- Are Tottenham Hotspur really a big club? An Untold enquiry.
- Sunday’s referee likes home wins, sees few fouls and waves lots of cards
By Tony Attwood
Oh what a glorious afternoon / evening. Most certainly one to remember. And one to reflect on the power of the media, because so utterly enamoured and overwhelmed is the media by the glory of the ManC club (as they see it) they can start to influence even a devoted Arsenal fan and historian like me.
Of course I should not be so influenced by the media, I really should not, because although I couldn’t recall the exact details of the stats I knew before the game that Arsenal have consistently got the better of the Mancs over the years.
So yes I did spend a moment this morning look back at some of the results from days gone by, for although I could remember the couple of hammerings in the last dozen years (6-3 in 2013 and 5-0 in 2021 stick in the throat), I knew that prior to that Arsenal had hammered the Mancs.
And looking it up I confirmed that my historic knowledge, although not of the Brain of Britain variety, is still fairly sound. Three times in the Division One days Arsenal scored five or more against Manchester C: not that I was there in 1925 I hasten to add, not in 1956, when Arsenal won 7-3 although I think my dad was there (although sadly of course I can no longer ask).
Arsenal did it again in 1961 (5-4), and I certainly do remember the ones since then. 5-1 in 2000, and then1-5 away in 2003; those stay in the memory.
And today, the Guardian notes that the Mancs collapsed like an “inadequately constructed French meringue” which I do rather like
Since then ManC have retaliated twice 6-3 in 2013, and 5-01 in 2021. But last night it was our turn, and as a result, we are just two points and four goals behind where we were last season, with exactly the same goals conceded as by this time last season. Do not let anyone tell you Arsenal are in decline. To achieve this with the level of injuries we have and have had is extraordinary.
Even the Sun, the eternal supporters of ManC no matter what they do and how they do it, say Gunners “thrashed their rivals in spiky clash.” They also reproduce the rather tasteless chant that rang around the stadium later in the game, putting asterisks in one of the words as if that somehow sanitised everything. They really are a bunch of turnips.
So now it is three wins and two draws, since that seemingly eternal set of defeats against ManC, and the win leaves Arsenal just two points and four goals away from where they were at this stage last season.
| Year | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
| 3 | Arsenal 2024 | 24 | 16 | 4 | 4 | 53 | 22 | 31 | 52 |
| 2 | Arsenal 2025 | 24 | 14 | 8 | 2 | 49 | 22 | 27 | 50 |
Of course, if this were any other team it would be the BIG story of the morning, but no, in the Telegraph we’re relegated to third place behind a story about Rashford, and “Transfer Deadline Day Live” although to be fair they then do have “Indolent Erling Haaland is a luxury player Man City can ill-afford to carry” with the subheading, “Striker may be record-setter, but he was more interested in battle with Arsenal fans than fighting for his team on pitch.”
They continue, “He took only six touches in the first half, completing one of three passes and offering zero defensive contributions. True to confounding type, he stirred belatedly into life, rising highest to bury Savinho’s cross and kindle some semblance of a fightback. But no sooner did Phil Foden clumsily gift Thomas Partey Arsenal’s second goal than the Norwegian appeared to lose interest, making just one further contact with the ball all game. He was a study in surly fatalism…”
And One may say in reply, it has taken them a long old time to learn, but they got there in the end.
So since Arsenal’s early January dip which filled the media with such delight, and in which Arsenal drew with Brighton away and then lost in the League Cup and FA Cup at home to Newcastle and Manchester U respectively, Arsenal have played six, won five and drawn one which seems to me a fairly decent response.
But here’s a funny thing, not only did Arsenal score handsomely, they also have almost double the number of shots as Manchester C, and yet they did all this with just 46% of possession and only 45% of the passes in the game.
The Sun of course can never be positive about Arsenal, as they note that early in the game, Havertz somehow sliced his shot wide. “It was an absolute sitter and it might persuade Arsenal’s hierarchy to stick an extra zero onto their £40million bid for Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins ahead of tomorrow’s transfer deadline.”
Even if victory we are told we are not good enough.
As for me, it was a glorious day. For not only did we win but I thought the Radio 5 broadcast I have been talking about for days worked very well (it’s now available on BBC Sounds) and the guys running the PA system maybe noted that, by playing “North London Forever” both at the start and the end of the game. That probably had nothing to do with my morning broadcast, but it was a lovely touch nonetheless.
As ever, spot on Tony. Listening to the SKY commentary, it wasn’t Arsenal that were good or made City look bad, but the reason Aresenal won was only that City were poor! I think if Liverpool had won 5 – 1 the narrative may have been slightly more positive in their favour. Also in ‘HAVE YOUR SAY’ on BBC website Arsenal fans are still saying players are playing under par, especially Odeegard. What! I hope they aren’t buying up tickets that I could have.
What a great day Tony
You becoming a media star and the boys putting City to the sword. It doesn’t get much better than that.
“But last night it was our turn, and as a result, we are just two points and four goals behind where we were last season,”
That is indeed true of the season so far up to this stage. But it is also true that on a direct ‘game to game’ comparison (excluding the promoted teams of course), whilst we are also the same 2 points behind last season, as far as goals scored are concerned, against the same opponents, in the same Home or Away fixtures, we have actually scored 3 goals more than last season. The GD is identical. And as you say, given not only the injuries, but the amount of time we’ve had to play with 10 men, that is remarkable:
23/24
P 21 W 13 D 4 L 4 F 38 A 16 GD +22 Pts 43
24/25
P 21 W 11 D 8 L 2 F 41 A 19 GD +22 Pts 41
Despite that, we are also still of course being endlessly told that without a recognised ‘striker’ we haven’t got a chance.
I must admit the striker situation is a bit of a conundrum. Given Saka is out at least until March ,and Jesus for the remainder, simply on the basis of numbers, and our resultant vulnerability to another injury, another strike would help. Does this mean I don’t think what we have will score the goals? No. As long as we don’t lose another key player to injury I think this team has the goals we need in it. The fact we are, at least in one matrix ahead of last season on goals scored, supports that. But, never the less, we are vulnerable to another injury and as such, whilst not being the be all and end all, getting another striker in would help.
” Do not let anyone tell you Arsenal are in decline. To achieve this with the level of injuries we have and have had is extraordinary.”
You would of thought so wouldn’t you, but alas in doesn’t stop the usual naysayers such as Carragher insisting no matter what we do if we don’t win the title it will be seen as a step back. Well, firstly even in the crudest of analysis finishing 2nd again is obviously NOT a step backwards, but as we all know Carragher has never been the sharpest tool in the box has he.
NOTE
I put this little aside up yesterday regarding Nwwari’s fabulous goal, that needs a little correction:
This from Opta:
“Ethan Nwaneri’s goal ended a passing sequence of 36 uninterrupted passes in a move that lasted one minute & 54 seconds and involved every Arsenal outfield player. It was the longest passing move leading to a Premier League goal since September 2023”
It says “…involved every Arsenal outfield player”.
It actually involved EVERY Arsenal player because Raya was also involved. He actually touched the ball twice mid way through the sequence.
I wonder if that makes it even more unique?
Now you can see what happens if we are allowed to play with 11 players against Man$ity…..
With some teeth gnarling no doubt, Guardian gave Arsenal credit for their fabulouswin. Only to end the piece with: ‘tthey should not bask in it’, no Arsenal can and may not be cheerful, they don’t deserve that, even after a big statement win against the titleholders. Than they are propping up Spursy after their meagre win, talking about the positives in a difficult season and Gray as the second coming of christ. hahaha who are they fooling? They really
love spursy Then it goes full passive aggressive with a piece about ManCities decline where they really rub it in that Arsenal didn’t win the league last year and that Pool probably will be the better of Arsenal, in a piece about City! Boy they do hate us with a passion. Offcourse we all know this, but I m wrtiting this down that against the odds some of their lot will read this, bacause I am sure they are so thick an d arrogant they really think people don’t see it. But they do.
I see that the ‘Celebration police’ are out in force this morning, led by chief inspector Jim White.
All other teams at some point, following a significant result, appear to be able to celebrate as enthusiastically as they want without comment. But not us it seems.
Are we expected after the full time whistle to just quietly trot off the pitch without showing any emotion at all.
RondeJonge
“….. because I am sure they are so thick and arrogant they really think people don’t see it. But they do”.
Personally, I think it is worse than that they are thick and arrogant. I just think it is deliberate.
By that, I mean they know exactly what they are saying. They know they are being disingenuous at best, but they don’t give a shit. And yes, I do believe they read this blog, as they do many others. As they watch AFTV and all the rest. Sitting in the toppled Bollard with their pint of Tenants and Whiskey chaser, whilst flicking through social media is part of their job.
So many things have been said in the media that looks cut and pasted direct from an Untold article it just cannot be a coincidence. They read it all right.
Which is what makes it worse.
This blog, via Tony, myself and many others too numerous to name, have investigated, researched and reproduced data, in other words FACTS, over many many years, about refereeing, (Cards and Penalties in particular), that are so skewed, so damming, they beggar belief. They are almost entirely ignored.
But if an ex Arsenal player says something negative about Arsenal on some obscure social media platform, or in some remote TV studio, in some obscure Country, you can bet your bottom Dollar it will find its way into the main stream media.
They are all over it, but they just pick and choose what they want to hear., and more importantly peddle, in order to set the narrative of the anti Arsenal agenda they want to propagate.
So, back to the point. They know people see it all right. They just don’t give a shit. In fact, if as I suspect, they are reading this, chances are they are just laughing.
This is, in a nutshell the mainstreams medias analysis of Michael Oliver following last weeks debacle:
“Micheal Oliver is the best referee we have. Are you telling me he goes into a match with a biased to one team or another? I can count on one hand the mistakes he has made”
Read it and weep.
Mick Shelly
That White character is a nasty little man, much like must of those dullards on Talkshite.
As far as I could see, the post match on field celebrations were not much more than any following a good win. Lots of smiles. A few hugs. That sort of thing.
In fact the majority of the celebrations were aimed at our 2 young starlets that lit up the game, rather than the result. Having two such wonderful players making such enormous contributions is certainly what any team or set of fans should celebrate to the max.
Apparently not.
Nitram
Thank U for your response. I read your answer closely and I have to say it’s quite convincing. They most probably are aware of us, that makes their business all the nastier. Sad but probably true. Maybe staying away from the lame stream media is all we can really do and not giving them the clicks and the satisfaction
Mick Shelly
And fortunately to be fair, most pundits are not like White, or Talkshite, who as we all know have a pathological hatred of Arsenal. Of course some of it is just ‘clickbait’, but to be honest it’s way too constant and malevolent to be just that. Nope, without doubt it is an editorial objective for them to be endlessly negative about Arsenal, which is by the way why I have always questioned any ex Arsenal player, present or past, would work for them. But hey, we all have/had a living to earn.
Anyway, as I say, not everyone is like the odious White:
Anchor: “….and why not because when you get a result like that against a team like this you have to soak it up and enjoy it Wrighty.”
Ian Wright: “Yeah. It’s very much what the stadium needed.”
Talkshite is just embarrassing.
Nitram
And now the latest from G Neville, that paragon of virtue, the one who aided by his miserable brother, made a career out of kicking players of superior ability like Jose Antonio Reyes out of the game.
He is accusing Gabriel of disrespecting Gabriel by shouting in his face, it doesn’t sit comfortably with him apparently.
Sorry Gary but who of an Arsenal persuasion gives a s**t if your sensitive nature has been offended.
RondeJonge
Thanks.
I try to stay away from mainstream media as much as possible but it’s almost impossible. It’s everywhere. And actually, if you want to write about football, and the bias’s within, as I do, reading it is actually a necessary….at times. And it is actually unavoidable.
For example. I have not ‘listened’ to Talkshite for around 10 years. Not once. Never. I just stopped. It wound me up every single time I listened. But I know how bad it still is because of what gets said about them, not least here on Untold.
For example I read about what the odious Jim Whit said from a comment here. So, as clips are now available on line I can just take a look to see ‘exactly’ what was said. That enables me to comment.
I only buy the SUN once a week for my Saturday racing. (or Ascot, Cheltenham etc.) All I read is the pull out. If I hear about, or stumble over something online that pricks my interest I may take a look. Sometimes for research I have to trawl through pages of bile. 99% of the time I won’t comment unless I check it out first hand.
So, as much as humanly possible I have disengaged with mainstream media, but alas if I want to comment on Jim White, Carragher, Neville or whoever I have unforetuneately got to take a look. I detest the thought of putting a bean more than I have to in their pockets.
Mick Shelly
Arsenal hating Neville having yet another pop at Arsenal. For all you oldens, in the immortal words of Vincent Hanna “There’s a shock”.
Recalling the 6-3 defeat from 2013, it was Man City’s 12th man, Martin Atkinson, who brought about that outcome.
Haaland has been shown up to be a bully, having to have his dad speak up for him. He was not respectful after the 2-2 (as fixed by M. Oliver) after they scored their equaliaser in the 100th plus minute against our ten men, barging Partey, abusing our 18 yr old player and Mr. Arteta, and throwing the ball at the back of Gabriel’s head.
Neville, a limited and dirty player, relying on referee bias for any success achieved throughout his career, and a proven failure as a coach / manager, should command no attention for spouting the rubbish dictated by his Sky paymasters.
What a great result . Having watched the Notts Forest game , I was thinking that we were due a big score ourselves . But Man City ? Could we hope ? While I was confident that we would not lose , yet that score really made my day !
I did not gloat , as is my wont , ….but yet , went to bed with a smile on my face !
Up the Gunners !