Opinion
I want to talk about Chelsea and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
I find the media coverage of this club and player, quite extraordinary.
Let me explain.
Also the odd other one I want to talk about (which the media don’t!).
I will start with the Liverpool superstar.
**Trent Alexander-Arnold**
The media repeatedly tell us what a wonderful footballer the Liverpool and England star is.
He is indeed a very talented player, can pick a pass and so on, as well as any other player you can name.
What the media completely ignore, is that Trent Alexander-Arnold is a truly woeful defender. He gets away with it the overwhelming amount of time at Liverpool, due to two things. Liverpool are usually the dominant side in matches, so TAA basically plays as an attacking player, not a defender. Then on the occasions he is found out when ‘defending’ he is very fortunate to have top class defenders and goalkeeper(s) to cover for him, as well as others in midfield who track back for him.
When wingers waltz past Trent Alexander-Arnold, I always laugh at the commentators as almost every time there is just silence, as though it hasn’t happened. Yet when TAA does something good in an attacking sense, we never hear the last of it.
Trent Alexander-Arnold has been torn apart by Anthony Gordon previously and I think it was a big part of Eddie Howe’s thinking on Wednesday night, returning Gordon to the left hand side. Only for Arne Slot, maybe recognising how much of a weakness TAA is, when up against a quick/talented winger, in a game they might not dominate, choosing to ‘rest’ the right-back.
I was at Wednesday’s match but have since watched the full game back, plus have seen other highlights on MOTD etc, as well as what I have read.
The same thing over and over again.
All of them raving about what a positive Trent Alexander-Arnold was when coming on at St James’ Park, helping to get them back into the game.
Yet, not a single word from any of them on TAA, when he cost his team two points.
Of course the Liverpool keeper should have done better with Bruno’s late free-kick. However, that should have proved by the by. Who was marking Fabian Schar? The answer of course is NOBODY!
However, it was Trent Alexander-Arnold who was supposed to be doing so, yet he was absolutely feeble as Schar shrugged him off and TAA just stood there and watched as Schar slid in unopposed past the far post, to brilliantly guide in that much-deserved equaliser. It was schoolboy defending, absolutely woeful. Just watch the replays, yet I have heard absolutely nobody in the media pointing this out. Funny that.
**Chelsea miracle**
This is another media approach that I find beyond belief.
It is apparently a miracle how Chelsea find themselves second top of the Premier League, how on earth have they managed this, quite incredible.
Whenever Newcastle United are on a good run, you know for a fact that the media will be desperate to attach negatives to it. The Saudi thing, the amount of money spent on the squad, the advantage this gives over other teams. All nonsense of course, as the reality is that due to PSR in particular, NUFC’s spending is not out of line with most of the rest and indeed far far less than some of the usual suspects, even since the takeover.
Such as for example… Chelsea.
If this was say Newcastle United in Chelsea’s circumstances and we’d had their spending, every mention of NUFC in second place now, would also include reference to the ‘minor’ detail that over £1.5billion has been spent on new signings the past two and a half years.
Yet, any mentions of the outrageous spending the Premier League ‘rules’ have allowed them to do, barely gets a mention in these reports of how suddenly this Chelsea ‘miracle’ is unfolding.
In reality, it should be almost impossible for Chelsea not to be in the top few spots in the Premier League, with that spending on signings of over £1.5billion by these current owners, on top of the many high quality players they inherited, as well as an endless production line of young players, homegrown and bought worldwide at such young ages.
The reality is that the current owners have bought an entire Chelsea second team that cost over half a billion, never mind what they have spent on their first eleven and squad overall. The Chelsea second eleven cost more than the first eleven of all Premier League clubs apart from the other five members of the entitled ‘big six’ who run the show.
I think as well that when you scrape the surface, Chelsea are second in the table by default rather than doing anything great. They have only won eight of fourteen league matches but because the likes of Man City and Arsenal have made their worst starts for years, Chelsea find themselves in second, ahead of Arsenal on goal difference and two points ahead of Man City. I think there is a lot of the flat track bully at play as well, Chelsea having lost to Man City and Liverpool, only drawing against Man U, a draw at home to Arsenal. Yet they put six past Wolves, five past Southampton and so on.
You also can’t see past the fact that they have this huge advantage when it comes to rotating players, if having busy periods of matches. It is outrageous how the ‘rules’ allow them to have this massive financial advantage over the rest, allowing them to seemingly spend at will, whilst using numerous accountancy stunts to enable them to do this.
Remember how relentless the media used to be about Jack Walker buying the Premier League with Blackburn.
Yet next to nothing said on Abramovich when he was buying them countless trophies spending ridiculous amounts, now these lot doing the same, or trying to, with hundreds and hundreds of millions more.
**Dan Burn and Mo Salah**
Imagine, if on Wednesday night, Dan Burn had cynically and cowardly, shouldered an unsuspecting Mo Salah in the jaw, leaving him sprawled on the floor in an off the ball incident.
Imagine then the referee seeing nothing wrong, VAR seeing nothing wrong, the media hardly giving it a mention…
It 100 percent wouldn’t have happened.
Yet that is exactly what happened with [Virgil van Dijk](https://www.themag.co.uk/2024/12/virgil-van-dijk-should-have-been-given-a-straight-red-newcastle-3-liverpool-3-newcastle-united/) and Anthony Gordon.
Absolutely outrageous.