Tottenham – Arsenal : 2-0

By Walter Broeckx The Arsenal team at the start:  Cech, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Xhaka, Gibbs, Ozil, Alexis, Giroud On the beach: Ospina, Bellerin, Holding, Coquelin, Iwobi, Walcott, Welbeck So the Leicester combination of the defence not the Man City defence….  Holding only on the bench. The ball goes from end to end at …

Tottenham v Arsenal. Will Tottenham fans soon start to leave before they actually arrive?

by Bulldog Drummond There has been quite a bit of commentary in the media about the fact that with around 15 minutes to go before the final whistle in their cup semi-final, Tottenham fans began to leave Wembley, even though scoring twice in 15 minutes (it actually turned out to be 14 as the ref …

How you contemplate the possible end of the St Tots run depends on where you are placed.

By Tony Attwood OK you are an Arsenal supporter and you know that the last time Tottenham finished up in the league above Arsenal was 1994/5.  If this happens again (which it will if Arsenal do not win on Sunday) then it might well seem a tragedy. If you are a Tottenham supporter it will …

Tottenham v Arsenal Sunday 30 April 2017 – The Match Officials. Five times with the same ref in a season is ludicrous

by Andrew Crawshaw Referee – Michael Oliver  From Northumberland, 31 years old and FIFA accredited Assistant Referee 1 – Simon Bennett  From Staffordshire and FIFA accredited Assistant Referee 2 – Jake Collin  From Mersyside and FIFA accredited Fourth Official – Andre Marriner  From the West Midlands, 45 years old and FIFA accredited. For this game we …

Corruption news: 43 footballers, 8 agents, 12 clubs, Barcelona, and Tony Pulis.

by Tony Attwood I am not sure that it was covered by that much by the media in England at all, but FC Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu is, it seems, only one step away from being found guilty of corruption.  His latest appeal in the case of the transfer of the Brazilian striker Neymar in …

Ref Review: WBA – Arsenal. When oh when will Neil Swarbrick learn the laws of the game?

There are clips included in the report for every wrong decision and every major decision in red bold text WEST BROMWICH ALBION vs. ARSENAL COMPETITION: English Premier League MATCH NO. 27 DATE: 18th March 2017 VENUE: The Hawthorns (West Bromwich, England) MATCH OFFICIALS: REFEREE: Neil Swarbrick 1st LINESMAN: Scott Ledger 2nd LINESMAN: Constantine Hatzidakis 4th …

Tottenham v Arsenal preview: will it be a dirty game?

By Tony Attwood I made mention in a little piece yesterday (Who are the most fouled players?) that fouls reported by referees are most likely not the total picture when it comes to behaviour on the pitch, because, for various reasons that I laid out in that article, referee engagement with fouls is not a …

Who are the most fouled players? A clever way of forcing you to believe that the referees are always right.

By Tony Attwood There is an article on the Telegraph web site at the moment with the headline “The top 20 most fouled Premier League players of the season – can you guess the No 1?” It’s a beguiling idea – an analysis of which players are kicked to death and which don’t get the …

Ref Review: Liverpool – Arsenal: Are we really that biased in our reviews?

There are clips included in the report for every wrong decision and every major decision in red bold text LIVERPOOL vs. ARSENAL COMPETITION: English Premier League MATCH NO. 26 DATE: 4th March 2017 VENUE: Anfield (Liverpool, England) MATCH OFFICIALS: REFEREE: Robert Madley 1st LINESMAN: Peter Kirkup 2nd LINESMAN: Marc Perry 4th OFFICIAL: Andre Marriner First …

Exactly where do transfer rumours come from? Plus three players leaving, four new signings

By Sir Hardly Anyone. Have you ever wondered where the people who make up transfer stories get their make believe from?  Or indeed how one can tell if one story out of the hundreds that circulate is actually true. Well, I’m going to show how it is done, with an outrageous example from a blog …

Arsenal Leicester : 1-0

By Walter Broeckx Starting team: Cech, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal, Bellerin, Coquelin, Xhaka, Gibbs, Özil, Walcott, Alexis On the beach: Martinez, Elneny, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Iwobi, Welbeck, Giroud After a free kick for Leicester Arsenal lose the ball after a back heel from Alexis just in front of the own penalty area but Vardy his shot went …

Arsenal v Leicester. While Newcastle and WHU are raided by Revenue & Customs over criminal tax fraud we consider the teams.

By Bulldog Drummond Of course some news comes in at most inconvenient moments.  Here am I about to prattle on concerning the line ups for tonight when we get the announcement that Newcastle Utd and West Ham United were raided this morning by HMRC concerning suspected criminal tax fraud in professional football.  That is what …

Arsenal v Leicester: how exactly do the teams compare with our position last season

By Bulldog Drummond If it is an Arsenal match, then it must be time to talk about Alexis Sánchez leaving and going to, well, anywhere, everywhere, you name it.   Except this time Arsène Wenger has said there is no way that Alexis Sánchez will leave Arsenal this summer even if it means going on a free …

Arsenal v Leicester: a shocking home and away comparison, and excellent injury news

By Bulldog Drummond The very early indications on injuries that we have for the game tomorrow is that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was not seriously injured in the cup semi-final and that Lucas Perez has now recovered from his injury that kept him out of the weekend game and is back in full training. Whether the Ox …

Arsenal v Leicester Wed 26 April 2017 – The Match Officials. 80% of wrong decisions will be against Arsenal.

by Andrew Crawshaw Our Officials are :- Referee Mike Jones  Age 48 from Cheshire Assistant Referee 1 – Andy Garratt  from the West Midlands Assistant Referee 2 – Mark Scholes  from Buckinghamshire Fourth Official – Robert Madley age 30 from West Yorkshire and FIFA accredited This will be the third time this year that we …

The Arsenal Transfer Index part 3. 128 days to go: all the players reported as arriving and leaving this summer

  By Sir Hardly Anyyone It has been something of an erratic week for the football fiction writers as Mr Wenger has wrong footed them twice – once by changing his line up style and once by beating the glorious Pep.  However this has not stopped the scribblers noting some more players who will be …

Supposing we’d sacked Mr Wenger a year ago and brought in Pep Guardiola

By Tony Attwood When managers come in, their job is to do better than the last man. that is the sort of basic requirement most people lay down although some go for winning the title each season or at least challenging for it until the last few weeks. Of all managers Pep Guardiola was the …

Barcelona take football into new territory with appeal against red card to CAS

by Tony Attwood Barcelona are continuing their attempt to move football into a completely new arena for not only have they played out a game in which the activities of the referee caused even the most solid “there is nothing wrong with the referee’s so stop whinging” media to turn pale and re-consider their approach, …

Record beating manager, record beating club, maybe its time to revive Lucky Arsenal

By Tony Attwood It is funny just how difficult a lesson it is to learn, both by football supporters and by journalists but somehow the reality never gets through. When looking at the actions of officials, it is no good taking one or two (or even three or four) incidents and then blaming the ref …

FA Cup Semi Final Arsenal – Man City 2-1

Arsenal going forward with too many players leaving them vulnerable on the counter. Aguero in a one on one with Cech and he lifted the ball over Cech. 0-1 for Man City. Arsenal trying to go for it now and Monreal with the equaliser after a cross from the right and Monreal with a shot …

Arsenal v Manchester City. Tottenham were valiant; Man City’s time will come; “we know that”.

By Bulldog Drummond We are so used to being told that the FA Cup is not a trophy and that the only trophies that are real trophies are the trophies Arsenal fail to win, that it is curious to read the article on the Telegraph web site headlined, “For Tottenham yet again it is the …

Arsenal v Manchester City: a win pays Arsenal’s salaries for a week and a half.

By Bulldog Drummond. Looking, as we usually do, at the injury table we find that Liverpool are the team not to beat – way out ahead according to the Physioroom charts with no less than nine injuries.  Man City are on four, Arsenal five. # TEAM TOTAL INJURIES LATEST PLAYER INJURED INJURY 1 Liverpool 9 …

Ladies Football a warning for all supporters

by Andrew Crawshaw Arsenal Ladies were due to commence their Spring Series on Sunday afternoon with a game against Notts County Ladies.  This game was cancelled due to Notts County Ladies being disbanded.  The announcement was made late on the Friday before the game. The Official Statement from the owner of Notts County Ladies included …

This weekend Arsenal become the most successful FA Cup team in history and Mr Wenger the most successful FA Cup manager

By Tony Attwood It is not something that you are likely to read much about in the papers, and not something that social media want to tell us but it is true: Arsenal are this weekend becoming the most successful team in FA Cup history, and Arsene Wenger the most successful FA Cup manager of …

The FA Cup semi-finals Sat 22 and Sun 23 April – The Match Officials. We need to take Pawson totally out of the picture.

By Andrew Crawshaw On Saturday at 17:15 Chelsea take on Tottenham Referee – Martin Atkinson  Age 45 from West Yorkshire FIFA Accredited Assistant Referee 1 – Stuart Burt  from Northamptonshire FIFA Accredited Assistant Referee 2 – Ian Hussin from Mersyside Fourth Official – Neil Swarbrick  50 years old from Lancashire This game is being shown …