CHELSEA VS MAN CITY
Sunday 11th November, 4:30pm
Chelsea @ 15/4
Draw @ 14/5
Man City @ 8/11
view odds
We all like a good moan every now and again. And football managers are no different. But they are, I believe, on the whole, much better at it than the rest of us. They are more experienced; have had more elite, specialist training. Their moans are dispatched with laser-guided precision; they are like Sir John Gielgud delivering a great Shakespearean soliloquy, and their audience is similarly mesmerised.
They have a much bigger platform than us too. Their reach is greater. They get to promulgate their unvarnished rants directly into the homes of millions. It is intimate theatre – just one man and a microphone in a very small space – but the impact is on an enormous scale.
With some managers, though, it is clear that the moan is part of an act. José Mourinho, for example – who is still regarded as one of the top moaners in world football – might vent in his post-match chats on one subject of, let’s say, for old time’s sake, Arsène Wenger. But what he is really angry about is the fact one of his more inexperienced players has made a silly mistake that has just cost his side the game.
Mourinho doesn’t want his player excessively blamed, so he creates a distraction; attempts to make the headlines about something else. Sometimes the rant will be done to deflect attention from his own errors. And a lot of the time he just wants his board to buy him better footballers. It’s all part of a performance. And just like watching Gielgud play Richard II, deep down we know it’s just a performance. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t suitably entertained.
When Mikel Arteta goes on a rant, however, like he did last weekend, I never get this feeling. There’s nothing performative about his vitriol – he really does come across like someone who has become completely unhinged.
He has shown glimpses of this before – especially last season, when the pressure from Manchester City was escalating – but I definitely think that at some stage this season Arteta is going to go well and truly postal, and emphatically embrace his dark side.
Seeking to capitalise upon his recent media presence, I pitched an idea to John Lewis on Monday for their much-loved annual Christmas TV advert. It was set to feature Arteta as a Lego Man who hates technology, but slowly finds himself falling in love with a VAR computer. I thought it was a timely celebration of love across the divide, as well as providing an opportunity for some significant product placement. But it seems I was too late – they’d already cobbled something together about a Venus flytrap. Their loss.
An early Christmas gift for Arteta has arrived in the form of this weekend’s Premier League fixture – a home tie against a floundering Burnley side ought to give him very little to moan about.
In fairness, the Arsenal head coach is far from the only manager who has been loudly voicing his dislike of the current VAR system of late. But it is not going to be binned, or even slightly tweaked, mid-season. So we’re just going to have to get used to the sound of the swelling moaning chorus.
The biggest fixture of Gameweek 12 – rounding off the weekend as we head into another international break – is Chelsea v Manchester City at 4:30pm on Sunday.
Mauricio Pochettino quietly snuck away from North East London with all three points on Monday night as Tottenham Hotspur spectacularly imploded. A match-up against the rock-solid defending champions will provide a much more accurate reading of how far his young side has coalesced.
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