Search icon

Football

21st Jun 2017

Arsenal fans appear to have solved the mystery of initially worrying omissions from new kit picture

Panic over(?)

Simon Lloyd

Don’t worry folks. In just a matter of months, all this transfer speculation will be put to bed for a while. We promise.

But for now, let’s just embrace it, shall we?

The latest example of football fans (perhaps) reading far too much into things comes courtesy of Arsenal’s new kit launch.

As we’re all aware, Arsenal ended the season without securing a Champions League berth for next season. Not only that, they’d also failed to agree new contracts for Mesut Özil and Alexis Sanchez.

With that in mind, it will probably have come as something of a relief to some of the club’s supporters to see the pair featured in the image below, tweeted by Arsenal as part of their kit launch.

But wait. What’s this?

Yes, that’s right. Pretty much the same image has been shared by kit supplier Puma’s official Twitter account with a few significant differences. Özil and Sanchez are nowhere to be seen in the Puma version (neither are Per Mertesacker and Petr Cech but never mind).

Naturally, this point was soon picked up on by concerned Gooners.

Fortunately though, just before they started storming the Emirates to demand answers, some Arsenal supporters pointed out a perfectly sensible explanation for the difference in pictures.

Conveniently overlooking the fact that Petr Cech – who also has a deal with Puma – is missed from the same picture, it seems that the omission of Sanchez and Ozil is down to the fact they have boot deals with different companies.

Ah, panic over. They’re definitely staying then, right? Right?