Thomas Frank [Alexander-Canillas-SPP]

WILL anybody think of the Arsenal rage channels? If this marvellous season for the Gunners continues as it has started, the shout-for-clicks profiteers – sorry, “creators,” to use their preferred professional terms – will be looking for other work by the end of the month.

Without naming names, you will be well aware of the sorts who cashed in on the calamitous days of Sokratis and Mustafi, the midnight hours of Arsène Wenger’s reign, and the stuttering starts of Unai Emery and Mikel Arteta. After each failure or near miss, they appeared like goblins with big red microphones outside the Emirates Stadium, screaming that everybody should be sacked.

Now, if you reach the ground half an hour before kick-off, you will see a million iPhones attached to tripods and chancers trying to make a viral buck by jumping strangers for hoarse reactions. And nothing works better on YouTube’s football algorithms than anger, even if it is performatively over the top.

Manchester United “fans” working the same numbers game have also enjoyed spikes in views – and therefore revenue – as they post thumbnails of their heads in their hands and upload films of them melting out loud every time something bad happens to their club, which, over the past few years, has been often.

We have also seen the rise of shouty Spurs “creators.” In their case, perhaps, they deserve to be compensated for all those home tickets they’ve bought in 2025. Certainly, none of them seem to mind making complete rascals of themselves as they scream blue murder about the same players who gave them “that night in Bilbao”.

Sadly, the manufactured rage online seems to translate into actual spew in real life. Thomas Frank even had to say that “not true Spurs fans” were behind the booing of their own keeper on Saturday night every time he touched the ball. You do wonder how they are filling the best stadium in the universe if that’s what they’ve come to do.

But back to Arsenal and the 1–1 draw against a 10-man Chelsea on Sunday – a strange game in which Chelsea players celebrated their goal by doing a Muscle Beach flex of their biceps in front of the home crowd. It was odd that these same tough guys collapsed to the floor at the slightest touch for the rest of the game, inviting the ref to level up the red cards.

The draw, however, gave Arsenal’s own vid haters a glimmer of hope. The team was top of the league after beating Spurs and Bayern, but, godfathers!, they had drawn a match. At last it was time to lambast the players and manager for not winning every single game.

Don’t click, enjoy this moment – make the next video you watch be of somebody happy that Arsenal are top.