Punditry on Match of the Day is often criticised for being lazy and lacking insight.
Alan Shearer comes under more fire than most pundits for his comments on Match of the Day by the opinionated folk of Twitter.
This time he decided to respond to fire back. Shearer praised Manchester United’s performance in their away victory over Arsenal yesterday, claiming that the Gunners couldn’t live with United. Arsenal Fan TV star ‘Mr DT’ called him up on this, giving Shearer an opticians recommendation.
Absolute state of @alanshearer on @BBCMOTD
'Manchester United were different class today and Arsenal couldn't live with them…'
Get to @Specsavers mate, old age has creeped up on you!
— MR DT (@MrDtAFC) December 3, 2017
Shearer’s response was brutal, pointing out that DT himself had criticised Arsenal’s “shambolic defending” and shoddy defensive record.
Absolute state of you @MrDtAFC:
"Shambolic defending. Can't say anything else."
"We have conceded 19 goals. Swansea who are BOTTOM have conceded 18 goals."@ManUtd scored 3, hit the post, missed a one-on-one. You had a lot of possession though. 👏🏻👏🏻 Who needs @specsavers? https://t.co/YNI3saRwBt
— Alan Shearer (@alanshearer) December 3, 2017
Arsenal did have 76% possession in the game, but it doesn’t always tell the whole story. Shearer has made this case before. When Chelsea beat Tottenham 4-2 in last season’s FA Cup semi-final having only had 37% possession, fellow BBC pundit Jermaine Jenas insisted Spurs were unlucky to lose that game given how much they dominated the ball. Shearer fairly pointed out that despite that, Chelsea managed to score 4 goals against the best defensive unit in the league and therefore you can’t say they didn’t deserve to win.
Stats can be deceiving, despite all of Arsenal’s possession, they had very few clear cut chances because United were so well organised in defence.
