By Michael Potts

Published: Wednesday, 03 August 2022 at 12:00 am


The irony of the All or Nothing brand is that it rarely shows ‘all’ or ‘nothing’. Instead, it tends to serve up a relatively placid dose of ‘something’.

All or Nothing: Arsenal doesn’t let you see what the club doesn’t want you to see, but this fresh edition is the best offering of the AoN franchise to date.

Fly-on-the-wall football documentaries have a limit. There’s only so much you can do in one season following a Premier League club, and of course, the filmmakers are tasked with telling the story of the campaign, not creating it.

AoN: Arsenal is instantly helped by the campaign storyline that it follows through the 2021/22 season. The story of a major club in the doldrums, rising from 20th to the Champions League places with a hammer blow finish is an ideal foundation to build on.

The series begins with an episode full of beat-ups for the fans. For supporters, it’s the streaming equivalent of going into a 50:50 with Granit Xhaka. You want to go for it, but you’re not going to enjoy it.

Fans are painted as the caricatures we’ve all grown accustomed to via the infamous AFTV – though none of its crew makes the cut. Everyone here is an Invincibles-demanding deserter, blasting the team for a lack of passion and commitment… from outside the Etihad Stadium after going 2-0 down to Manchester City, 15 minutes after kick-off.