Media Balls: Arsenal riot, Sunderland’s fightback, Moyes’ blinkers and missing the penalty
Media Balls: a look at reporting on football matches. Today we look at Sunderland 1 – Arsenal 4 in the Premier League. Are news organs biased?
Sunderland Echo: “David Moyes feels scoreline harsh on Black Cats.”
Says Moyes.
“I think it was tough and I certainly don’t think we deserved to lose 4-1.”
He’s right. How they scored 1 was odd. Sunderland had a single shot on target over the 93 minutes – and that was from the penalty spot.
“We worked hard, really hard to stay in the game first half when Arsenal were very good. We stuck at it and I thought we grew into the game second half. And at that point I thought we were the better team when we got back into the game at one each. But their quality all over the pitch is always going to cause you a problem.”
Arsenal were pretty good in the second half, too, and found their finishing boots.
The paper has one more story on the match. Story two nails it in the headline. “Sunderland 1 Arsenal 4: Black Cats plunge further into relegation trouble after Gunners run riot.”
The paper looks at an Arsenal penalty appeal: “Sanchez had a strong penalty appeal turned down, with Kone appearing to trip the Arsenal forward inside the area. His theatrics earlier possibly going against him.”
The BBC says of that: “Arsenal were still smarting from referee Martin Atkinson not awarding them a penalty for Kone appearing to pull back Sanchez when Defoe gave Sunderland hope.”
The Guardian: “Arsenal were furious not to be awarded a legitimate looking penalty when Koné caught Sánchez on the back of the leg and sent him tumbling in the area.”
A pull? A trip? A catch? Theatrics.
The Islington Gazette doesn’t mention the failed penalty appeal at all – it looked a foul. The Arsenal local paper is generous to praise Sunderland fans:
Sunderland’s passionate fans were right behind the team from the off. And the fact they average more than 40,000, and, incredibly, took 1,200 fans to Southampton this week for a League Cup game, was reason enough to believe their team weren’t going to lie down and die.
There were many less in the ground when the final whistle blew. The Guardian:
Mid-way through the second half the ground began emptying. For many the pain of watching Sunderland register a record equalling worst start to a Premier League season was simply too painful too witness but they missed out on some exquisite football from Arsenal.
The Sun appears to have been watching a different match:
With Arsenal dominating and Sunderland making to make any impact, Duncan Watmore inspired a Black Cats fightback, racing clear on goal, only to be brought down by Petr Cech.
A fightback? Sunderland scored on minute 65. Their fightback was followed by goals for Arsenal on minutes 78′ minutes, Giroud 76 and 71 minutes.
Such are the facts.
Posted: 29th, October 2016 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
