On Wednesday, the Daily Mail tried to imply that Hector Bellerin and Alexandre Lacazette got into a fight in training and despite being corrected by the Spaniard, in their Thursday edition they hint that the defender wasn’t being truthful.
The Daily Mail tweeted photographs from training of Lacazette and Bellerin squaring up to each other.
It was clear that the two were just having a laugh but that didn’t stop the Mail from using it to try and get some clicks.
“Tempers flare in Arsenal training as Alexandre Lacazette and Hector Bellerin clash”, was the tweet that accompanied their article link.
That’s fair enough.
Anyone can make a mistake and I myself have misinterpreted images previously. I once thought Alexis Sanchez was holding a crutch when it was just his phone and a stripe on his tracksuit.
But if you were thinking about giving the Daily Mail the benefit of the doubt, more fool you, because on their site they take the whole thing one step further claiming that Bellerin and Lacazette ‘had to be separated during training’.
Bellerin took to Twitter to mock the Mail for their misunderstanding.
It's called banter you click baiters. https://t.co/ew4rYXgzkx
— Héctor Bellerín (@HectorBellerin) April 25, 2018
Lacazette, meanwhile, found it all hilarious:
https://twitter.com/LacazetteAlex/status/989132006624817154
That didn’t stop the Mail using it in their print edition on Thursday, writing in their caption, “AN EMBRACE of affection or signs that division is running deeper at Arsenal than just between Arsene Wenger and the club’s fans? Alexandre Lacazette (left) and Hector Bellerin were involved in a tussle at training yesterday. The pair’s bust-up came as they challenged for a high ball before squaring up to each other and engaging in a heated debate. Bellerin later took to social media to dismiss the altercation, saying the clash as just ‘banter’.”
It’s clear the Mail want this to be an altercation and are not fully behind Bellerin’s explanation.
Either way, Arsenal can’t win.
If they fight in training it is because there are divisions at the club yet should Arsenal fail to win against Atletico on Thursday evening the first thing we will hear about is how the Arsenal players just don’t care enough.
One thing is or sure, they care more than the Mail do about being factually accurate.
The Daily Star also went with the same story and also claim the pair had to be separated:
