool-Bolton fixture, Dixon instead concentrated on explaining how the much-maligned Stewart Downing, offering proper width on both of Anfield's oft-neglected wings, is crucial to Liverpool's more expansive style of play under Kenny Dalglish. Then on Sunday he took his scalpel to Arsenal, pointing out how Djourou and Laurent Koscielny were playing along different lines, pushing up when they shouldn't, dropping back when they shouldn't, and how they offered no help whatsoever to poor Jenkinson and his fellow inexperienced full back Armand Traore.

Alan Hansen, sitting alongside Dixon, was embarrassed into taking his job seriously for the first time in a decade or so. And he reminded everyone why he was so damn good in the first place. It's easy to pick faults in a defence when they're letting in their sixth or seventh goal; Hansen instead ran through the step by step process of Arsenal falling apart ahead of United's opener, and how Danny Welbeck's goal was almost inevitable. Brilliant analysis, snapping the Arsenal shambles into sharp focus, and real old-school Hansen. No time spent dreaming up lame jokes. Correlation, anyone?

All of which should give Arsenal fans a little succour. They really shouldn't be too worried about their hellish start to the season. Because if Britain's TV pundits, so awful for so long, can raise their game, anyone can...

 

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Source: http://www.fanhouse.co.uk/2011/09/01/football-pundits-arsenal-manchester-united/

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