Why does nobody like Arsenal?

[Jimbo14]

I think its the way Wenger won't ever hold his hands up and say 'they outplayed us' or 'that should have been a penelty.' Now im the first to defend Arsenal but when you know something else is right sometimes you just have to admit it, otherwise you look sour and that gives us the aroggant look. I love our Wenger but he's not the most honest and graceful sometimes.

 

[Goalkeeper]

I dislike how Wenger, Henry or Cesc recently, have went out to the press and complain about teams playing "negative" or "anti" football. Though frusturating to watch, teams that play defensively have every right to do so. I think most people have problems with the whole mentality that Arsenal players and managment have where they expect opposition to lie down and accept defeat.

There is also the obvious factor that we do not have many English players. Though personally, I don't mind as I'm not english.

 

[tristan]

I think the English thing is that they don't really make any effort. People like to see their own countrymen in their league, and Wenger has publicly stated that he doesn't much care for English youth.

 

[The_byrne]

For one, as we witnessed today, we're never gracious in defeat. We want to moan and blame the ref, the away manager, the weather, the pitch and everything else apart from ourselves.
Look at Henry after the final last year, and look at wenger today, it was embarrasing, and I've never been embarrassed of wenger before.
Against Everton all we did after was moan about teams playing defensively. We seem to expect the opposition to roll over against us and hand us the 3 points.

Totally agree with that...We should accept defeat even when it is not fair....We can say it was unfair etc but moaning is irritating...It would have been better to work over a solution rather than just blaming others and then making the same mistakes in the next matches. Also by saying how the opponent frustrated us by not playing good football etc we encourage other teams to frustrate us as well and this isn't very wise is it?

A team like arsenal should never just accpet defeat. I remeber the last time the subject of our behaviour after a controversial defeat came up in december 2001 at home to newcastle (when poll sent of parlour and gifted them a late pen). Bobby robson said arsenal needed to learn how to lose, well the team dissagreed, and didn't lose another match in any competition for 11 months

 

[AxlGunners]

I feel there is quite a bit of hatred towards Arsenal from opposing fans, be it rivals or just football supporters in general.

I feel this is mostly down to the press, and mainly the tabloids. They like to focus on Arsenal's lack of english players and twist it in to Wenger being anti-english, and bad for the english game. A lot of the fans that dislike Arsenal will always make this point, and it's because they can't formulate opinions on their own.

 

[Mr Wolf]

I think there are three main reasons for which other fans hate us: (1) in the over thirties is still alive the memory of the boring Arsenal of George Graham's era, that did use to win 1-0 scoring with a header of the central defenders and defending the sole goal in the same way thay did Everton last week:
(2) the youngest fans hate a certain arrogance that (we must admit) Wenger shows when looks for the most unlikely alibis to justifies the defeats, as if he never got wrong; (3) all fans have a bit of envy for an old traditional club, with a beautiful kit, that had an "art deco" house (that was the home of football) in of the best London boroughs....

 

[Don Pacifico]

Well I think for the older generation of fans, they grew up disliking Arsenal. Arsenal had a history of playing negative football, preferring to score a goal and defend for the rest of the game (much like teams do against us now ironically enough). This is where the cry of 'Boring Boring Arsenal' came from, we were seen as a team that had no imagination and played for the sake of winning. This attitude was especially evident under Graham, were the raise of the hands for offside characterised the team and was even satirised. Obviously Wenger has revolutionised the club, but from those who supported opposing teams before him Arsenal were known as a boring side. Perhaps this culture has stuck, even though the style of our play has changed.

 

[celestis]

For one, as we witnessed today, we're never gracious in defeat. We want to moan and blame the ref, the away manager, the weather, the pitch and everything else apart from ourselves.
Look at Henry after the final last year, and look at wenger today, it was embarrasing, and I've never been embarrassed of wenger before.
Against Everton all we did after was moan about teams playing defensively. We seem to expect the opposition to roll over against us and hand us the 3 points.

I think you're spot on.

Arsenal biased aside, we are quite a bitter side when things don't go our way. Our players often react violently or petulantly and Wenger is never gracious in defeat. He'll sometimes admit a team played well but there will always be more to add from him, usually an excuse for why we didn't win. Also if we lose or draw he never gives anything more than a quick handshake (or not even that, as in today's game), where as I've seen Ferguson and Mourinho quite often congratulate the opposing manager and have a few words with them.. Mourinho with Jol today for example.

I also don't think our team being filled with Foreigners goes down well with many.

I agree we should be more gracious , that way we can get one with it instead being in the spot light during the week .
Did you hear Mourinho today wasn't exaclty gracious was he ?

"I congratulate Sp**s and tell them to enjoy the moment as it is a big day for them," he said. "Their fans are very happy now. They were unhappy for 20 years so they should enjoy it."

patronising .

 

[patrick42uk]

i'd ignore anything mourinho does. its all pretty much pre-meditated. except when he omes up against benitez. just recall the post-match interview when they knocked chelsea out of the cl where he was questioning liverpools' defensive tactics? :roll:

anyway, i'm glad that our manager hates losing so much so he can do al he can to avoid it. this last two seasons have been tough because we are losing a lot more than we are used to under wenger.

 

[Wembley79]

I think this is the perfect opportunity for Wenger to take a leaf out of Ferguson and Mourinhos book. We should use this "Anti Arsenal" feeling to build a "nobody likes us we dont care" attitude. Ferguson has used this for years to great effect, by geeing his players up with the attitude that people are just waiting for them to fall flat on their faces. Mourinho does it all the time, and actively encourages it.

Wenger, in my opinion now, should be as minimal in interviews, and conduct them on his terms - like Ferguson does. Maybe we need a bit of a "fortress mentality" to bring the best out in us - after all, thats the kind of thing we saw before the Real Madrid and Juve games last season.

Would rather Wenger said nothing than some of the ridiculous things that he does say tbh - by that I mean things like moaning about the other team, the ref etc. Maybe he should just come out and say "they/we won, it was a hard game, thank you, and goodbye" a few times, after all if he doesnt give the media as much ammo, they may go looking for easier targets

 

[Alfonso]

Yes, it is now or never for a segie mentality approach. Esp since i think the media will make a big deal out of the Wenger V Pardrew incident.

Seige mentality approach could be exactly what we need now as a team.

As for the thread title, well i think it may have something to do with the diving antics of Robert Pires. I always hear this in grounds: "Same old Arsenal, always cheating". I swear this is sung more towards us than any other club imo.

Also, the fact we dont have many english players hinders us in the eyes of english fans in this country. Is this xenophobic? Possibly. Our stadium named after a forgein company may also anger some ppl as well.

Also, under George Graham we had a right bunch of characters, e.g Paul Merson, Tony Adams, who had their far share of problems, and i guess this got to opposition supporters.

They also hate us for the apparent arrogance of Henry, the "prickness" of Lehman, and the fact that Wenger cannot ever recall seeing anything on the football pitch.

And apparently for the arrogrance of our fans. As we apparently think our club is the best side in the world. I guess winning the title going undefeated is not best for being humble as an Arsenal supporter.

Also, jealousy comes into as well. Other supporters may be jealous as we have been a relatively successful team in the past few years. Chelsea also face this problem.

Why dont we adopt the Millwall approach; "No one likes us, we dont care".

 

[stiiphunn]

I don't know what's the general feeling about Arsenal in England, but I know that outside of England, Arsenal is well-appreciated because of our beautiful football.

Now, Alfonso listed a few reasons of why we are hated in England. Personnally I think that jealousy should be up there on the list.
This leads to the fact that as soon as we do something wrong people are on our backs critisizing us. i.e as soon as Pires dived, people couldn't stop talking about us.
Maybe the lack of English players is also not helping us, but I'm not sure this is the main reason.

Basically because we're a team who's most of the times respectful towards the game ( and because we like talking about that ), as soon as we do something wrong people will single it out.

But we have to live with that

 

[Rodelero]

For one, as we witnessed today, we're never gracious in defeat. We want to moan and blame the ref, the away manager, the weather, the pitch and everything else apart from ourselves.
Look at Henry after the final last year, and look at wenger today, it was embarrasing, and I've never been embarrassed of wenger before.
Against Everton all we did after was moan about teams playing defensively. We seem to expect the opposition to roll over against us and hand us the 3 points.

Because you'd say Barcelona had played better when you'd been cheated out of the greatest achievement of your life by two ****ty refereeing decisions?

Its because we have no English players IMO.

The cheering when walcott plays is sentiment to how much we like seeing born 'n' bread on our team.

 

[qs]

The vast majority of nuetrals and supporting of non-direct rival clubs do like us. They enjoy watching us and think Wengers a great manager.

Its just certain media outlets that seem to have it in for us.

 

[Fab Fabre04]

For one, as we witnessed today, we're never gracious in defeat. We want to moan and blame the ref, the away manager, the weather, the pitch and everything else apart from ourselves.
Look at Henry after the final last year, and look at wenger today, it was embarrasing, and I've never been embarrassed of wenger before.
Against Everton all we did after was moan about teams playing defensively. We seem to expect the opposition to roll over against us and hand us the 3 points.

Concerning the Everton game. I reckon some of our fans have been spoilt. They don't remember when we were an average team. They just remember our un beaten days. They get frustrated if we don't stream roll teams.

 

[tristan]

For one, as we witnessed today, we're never gracious in defeat. We want to moan and blame the ref, the away manager, the weather, the pitch and everything else apart from ourselves.
Look at Henry after the final last year, and look at wenger today, it was embarrasing, and I've never been embarrassed of wenger before.
Against Everton all we did after was moan about teams playing defensively. We seem to expect the opposition to roll over against us and hand us the 3 points.

Because you'd say Barcelona had played better when you'd been cheated out of the greatest achievement of your life by two ****ty refereeing decisions?

Its because we have no English players IMO.

The cheering when walcott plays is sentiment to how much we like seeing born 'n' bread on our team.

It has little to do with no English players. 11 Bobby Charlton's could pull on that red Nike shirt and I'd still hope they lose every game.

 

[Nemesis]

And who the hell are you Tristan?

Imo we arent really hated but its just that the people who do hate us tend to hate us more because of how classy we truly are. Imagine if your greatest rivals and enemies were actually some of the classiest people you knew. Deep down it would it would drive you mad. And you would exaggerate every little misstep they made just to fool yourself into thinking they arent as classy as they are.

Beyond this among many fans in general there is also an element of jealousy imo. When others look at the imperious form of football there is a large element of envy, that we can do the things that they can only imagine. Off course when we succeed many will applaud us simply because they cannot deny our greatness. But everytime we fail they will take pleasure and revel in it. Its just like how people like to read gossip magazines about celebrities and such and how the media enjoys bringing celebrities to their knees.

 

[Biggus]

And who the hell are you Tristan?.

Hes Chelscum Nemesis...He does'nt have the right to lecture us on anything. Mourinho is a hypocrite who puts on a smile when hes got no alternitive....likewise Sir Fungus :bash

For one,
as we witnessed today, we're never gracious in defeat. We want to moan and blame the ref, the away manager, the weather, the pitch and everything else apart from ourselves.
Look at Henry after the final last year, and look at wenger today, it was embarrasing, and I've never been embarrassed of wenger before.
Against Everton all we did after was moan about teams playing defensively. We seem to expect the opposition to roll over against us and hand us the 3 points.

Totally agree with that...We should accept defeat even when it is not fair....We can say it was unfair etc but moaning is irritating...It would have been better to work over a solution rather than just blaming others and then making the same mistakes in the next matches. Also by saying how the opponent frustrated us by not playing good football etc we encourage other teams to frustrate us as well and this isn't very wise is it?

A team like arsenal should never just accpet defeat. I remeber the last time the subject of our behaviour after a controversial defeat came up in december 2001 at home to newcastle (when poll sent of parlour and gifted them a late pen). Bobby robson said arsenal needed to learn how to lose, well the team dissagreed, and didn't lose another match in any competition for 11 months

Well I agree with the_byrne.....WE ARE ARSENAL we should never accept defeat. When an old fuddy duddy like Sir Bobby (I've never forgiven him for the 78 FA cup defeat) talks about how nice it is to lose, he must have had the time of his life at Newcastle. If you just enjoy the game and are'nt bothered by the result just go for a kickabout and forget professional football. I'm probably the most patient man on this forum with Thierry.....I recognise how lucky we are to have him, but It's a bad sight when you see our captain laughing and joking with the likes of S :x h :x e :x r :x i :x n :x g :x h :x a :x m :x after a cruel defeat.......WE ARE ARSENAL

 

[Nemesis]

And it isnt so much that we cant accept defeat but rather that when we do lose very often its because of dodgy decisions. I think when we are screwed over by dodgy decisions we have a right to complain, yet the xenophobes in the press will always turn this around and make us look like the bad guys. What the **** is Arsène supposed to say? "I know Hleb was brought down and we were wrongly denied a penalty, and I know that Spector should have been sent off several times for his behaviour and yes Pardew did behave like a right **** when he celebrated when his team scored after Flamini was fouled but we deserved to lose anyway!"

Well guess what ****** we DIDNT deserve to lose so how the **** are we supposed to come out and say it anyway? Only a loser would come out and say he deserved to lose when he didnt.

Also its not as if Funguson, Rafa or Moaning Ho are all rushing to proclaim the other team deserved to win even if they did, hell they are even worse than Arsène. Remember when Funguson turned on his erstwhile protege Mark Hughes after ushited were deservedly thrashed by Blackburn last season?

I think part of the problem is that Arsène is usually much better behaved than Funguson, Moaning Ho that when he does do something wrong the press blow it all our of proportion thus giving the impression that he is as bad as those 2. If Fungie and Ho do so much worse that their lesser transgressions are less noticed whereas Arsène's arent. In as much as saying you didnt deserve to lose when you didnt is a 'transgression'.

 

[JML]

And it isnt so much that we cant accept defeat but rather that when we do lose very often its because of dodgy decisions. I think when we are screwed over by dodgy decisions we have a right to complain, yet the xenophobes in the press will always turn this around and make us look like the bad guys.
Well guess what ****** we DIDNT deserve to lose so how the f**k are we supposed to come out and say it anyway? Only a loser would come out and say he deserved to lose when he didnt.

This qualifies as not being able to accept defeat. Teams get the raw end on bad reffing decisions constantly, practically in every game. Not just in football, but in sports in general. And I haven't seen a single sports fanbase on the planet that cries and holds grudges like Gooners do. Forget the fact that we couldn't create chances, and on one of the few that we did Rosicky ended up missing the target entirely, or that nearly everyone on our back 4 were caught ball watching when we conceded. Nope, let's go ahead and blame the ref, because he obviously wanted us to lose and the Upton Park faithful obviously had him shell-shocked.
Do you think an Arsenal forward hasn't ever been called onside when he was in an offside position, or an Arsenal winger hasn't ever gotten away with a blatent dive, or an Arsenal defender hasn't ever been given the benefit of the doubt after clobbering an opposing player in the box? If so, you need to stop wearing your red and white glasses during matches, they're impairing your vision.

What the f**k is Arsène supposed to say? "I know Hleb was brought down and we were wrongly denied a penalty, and I know that Spector should have been sent off several times for his behaviour and yes Pardew did behave like a right c**t when he celebrated when his team scored after Flamini was fouled but we deserved to lose anyway!"

Nothing, just give the other team a little bit more credit than some of the fans seem to be able to and be on your merry way. That's why people don't like him, because he *****es. People don't call him Arsène 'Whin'ger for no reason. Everytime he does cry it not only puts him in a bad light, but it just further backs up the people who say that Arsenal are just a bunch of foreign pansies.

Btw, the whole "they hate us because we're classy" bit made you sound like George Bush.