At a Glance:
- Arsenal were lucky to escape West Ham’s ground with a win
- VAR will always be unfair; deal with it
- Arsenal’s long title wait might be why rival fans are so passionately against them
An unnatural bias against any given team is almost an impossible thing to prove, but it does seem as if there has been a significant amount of negative attention on Arsenal this season.
From NBA star Victor Wembanyama hoping the Gunners lose in the Champions League final because they do not play ‘fun’ football, to Bruno Fernandes winning the FWA Best Player of the Year award over Declan Rice, it seems as if Mikel Arteta’s men have been given the short end of the stick on multiple occasions despite on-field success.
With the team involved in a ding-dong battle with Manchester City for the 2025/26 Premier League title, every win counts. City’s 3-3 draw with Everton has looked like a huge turning point in Arsenal’s fortunes, but the Gunners were very, very close to a draw against West Ham, too, only for a last-minute equaliser to be disallowed.
The pandemonium that has ensued ever since Arsenal won that game 1-0 has surprised many, with both mainstream media and online accounts furiously debating over whether Hammers striker Callum Wilson’s goal should have stood or not.
Here is why rival fans and pundits alike are reacting unfairly to Arsenal’s impending Premier League title win, if the Gunners win all of their remaining games.
READ MORE: Where Arsenal would be in the Premier League table if VAR didn’t exist
West Ham’s denied goal is arguably a hypocritical one for Arsenal to celebrate, but VAR is unfair anyway
Comparisons can indeed be drawn between the situations involving West Ham’s Pablo and Arsenal’s David Raya, with Pablo blocking Raya’s arms, and Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Chelsea earlier in the year, where Joao Pedro was similarly fouled by Raya—but while West Ham were punished, Arsenal were not.
But there is a simple point to be made, that does not need any advanced stats or, to be honest, evidence to be stated: VAR gets things wrong. It always has, it always will, and football’s rules will never be uniform enough to create a VAR system that is perfect. That means so much is down to interpretation.
Aston Villa survived relegation to the Championship in the 2019/20 season thanks to a hawk-eye decision going against their opponents, Sheffield United, in an instance that could have been overturned by VAR easily.
And a relegation to the Championship for a non-top-six team from the Premier League is arguably more impactful than a big club winning the title, at least in terms of finances.
Tensions are so high because Arsenal have not won a title in 22 years
The last Arsenal team to have won the Premier League was one of the most iconic teams in English football. Thierry Henry. Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira, and so many others. It ultimately ended in a Premier League campaign that saw Arsenal lose none of their games, and it is the first time a team has gone invincible in the modern era.
This Arsenal team is less stylish, more gritty, and much less ‘perfect’ in the eyes of many, although how teams are perceived in retrospect is always tinted by nostalgia. Perhaps rival fans, even ones with millions of fans on X (formerly Twitter), like the post above, are so passionate because they will be witnessing a fallen giant lift a title for the first time in living memory.
