Arsenal issued four-word warning by Manchester City star – but there’s a slight catch | OneFootball

There is a slight catch with Antoine Semenyo’s four-word warning to Arsenal ahead of their game against Manchester City on Sunday.

Semenyo has also made a remarkable revelation about Pep Guardiola that has to be seen to be believed.

But first, something really quite awful.

A reminder that we probably shouldn’t clickbait death

As one of the worst offenders during the deplorable coverage of Diogo Jota’s heartbreaking passing in the summer, it is perhaps not at all surprising that the Daily Express website leads with this story on Friday morning:

It is not quite as bad as ‘First image of Diogo Jota crash emerges that left bodies unidentifiable’, but it absolutely remains a despicable, reprehensible clickbaiting tactic for a supposedly reputable outlet to lean on in such circumstances.

The story does at least come with a ‘WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT’ tag. They’re not wrong. It is indeed deeply unsettling that their blanket response to footballers dying in car crashes is ‘Roll up, roll up, to see grainy pictures of where a man was killed earlier’.

Toine deaf

Moving swiftly on, there is little doubt as to the biggest game of the weekend and possibly entire season, thus what should dominate the news agenda on Friday.

But the Daily Mirror website overlooks Fulham v Brentford to focus on some random kickabout at the Etihad.

And this really is quite the headline:

But Mediawatch is here yet again to fight the losing battle of insisting that quote marks really ought to denote actual quotes. Perhaps especially so when those quote marks are literally the first thing the entire story is sold on.

Because Antoine Semenyo, you see, never once utters those four words. Not in the copy the Mirror uses. Not at any point in his appearance on In The Mixer. No-one does; not even Joleon sodding Lescott.

The Manchester City forward points out that “it’s a good time to play them”, declares that the team is excited for the game and “we’re still chasing them”. But at no stage does he channel Booker T and scream – or even just say – “WE’RE COMING FOR YOU”.

Sorry, because it’s a boring and very possibly woke hill to die on. But it does feel like an important tenet of journalism that quoting someone involves actually quoting something they’ve said.

Pep talk

‘Antoine Semenyo takes us inside Pep Guardiola’s office – and it’s nothing like you think’ – Daily Star website.

“Went into his office, he’s got soft music playing in the background, smells so nice in his office,” is very possibly precisely what we’d assume Guardiola’s office to be like.

Were the Star expecting some unspeakable Wolf of Wall Street-style set-up? Or a box of vibe lemons sent to him by Mauricio Pochettino? Or a framed picture of Brendan Rodgers, gifted by Brendan Rodgers?

Turn it up to the Max

Mikel Arteta’s team selection for Sunday’s game will be intriguing; precisely how many centre-halves can he fit in his starting line-up?

But Isaan Khan of the Daily Mail quite rightly points out that they might have to pick some forwards:

Not sure that Ngumoha impressing in a 23-minute cameo in a Champions League tie Liverpool were destined to lose really makes starting Dowman against Manchester City in the Premier League ‘a clear answer’ for Arsenal.

Emery stick

But there were actual games that took place on Thursday night. James Sharpe of the Daily Mail was at one as Aston Villa thrashed Bologna to reach the Europa League semi-finals under Unai Emery.

‘The Spaniard devours nights like this,’ he writes. ‘That’s nine straight wins in Europe for Villa and Emery’s tasted defeat just once in his last 27 games in this competition.

A timely reminder for all those people who were writing off the chances of the current odds-on favourites, who will face a team they are 12 places higher than to reach a final against either the eighth-best team in Germany or fourth-best club in Portugal.

Florence and the machine

Crystal Palace reached a European semi-final of their own, knocking Fiorentina out of the Conference League to make the last four.

But the MailOnline has revived some unimprovable tabloid pearl-clutching to manufacture a sense of controversy:

‘Just days’! How will Dean Henderson and the lads recover from a well-earned night out on Thursday to face West Ham at home on Monday evening?

Oh Ek

‘Hugo Ekitike’s personal feelings over injury nightmare as lengthy Liverpool absence awaits,’ is an intriguing Daily Express website headline.

He is presumably thrilled at suffering an injury which rules him out of the upcoming World Cup and is likely to sideline him until next year.