Everyone hates ‘obnoxious’ Arsenal – here’s why neutrals should celebrate them

This explains it!

A new league winner is often celebrated in most European countries for breaking the "norm" or "expectation".

For example, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 have cheekily been tagged as "farmers leagues" - down to the domination of Bayern Munich and PSG in contemporary football. In both leagues a new winner is rejoiced - Bayer Leverkusen in 2023 and Lille in 2021 for reference.

The Premier League isn't a stranger to the drain of one-club dominance; Manchester City have enjoyed domestic supremancy winning six out of the last eight league titles.

Even going back to Ferguson's dynasty at Manchester United, racking up 13 league titles between 1993 or 2013. Or Liverpool notching 11 league titles between 1973 and 1990.

The common denominator in the hatred of these teams was familiarity. In this case it is much more complex.

Reasons to hate Arsenal

Successful teams always generate a level of hate. However, in Arsenal's rare case the success hasn't even come yet.

Under Mikel Arteta, Arsenal have finished 2nd three years in a row and have been labelled "bottlers". It would be surface level to assume fans only want Arsenal to fail again to poke fun at the "bottling" gimmick.

Yet the one season it looks like Arteta's men will get over the line - the praise is nowhere near as loud as the criticism.

1. Set Pieces & Playing Style

The biggest criticism of this Arsenal side is their reliance on set-piece dark arts and their physical play style. "Set piece again ole ole".

There's a pragmatic approach to how Arsenal have played this season that could potentially bring the title back to North London, but will definitely not win the hearts of neutrals.

Jamie Carragher said on Sky Sports: “This is a football club, whether you like it or not, who push the boundaries in every area to try to gain an advantage."

In City's prime they were known for their cut-back passes to Raheem Sterling, Liverpool for their front three of Mane, Salah and Firmino. This Arsenal team will be remembered for fixing their historically soft underbelly and Gabriel back-post headers.

The Gunners boast the highest amount of set-piece goals this season with 21 - three more than Tottenham and Manchester United's 18. A more damning statistic is that Arsenal take the 2nd longest amount of time in the Premier League to take corners at 45.4 seconds.

Nevertheless, managers, players and fans have commented on Arsenal's set pieces more than any other team.

Brighton manager Fabien Hurzeler said in March: "If I would ask everyone in the room: ‘Did you really enjoy this football game?’ I’m sure maybe one raises his arm because he’s a big Arsenal fan but, besides that, no chance'.”

West Ham's disallowed goal against them last Sunday spurred further controversy and is just another example of Arsenal's set-piece antics annoying football fans across the world. (You can see the incident below).

Arsenal's set-piece dominance has arguably reached a level of over-saturation, with every pundit and supporter wanting to dig into dead-ball coach, Nicolas Jover. However, a mural of the coach outside the Emirates doesn't help the Gunners' argument.

2. The small matter of the fans

Arsenal fans talk with an arrogance - a sense of inevitability - a belief that they're not admirable underdogs but a club who is rightfully taking it's place back at the top of world football.

Gooners say "this is our year" not "hopefully this is our year", football fans see this and think - immediately - delusion. With social media also now becoming a huge part of what it means to be a supporter of a club - Arsenal undoubtably have the loudest. This is the club at the end of the day that made fan TV accounts explode.

This X user's post shows the level of arrogance that the football gods do tend to punish.

3. Players and Manager

Mikel Arteta and his players have been scrutinised in the past for their obscure techniques to gaining the smallest advantages over their opponents. Watch this bizarre team talk below.

Reasons to celebrate Arsenal

Yes - you may be surprised - there are strong reasons to celebrate Arsenal's rise back to the top.

1. Relatable Squad

Firstly, with a young and relatively humble squad - this Arsenal side offer something refreshing to the Premier League.

Overcoming adversity is the blueprint to Arteta's young side - Bukayo Saka has overcome countless incidents of racial abuse. Most notably the outrage over his missed penalty kick during Euro 2020.

William Saliba lost both of his parents during the early stages of his football career and is now the best defender in the world. Arsenal's chief creator Martin Odegaard has also proved himself after being classed a "failed wonderkid" at Real Madrid.

Even the manager, Mikel Arteta has had to prove himself as the man to dethrone his tutor - Pep Guardiola. Everybody loves a David versus Goliath story or an apprentice overtaking his master.

These story beats should be celebrated but for reasons listed above they are not.

2. Trailblazers of modern day football

Outside of the players and managers, Arsenal has always been known as a club of "class". Whether that be due to the old marble halls of Highbury or the football played during the Wenger era. The club's motto is "Victory Through Harmony" for a reason.

And the Gunners have always been one step ahead of their peers throughout football history - often giving the underdog a chance before anyone else would.

During the 70's and 80's Arsenal had a strong Irish core of Liam Brady, Pat Rice and David O'Leary. Many forget that during this time the Irish in England were heavily discriminated against due to the troubles back at home.

This isn't the only example of Arsenal including the underdog. Under Wenger, Arsenal fielded the first all-foreign squad against Crystal Palace in 2005. The Islington club also became the first top-flight side in England to include nine black players in the starting XI.

3. Consistency at the top

For a long stretch at the end of the Wenger era and into the Unai Emery disaster, Arsenal hadn't qualified for Champions League football or even put up anything close to a respectable title challenge.

Under Arteta and his young fearless squad - they have changed this narrative. When Arteta first arrived, Arsenal finished 8th in back to back seasons.

At that point Arsenal were miles behind Manchester City and Liverpool. Now the Gunners are always there when conversations surround who will win the Premier League and Arsenal and Arteta deserve respect for this.

4. Football is changing and so should we

Football is always evolving, managers constantly are trying to find new systems, styles and motivation techniques to gain the smallest advantages.

However, football fans are nostalgic at heart and will always prefer the style of play they grew up with or have the fondest memories of.

PSG's 5-4 triumph over Bayern Munich, although a thoroughly entertaining match, it is not realistic to play at that speed and penetration in the Premier League where teams set up in mid-blocks or even low-blocks to plug gaps in behind.

Arsenal haven't changed football, they've merely adopted the winning formula at the moment - physicality.

Manchester City and Liverpool - Arsenal's main rivals have followed the same path. City now put the ball into the box more often, play physical players like Nico O'Reilly and Tijjani Reijnders as box crashers and have a shot-stopping first goalkeeper in Donnarumma.

Under Klopp, Liverpool were relentless in their press and while it was synonymous with scouser success, it had it's limitations. Slot's style last season was measured and prioritised control, calmness and defensive stability.

It's unfair to criticise the Gunners for leaning into what is simply the trajectory of football. For so long Arsenal were classed as "soft", "weak" and "naive" under Wenger.

Pundits and football fans cried for them to change their style and now that they have they've ruined football?

Discussion

Hate comes with success and success makes fans louder. After 22 years of embarrassment and hurt it arguably makes sense that Arsenal fans have been "obnoxious" about the potential success they could have at the end of this season.

And can we really disagree with Arteta's new-found philosophy after the Spaniard has tried to go toe-for-toe with Guardiola's attacking football in the past.

Evolving into a tougher team to beat echoes George Graham teams of old, built on defence first football. "1-0 to The Arsenal".

However, certain sectors of their fanbase have undoubtably heightened the criticism over the fundamental successes for Arsenal this season. Along with Arteta's interesting personality at times.

Arsenal won't care in the end if the wider public haven't "enjoyed" their performances this season as long as they win the big prizes. However, they will feel hard-done-by to not at least earn respect for their transformation back to the top.