Annoying Things Commentators Say - An Arsenal fan's perspective

Arsene Wenger is lucky he doesn’t get to hear all this

During this weekend’s game with Sunderland the commentator waffled on about how disappointed he was in Sunderland for having a defensive game plan and that they really would have troubled us if they had put us under pressure and been physical. I could see his point, but he kept harping on about it the whole game. It got me thinking, what have I heard during football games that gets on my nerves.

“That wouldn’t even have been a foul 30 years ago” after a yellow-card tackle.

The game has totally changed from 30 years ago. Clubs pay millions of pounds for players and they need to be protected. I like that football is a physical game and I think that the current enforcement of fouls is at a good standard in the Premier League.

“He’s a good shot-stopper, but he’s immature… He needs to work on his kicking… He doesn’t lack confidence, he’s actually too confident” when talking about Szczesny.

They continue to bring up flaws that were relevant last season. I do believe that his kicking is still not perfect, but he has matured a lot and doesn’t make silly errors on a regular basis anymore. He’s not over-confident, and he’s actually transforming into a player that could be our number 1 for many years.

“He’s gone down very easily there” when speaking about Arsenal players.

“That was clever by (insert opposition player’s name here)” when other players go down easily.

Maybe all fans feel commentators are unfair to their team but it feels like all of our players are cheats, and divers like Bale and Rooney are never called out.

“They really miss Patrick Viera; and they have never really replaced him, have they?” Normally when we’re playing against very physical teams or against Manu and they mention Viera and Keane’s relationship.

Patrick Viera is a once in a generation player. Yaya Toure is the current player in this generation and although we tried to sign him many times, he’s not at Arsenal.

“I don’t like this zonal defensive system. Nobody can be held accountable if the opposition scores, because they’re not marking man for man” before the first corner of almost every game.We’ve conceded far fewer goals from set-pieces this season compared two seasons ago. Last season was transitional, but now the system seems to be working well.

“They’re passing nicely side to side, but they need somebody to play that final ball or somebody to be direct and go at the defenders” if 60 minutes have passed and we haven’t scored yet.It’s quite difficult to score against a team with 9 defenders and a goalkeeper. I do get a bit frustrated sometimes too, but that’s the way they have been told to play because it’s what Wenger thinks is most effective (and I agree).

These are a few of the things that ‘pundits’ say that boils my blood. I’m sure everybody has their own things that commentators say that ruffle their feathers, let me know what annoys you. (The easiest is to click comment as name/URL and just fill in your name.)

Regards