A confusing day for some but hopefully we are on top of the game

 

• Arsenal get more yellows, have more shots and have more possession than Newcastle
• What five games tells us about who is going to win the league this season

By Tony Attwood

“Confusing,” as the Guardian this morning were telling us by now seem to have modified themselves, in the Sunday football blog, “As ever, there’s a good lot of action to enjoy and we’ll be looking forward to it here, from now. Feel free to send in your plans; we’ll be bringing you Villa v Fulham and Arsenal v Newcastle”

Well, actually, as far as I know, it is Newcastle v Arsenal, and that little detail is important given that it is a 5-hour, 276 mile journey which is liable to mean that if you go to the wrong place, you might miss it.   But that bit of Guardianistic nonsense does highlight the fact that, of course, these journalists don’t really know that much about what is going on, and you do need the independence of Untold to give you a summary of, for example, who might be playing. whom.

But first, a quick peek at what has happened to the league table following yesterday’s games.  It will, of course, have changed by kick off lower down the league because of the other match being played today prior to Arsenal’s game IN NEWCASTLE, and that is Aston Villa v Fulham.  After our match is the enticing (I use the word lightly) Everton v WHAM at 8pm.   By the time Everton supporters get to the relevant London station for a train back home, it will have gone, what with it being a Sunday, but still, they are just supporters, so who cares (at least that is the media’s view – as well as the TV companies, and the clubs that agreed to the kick off time).   Still, I am sure they can drive and that’s exactly what we need – more cars on the A1 through the roadworks.

But enough of this banter.   The table now reads….

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Liverpool	6	5	0	1	12	7	5	15
2	Crystal Palace	6	3	3	0	8	3	5	12
3	Tottenham Hotspur	6	3	2	1	11	4	7	11
4	Sunderland	6	3	2	1	7	4	3	11
5	AFC Bournemouth	6	3	2	1	8	7	1	11
6	Manchester City	6	3	1	2	14	6	8	10
7	Arsenal	5	3	1	1	10	2	8	10
8	Chelsea	6	2	2	2	11	8	3	8
14	Manchester United	6	2	1	3	7	11	-4	7
15	Newcastle United	5	1	3	1	3	3	0	6
16	Nottingham Forest	6	1	2	3	5	10	-5	5
17	Burnley	6	1	1	4	6	13	-7	4
18	Aston Villa	5	0	3	2	1	5	-4	3
19	West Ham United	5	1	0	4	5	13	-8	3
20	Wolverhampton Wanderers	6	0	1	5	4	13	-9	1

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Thus, quite clearly, an Arsenal win by any score will take us back into second, just two points behind the ‘Pudlians, while a draw takes us into third.  Newcastle, as the table reveals, is in fact one of the clubs that seems to like playing for draws this season.

And I think we can all agree that seventh is most certainly not where we want to be.  You will recall that we did finish eighth in 2020 and 2021, and it was not a pleasant experience, nor was it something to be repeated, so we will avoid this Arsenal, if you don’t mind.

And thus we might consider the team.  The Standard (at least on Sunday morning) is best avoided for such news as it doesn’t have any (at least not at 8.30 as I write this) while MSN limit itself to “The match will take place at St James’ Park,” despite telling us in its headline that it offers “team news”.  In a separate piece, it has “Confirmed team news” which doesn’t actually tell us the team.

Which, given that the Mirror did run the headline (now re-run in the Chronicle) “Nine players who could miss Newcastle v Arsenal” makes me think that there is a conspiracy against anyone giving us any clues at all.

But finally, we get to the team in the Metro.  It is upside down, but I’ll interpret it for you…

Raya

Timber Sablia Gabriel Calafiori

Odegaard Zubimendi Rice

Saka Gyokeress Eze 

Sports Illustrated tell us that “the Gunners are struggling against the intensity of Newcastle on home soil,” which seems rather pointless given that last season the team was  Raya, Gabriel, Saliba,  Timber, Partey, Rice,  Saka, Merino, Trossard, Havertz, Martinelli.

In short, the prediction is that over half the team will change from this match last season, and yet there is someone in the media who generalises that Arsenal, seemingly no matter what team they put out, struggle in Newcastle.  We might wonder why.  Is it the air?  Or do Newcastle poison the changing room?   We should be told.

But the raging anti-Arsenal feeling in the media cannot be contained, as even the Racing Post (not normally a publication I focus on) tells us that we should expect “No end to Gunners’ Tyneside troubles.”

One troubling development I did see however, was that Goal.com aside from not telling us a predicted Arsenal team in their preview, are advertising a ticket reseller for a game that has long since been sold out.   Here’s a little note I found from Google itself:

“The resale of tickets for designated football matches by an unauthorised person is an offence under section 166 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which applies to England and Wales.” 

Really, if you do want more news than Untold gives you, I would suggest Newsnow. There are a lot of negative articles about Arsenal, because that is what people seem to want to publish, but you can at least search the headlines for something more balanced.  Or stay with Untold, of course.  I think we’ll win.

 

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