The Amazon Prime documentary goes behind the scenes at the Emirates Stadium

SCHOLARS will argue who said it, or at least who said it first, but George Orwell is usually namechecked for the line: “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed, everything else is public relations.”

It’s a sentiment worth keeping in reserve for All Or Nothing: Arsenal, the apparent warts-and-all documentary released last week on the Amazon Prime streaming service.

The premise is familiar from previous iterations following other clubs: fly-on-the wall footage charting an entire season, in this case the Gunners’ rebirth term under Mikel Arteta which, as we know, came to a crash landing when the team botched its golden opportunity to return to the Champions League.

The mission faltered when they lost a series of matches in the run-in including a sands-shifting defeat to the old enemy, Spurs, in the final weeks of the season.

It’s for this reason that it is not just Arsenal fans who had been waiting for the first episodes to be released – or “dropped”, as punkier-haired people than me say these days.  Schadenfreude is an enduring component of the sport.

With swirling drone shots of the Emirates Stadium and dressing room footage of people stamping feet after one disappointing result after another, it is a grand cinematic experience which perhaps belies the fact that all Arsenal are chasing through the whole escapade is a fourth-place finish rather than a tourna­ment win.

Wrapped up with narration by Daniel Kaluuya, the Oscar-winning actor who grew up in Camden, the production quality is able to counter the fact we all know the limp ending already, with urgent teaser footage and a rush of cliffhangers.

But in all the excitement, it’s hard to remember after watching the first three episodes at least what we’ve really learned about Arteta and whether or not the 40-year-old – much-respected, but inexperienced – has the skills to bring Arsenal back to the top.

He is candid when telling the players about the childhood heart operation which might have curtailed his football ambitions. But at some stages, it feels like things happen almost because the cameras are there.

Was Arteta playing tricks on the creators when he gave them great content by deciding that the team should train to the sound of You’ll Never Walk Alone drifting out of speakers before heading to Liverpool? Hopefully. Otherwise, it makes you wonder what other cartoon Ted Lasso or Mike Bassett ideas he might have up his sleeve.

Arsenal went on to lose at Liverpool, by the way. 4-0 – in a stadium which Arteta seemed so fearful of that he maybe needs some form of help with past trauma.

There are plenty of good looking motivational speeches in there and demands to play in a way that actually then seemed absent in many of the matches we all saw: orders to go out and kill the opposition quickly.

Protests outside the Emirates last summer

And the documen­tary gives Arteta, his transfer man the former Arsenal player Edu Gaspar, and Josh Kroenke, whose father Stan essentially owns the club now, a platform to try and reassure everyone there is a grand plan, regardless of some of the deflating moments last season. They are allowed to appear supremely confident that everything will work out fine in the end, as long as the supporters are willing to show a little patience.

The shorthand for this is usually: “Trust the process.”

And in having footage out there of Kroenke actually on the training field and delivering alpha male handshakes to the players and bro hugs to everyone he encounters is designed for us to do just that. They don’t seem worried – so why should we be?

Note the bit where Kroenke tells Bukayo Saka, the young winger who endured disgraceful racist abuse when he missed a penalty for England last summer, that he “meant what he said in my text” – a chance for owners who have been accused of being too distant of showing how much they care.

It could be argued that there is a lack of patience in football where winning seems more important than ever and social media has ramped up the endless – and sometimes ugly – one-upmanship between rival fans. There are certainly unrealistic expectations in some quarters of the Arsenal support, who always seem to forget that in the long order of these things the club has not retained the league title since the 1930s.

And in that context, maybe Kroenke and co would argue they deserve some space like this to explain why they think they are not the bad guys here; past “Kroenke Out” protests are glossed over smoothly at the start of the film.

As sort of ensemble cast members, the fans go from hating the world when the team loses the first three games to being elated at the signs of progress, with little in between. If they seem entitled, it’s always worth remembering that they pay out a vast amount of money to buy match tickets each week; it’s almost as expensive as taking the whole family to an amusement park.

Speaking of which, rides, rollercoasters and labyrinths crop up in some of the bits we are left with from All Or Nothing beyond the “trust the process” explainers. As with a previous series charting Spurs, the canteen chats are perhaps the most amusing scenes.

We see striker Alexandre Lacazette explaining his love for IKEA and imagine him walking around the North Circular superstore dropping self-assembly kits into his trolley and grabbing some meatballs on the way out. Saka, meanwhile, struggles to explain what a “maze” means to some of the foreign signings as he encourages them to try a day out in Thorpe Park.

Fun, everyday common room exchanges between players on a pedestal for earning so much. Very wistful, nothing too challenging though.

Arsenal were reportedly paid around £10million to let the cameras in, but the documentary series is worth much more in marketing. Being on Amazon’s homepage across the world is big news in itself.

With that risk and reward, it’s ok to wonder what’s really being sold to us though, and who benefits most from the behind-the-lines camera crews.

After all, Arsenal are actively encouraging fans to watch it all with messages on its website. And if there was anything they really did not want us to see in there, then the manager and the players would probably have not been lined up for a “premiere” outside Islington Town Hall last week.

The curtain has been raised, but did we see everything? Such is the loyalty – or slavishness – in the support, we’ll keep watching either way.

Episodes 4-6 of All Or Nothing: Arsenal are released today (Thursday) on Amazon Prime streaming service. Episodes 1-3 are already available.