Arsenal’s ‘Anti-Soccer’ Approach Produces a Very British Backlash

At an internal celebration event on May 25, marking Arsenal winning the domestic Premier League title for the first time in 22 years, the English soccer club’s Spanish coach Mikel Arteta bullishly predicted, “On Saturday, we will be Champions of Europe!” In regards to how it played out, this boast recalled the apocryphal story of the 19th-century French military general who, attending a dinner hosted by Emperor Napoleon III and drunk on power and alcohol, stood up and loudly intoned, “Gentlemen, tomorrow we invade Russia!”Arsenal promptly lost the UEFA Champions League final, Europe’s most prestigous soccer competition, on penalty kicks to Paris Saint-Germain in Budapest’s Puskas Arena after the game had ended 1-1. While they remain the biggest team never to win European’s football elite prize, Arsenal are certainly the most privileged when it comes to celebrity fans. Actresses Anne Hathaway, Reese Witherspoon, and Kate Mara are high-profile supporters as are film director Spike Lee and motor racing champion Lewis Hamilton, among other boldface names. But it’s in the political arena where Arsenal really stand out. Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City has arguably paid more attention to Arsenal in recent weeks than the resurgent New York Knicks , writing a fawning article for The Athletic on his love of the club and wearing a garish blue-and-black Arsenal custom-made kurta at a Muslim holiday event celebrating Eid al-Adha. Like Mr. Mamdani, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also expressed support for Arsenal on X and raised eyebrows in England by calling for TNT Sports, the broadcaster of the Champions League, to make the final free-to-air, even though he had previously made no equivalent demands for the European finals recently broadcast on the network involving English clubs Aston Villa and Crystal Palace to be complimentary. As with so much else Sir Keir strives to achieve as prime minister, he was unsuccessful.However, while Arsenal have many Hollywood and political establishment cheerleaders, it’s no exaggeration to say that a not-so silent majority of soccer fans, especially in the UK, presently cannot stand them. A cursory glance at social media sees thousands of supporters take strong exception to their perceived brand of “anti-football.” (Full disclosure: I am a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal’s North London rivals who for six seasons in succession, until 2022, finished higher than Arsenal in the Premier League table, only to trail their neighbors by 44 points this past season.)Arsenal’s approach can be summed up by the slogan associated with Malcolm X, the subject of the acclaimed 1992 biopic from their devotee Spike Lee: “By any means necessary.” On the field Arsenal tired of being runner-up. In the 20th century, the club won 11 league titles and finished second seven times. This century, Arsenal have finished second nine times and won the title three times, leading to the “bottler” tag being labelled at them.Mr. Arteta ditched the expansive football style the club had developed under Arsene Wenger, their manager from 1996 until 2018, instead relying on set pieces and corner kicks and thriving on being aggressive and testing the prescribed rules to the edge of their limits, and often beyond. A new rule set to be implemented during the World Cup by football’s governing body FIFA punishing players from obstructing opponents from playing the ball during free kicks and corner kicks is being referred to as the “anti-Arsenal” rule.Recently, they have turned timewasting en route to narrow victories into something approaching performance art. In last weekend’s Champions League final, Arsenal, 1-0 up at the end of the first half, won a corner kick but were prevented from taking it after the referee blew his whistle for half-time, on account of their excessive time-wasting during the build-up. At a Junior Soccer League match, this would be embarrassing; at the most illustrious match in European club soccer, it was beyond parody.The incident brought to mind the sentiment memorably expressed by Liverpool principal owner John W. Henry when he tweeted in 2013 over their bungled bid to sign Liverpool forward Luis Suarez: “What do you think they’re smoking over there at Emirates [Arsenal’s stadium]?” While some have argued that Arsenal’s turgid tactical approach was a necessity given PSG’s free-flowing brilliance, the French champions weren’t firing on all cylinders last weekend and, with a more adventurous and attacking display from the London side, were surely there for the taking.Mr. Arteta has spent over a billion dollars on players since he started managing the club in 2019 and that spending, and the accompanying astronomical wage bill, finally paid off when they beat their rivals, Manchester City, to the league last month. But that victory has been colored by a pattern of controversial refereeing decisions going in Arsenal’s favor. The video assistant referee (VAR) technology, which was supposed to make soccer free of contentious calls has instead had the opposite effect. While fans of every team love to claim their club has been dealt rough justice — all is fair in love and VAR, you could say — recent Premier League data reported by the BBC showed that while Arsenal were the first side to win the Premier League without having a player sent off or a penalty against them, in actuality they should have conceded three penalties and had three players sent off in the course of the season. Arsenal narrowly won their league title, having benefited from seven refereeing mistakes.While their fan base has tended to respond to this, by either saying words to the effect of “cry harder,” or referring to the 115 charges of alleged financial breaches that the Premier League has spent several years investigating Manchester City, journalists and rival fans continue to express bewilderment over the pattern of decisions that went Arsenal’s way.“Arsenal have only themselves to blame for the asterisk tainting of their title, for inflicting an ugly face on much of the Premier League,” wrote veteran sportswriter Jeff Powell in the Mail. “Arsenal have been the beneficiary of all the inconsistencies to a standard deviation away from the norm that is so extreme, you can’t just put it down to ineptitude and incompetence,” YouTube influencer and creator of The Spurs Hub, Sean Butler, declared on a recent podcast.Arsenal, whose supporters over the years have reportedly included Osama Bin Laden, Fidel Castro, and British super spy Kim Philby, are hardly strangers to being unloved, but the disdain for them has — to paraphrase the title of the bestselling 1992 memoir about supporting Arsenal written by Nick Hornby — now reached fever pitch.Time will tell whether Arsenal’s siege mentality can spur them to further glory. The club threw a huge bus parade in London last Sunday to celebrate their league title which drew further scorn with rival Premier League clubs making fun of them on X, given they had lost the Champions League final only the day before. Ultimately, Paris Saint-Germain rained on their parade more effectively than any of their domestic rivals, and Arsenal can point out that those rivals have enjoyed less success.Yet despite Arsenal attracting high-profile backing from Downing Street, Hollywood, and City Hall, a groundswell of grassroots soccer fans is hoping it will be considerably longer than 22 years before they win their next Premier League title.

Arsenal’s ‘Anti-Soccer’ Approach Produces a Very British Backlash

Arsenal’s ‘Anti-Soccer’ Approach Produces a Very British Backlash

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