"Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble," Orwell wrote.
One cannot say the same about the Frenchman Arsene Wenger's use of the English language. The fact that he's from Alsace -- a region that has, over the centuries, moved borders between France and Germany -- must surely help.
Wenger, Arsenal's manager, has conjured up new words, phrases, sayings -- Arsenisms -- that didn't exist until he set foot in England. This was in a game afflicted with clichés and dull expressions.
Football has everything that Orwell railed against. Talk about dying and worn out metaphors, the game boasts plenty.
Some common football stock phrases such as "ring the changes" and "swan song" were even used as examples by Orwell in his famous essay.
How many times have we heard of a "coach ringing the changes"? Or, before a match between a big club and a smaller one, a player saying, "there are no easy games"? Or the game being a "game of two halves".
A lot of that has to do with the subjects. Footballers or managers, for that matter, normally have nothing interesting to say. The result is anodyne stories told in monotonous ways.
Not so for Wenger. After an uncharacteristically dull 1-1 draw with Middlesborough in November 1998, which Arsenal fans booed, Wenger quipped: "If you eat caviar every day, it's difficult to return to sausages."
Then there's the memorable rejoinder, "everyone thinks they have the prettiest wife at home", after Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said his was the best team despite Arsenal winning the premier league title in 2002. It's not just one-liner wisecracks, there are the fresh metaphors.
One cannot say the same about the Frenchman Arsene Wenger's use of the English language. The fact that he's from Alsace -- a region that has, over the centuries, moved borders between France and Germany -- must surely help.
Wenger, Arsenal's manager, has conjured up new words, phrases, sayings -- Arsenisms -- that didn't exist until he set foot in England. This was in a game afflicted with clichés and dull expressions.
Football has everything that Orwell railed against. Talk about dying and worn out metaphors, the game boasts plenty.
Some common football stock phrases such as "ring the changes" and "swan song" were even used as examples by Orwell in his famous essay.
How many times have we heard of a "coach ringing the changes"? Or, before a match between a big club and a smaller one, a player saying, "there are no easy games"? Or the game being a "game of two halves".
A lot of that has to do with the subjects. Footballers or managers, for that matter, normally have nothing interesting to say. The result is anodyne stories told in monotonous ways.
Not so for Wenger. After an uncharacteristically dull 1-1 draw with Middlesborough in November 1998, which Arsenal fans booed, Wenger quipped: "If you eat caviar every day, it's difficult to return to sausages."
Then there's the memorable rejoinder, "everyone thinks they have the prettiest wife at home", after Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said his was the best team despite Arsenal winning the premier league title in 2002. It's not just one-liner wisecracks, there are the fresh metaphors.
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