By Bulldog Drummond
It appears that Untold is now fully https (whatever that means) and has a new server. Lots of cheers and celebrations somewhat akin to a Nasa spacecraft entering the magnetic field of Jupiter. We know how to celebrate!
And here’s a thing, since we started highlighting the insanity and arrogance of “all you need to know” headlines, they’ve diminished by 80%. That must be coincidence of course, but it encourages us to have a bash at something else we don’t like in the media. Any suggestions?
But no, let’s be positive for a moment. And celebrate a really great headline from this morning…
Late Drama At Southend published by
If you have been to Southend you’ll know why the notion of “Late Drama” raises chuckles in the House of the Untold (two doors along from the House of the Undead). Southend is a bit like Clacton on Sea but without the wild parties.
Anyway the explanation here was “an explosive end to the game at Roots Hall on Saturday. Krystian Bielik snatched a late winner.”
But of course not everyone has humour or even lightheartedness. Here is Footballfancast ruminating on the Europa League.
“Anything less than the top spot is a failure for Emery in this group.
And while we are at it and before I wrap up the Cardiffian game try this from the notoriously computerised 40 Arsenal posts a day Football London… published at 4.05am.
Arsenal news live: Wonderkid chooses to sign for Gunners,
Yes indeed, “Arsenal have completed the signing of nine-year-old Jayden Adetiba from the SuperSport United soccer school after a trial.”
OK enough of this jolly banter (does anyone use the word “banter” apart from journalists? I suspect not. Does it come from the verb “To Bant”?) Maybe we should have a bash at “banter” just as we have at “everything you need to know”.
But there is a rather more interesting piece of news from the reserves (not that the constant upgrading of project youth with new superstars isn’t encouraging, but it is just that it is impossible to know how good they are) and that is that Eddie Nketiah trained with the first-team before the team set off for foreign parts yesterday, having been pulled out from the Under 23 team that was playing the Very Tiny Totts.
Not sure if that puts Eddie on the beach, but certainly the under 23s are doing ok. Here’s their league table…
| Club |
P
|
W
|
D
|
L
|
F | A | GD |
Pts
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Everton | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 8 |
| Arsenal | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 7 |
| Manchester City | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 15 | -2 | 7 |
| Brighton and Hove Albion | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 6 |
| Leicester City | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| Derby County | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| Chelsea | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Liverpool | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| West Ham United | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 10 | -1 | 3 |
| Swansea City | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 2 |
| Tottenham Hotspur | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 7 | -3 | 2 |
| Blackburn Rovers | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 12 | -9 | 1 |
And one final snippet (the last one I promise before the game itself): a table of how far teams run. It turns out that before this weekend’s games Arsenal have run more than any other team in the PL. Of course that means we now cue the jokes about “all we have to do now is to get them to run in the right direction” but it is an indicator of the intensity of the game that Mr Emery wants.
- 1: Arsenal 347.9km
- 2: Tottenham 347.6km
- 3: Liverpool 332.2km
- 4: Everton 331.8km
- 5: Chelsea 330.5km
- 6: Manchester City 329.7km
We are also top in the sprints league ahead of Manchester City, West Ham, Liverpool, Everton and Bournemouth. OK looking at the stats, sprints are not particularly indicative of effectiveness, but running has a certain relationship with success.
“Neil Warnock wants his Cardiff City side to ‘rough up’ Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey on Sunday, as Wales boss Ryan Giggs watches from the stand.” The BBC have that.
And thus the teams…
I choose that forward line because Cardiff are not scoring, so a goal or two from those jolly japers with Mesut behind them will dispirit the opposition and see us home with some to spare.
That would leave in the harbour if not on the beach, Leno, Lichtsteiner, Holding, Mavropanos, Ramsey, Welbeck, Guendouzi.
And there we have it.
- Cardiff v Arsenal. It will be 0-3 to Arsenal but Cardiff will score.
- Cardiff v Arsenal: culture shock, playing against 10 men, ground size, and no goals
- Cardiff City v fresh orange juice and a touch of the Arsenal
- How journalists knew Özil was not ill, Mkhit’s travel issues and Cardiff v Arsenal
- Premier League Matchweek 4 – The Match Officials, the downfall of Madley and Cardiff v Arsenal
The latest post from our series on Henry Norris at the Arsenal
Today’s anniversaries
BD, good morning to you and to all Untolders. And happy Sunday to everybody.
I’ve looked at your starts for our away match in the PL early today’s afternoon against Cardiff City. But I can see that you’ve excluded Matteo Guendouzi and Alex Iwobi from your starting lineup for the match. Do you think Unai Emery will equally omit them in his starting XI for the match too?
Going by the way Emery has been starting Guendouzi for every Arsenal match in the PL this season, I have the feeling he’ll start him again today for Cardiff but if he’s startable. And looking back at how Iwobi played well away to Chelsea in the PL where he gave an assist and scored one. But he was lackluster in our home PL match against West Ham last week. Nevertheless, should the productive away performance he had at Chelsea make him look a specialist away match performer in the PL for Arsenal if he repeats it at Cardiff? But Emery has to start him for Cardiff before that indication can start to show up.
Therefore, I am placing my bet on Guendouzi and Iwobi to be started by Emery in our Cardiff match this afternoon and at the same time think he’ll start Ramsey too in the match.
Once again my Arsenal 4-2-3-1 starts and bench for the match is reproduced bellow.
Starts:
…….Cech…….
….Mustafi Socratis….
Bellerin……..Monreal
,,,Guendouzi Xhaka..
Ozil..Ramsey..Iwobi
……Aubameyang……
Bench:
Leno Lichtsteiner Holding Torreira Mkhitaryan Lacazette Welbeck.
I believe if Emery uses my above starts and bench for the match, we won’t be disappointed but be greatly appointed. Anyway, we’ll soon see what his starts and bench for the match are, as Nketiah is reported to have trained with the first team yesterday.
I’ve seen Emery’s starts and bench for the match and see he has left out Iwobi from his 18 but has ELNeny on the bench whom I omitted in my 18 altogether to accommodate Mkhitaryan on it thinking Iwobi will start. Something must have cooked to make Emery dropped Iwobi for the match?
Notwithstanding which Gunner Emery have starting in the match or not, the important job for the Gunners to do in the match is for them to dismantle the Cardiff City team in the game this afternoon and take all the 3 points in the match with them as they return back home to the Emirates Stadium. And I believe that’s exactly what the Gunners will do to the Bluebirds this afternoon at their Cardiff City Stadium.
Hallo Gunners and gooners
Rambo’s home
Come.on Rambo…stuff them kit colour changers
Should there have been a penalty on 5 minutes (Lacazette)?
COYG!
Mustafi!
Bullet header…
Mustafi…wohooooo
How to go Mustafi!
COYG!
And Monreal missed a sitter
About every second comment at Guardian, is bashing Wenger. Good bye Guardian.
COYG!
That should be a yellow at least.
A player bumps Rambo in a rugby style tackle…with no intention to play the ball….
Goal kick!!!!
Monreal gets a card before Xhaka? I thought PGMO felt it necessary to always card Xhaka first, regardless of what he did or didn’t do?
COYG!
Why in gods name have English fans (and Welsh) taken to whistling, booing and jeering Ozil? It’s certainly not just down to Cardiff, because Chelsea fans were doing it as well in our game against them. It really is absolutely disgusting. He has not done a single thing against these people, yet just because the whole of Germany and the British media are attacking him they feel the need to chime in and kick him whilst he is down as well. I would love to hear their pathetic excuses why they feel it’s necessary to abuse him so much. This bullying culture in English football is fucking disgraceful.
Taylor doing some effective pitch-tilting. Ignoring Cardiff fouls. Carding Monreal. Magicking corners into goal-kicks
Taylor waving away another penalty?
COYG!
Oops
Come on ARSENAL
Why doesn’t Taylor just stop the bloody game, award Cardiff 3 points and be done with it. This is a f’in disgrace
Horsefeathers! Giving up a goal on half time.
COYG!
Racism is popular nowadays and idiots will follow the pack
Yet another goal conceded due to Xhaka passing the opposition the ball in an extremely dangerous position. As he did it I was literally just thinking that if he does that even once a game (let alone the 4 times or so that he does) he is always going to put us underneath masses of completely unnecessary pressure. At this point I really think he is just too much of a liability, because all of the good work that he does is undermined in a instant, as it happens in practically every single game that he plays.
Xhaka why didn’t he look before passing the ball across the field. He gifted another goal. Let’s go Arsenal still 45 minutes left.
I saw that Cardiff goal coming because Arsenal invited it by allowing Cardiff to come at them almost non stop just as they did at Chelsea. However strong Arsenal defensive resistant is, but allowing in over current, one of the resistors in the line will shuntcircuited to disable the circuit. And that what happened in the Arsenal defense-line that led to their conceding the equalising goal to Cardiff just before half time.
WalesOnline rated the Cardiff players at half time, scores run from 5 to 8. On the flip side, LiveScore stalls for long periods of time. At one point, LiveScore said Cardiff had 2 shots on net, but at the end of the half, they say Cardiff only have the 1 shot on goal.
COYG!
WalesOnline had a comment about the home fans feeling that Taylor is being hard on Cardiff: 23.
COYG!
Oh wonderful, another yellow to Arsenal. Cardiff credited with 8 fouls, and no cards. We are credited with 6 fouls, and 2 have cards.
COYG!
all the fouls are on Arsenal, now
Another yellow for Arsenal. Taylor is going to hand out 3 yellows to Cardiff in the last 2 minutes?
COYG!
Aubameyang…at last!
After about 5 minutes of possession.
Very good article in short list where Jermaine Jenas speaks about yhe effects of own fans booing the players they are meant to be supporting.
How to go PEA! Nice assist Laca!
And another yellow to Arsenal, of course you have to book Xhaka.
So, Taylor is now going to give 4 yellows to Cardiff in the last 2?
COYG!
Arter is a bloody cheat. Went to ground without a touch and the result…this whole league is bent.
Drat, gave up another goal. Come on Gunners, we need the win!
COYG!
Were 2 cardiff players not offside when the free kick was played in?
I cannot believe they got a freekick for that “foul” on Arter. Laca literally didn’t even touch him, and not hyperbally, he literally didn’t, Arter kicked the floor. If we don’t win this game that will be yet another 2 points lost due to poor referring that directly leads to a goal against us.
Lacazette!
Have that you cheating PGMOL bastards!!
Why is it that Bellerin has no passing accuracy in the opposition’s area when it matters most? And the PHCN has just taken off light to disrupt my watching the match. but I have had my Gen started to continue watching it.
LiveScore locked up again. How to Laca (thanks WalesOnline).
COYG!
Come on Taylor, you have 1 minute plus stoppage to give Cardiff 2 more cards.
COYG!
We’ll take the 3 points!
Anthony Taylor blowing the whistle for offside before Laca had even touched it or interfered with play, stopping Welbeck (who was onside) from having a one on one with the keeper. We got a few cheap freekicks earlier on in the game, but when it really mattered Cardiff were the ones being gifted with the big decisions.
Well…two and a half horrible giveaways by Cech…I am not sure that he is becoming more comfortable with the ball…I think the defenders are, though.
Guendouzi and Torreira did well, with a lot of energy.
Lacazette and Aubameyang are starting to click!
We got a few yellow cards for professional fouls…hard to argue against them, really. And, though we were caught out of position, at least they realized it and took the fouls when we needed them. (except for Guendouzi’s which was just lazy 🙁 )
All in all…last week we looked like a good mid-table team. This week, we looked like a top team with things to sort out.
Still 2 games to play on Game Day 4, but the time under Caution for teams having played is interesting.
Liverpool is the lowest cautioned top side, with 173 minutes over 4 games. Chel$ea and Man$ity next at 180 and 211 respectively.
Arsenal is the most cautioned top side, at 337 minutes in 4 games.
ManU and Spuds yet to play today, 204 and 229 minutes over 3 games respectively.
According to commentary, there were only 2 treatments today, both to Cardiff (one self inflicted).
I missed Arsenal taking the 2-3 lead in the match by the time my decoder boosted. And I don’t know who gave us the lead and I am seeing another keeper manning our goal. I’ll browse to find out. It’s even the final whistle. From the commentaries on my TV, I overheard the commentator saying goals from Mustafi, Auba’ and Laca’ gave Arsenal victory in the match.
Good, and I am happy Arsenal have sunk Cardiff in the game and collected all the 3 points in the match. And the Gooners wanting to see Auba’ and Laca’ starting together has worked.
Despite Anthony Taylor’s efforts, we notched up a victory today. Taylor was disgraceful, and obviously unwilling to punish Cardiff fouling, until late in the game. How this joker managed to get hold of a FIFA badge is beyond me. What is he even doing on a football pitch in the first place? Sky “pundits” are refusing to deal with the elephant in the room, as usual.
WOO HOO, HOO ! Well done the boys . PIGMOB still very much in charge, mostly followed the script. Those Spuds legends , Hoodle and Sherwood boring us silly with their bias and prattle .
Up the Gunners !
I’m hoping for two home wins in the two remaining games, but the PGMO is going to tilt for away wins. Cards or penalties will be awarded in the first 10 minutes to put the home teams under pressure. Moss and Marriner.
It’s over a year since I watched a match on Sky. I had really forgotten what it was like. Now I know why I unsubscribed.
Too true, Tony. Anyway, we won. Great winning goal too.
banter (v.)
“attack with good-humored jokes and jests,” 1670s, origin uncertain; said by Swift to be a word from London street slang.
from: https://www.etymonline.com/word/banter#etymonline_v_277
From the Arsenal point of view, is a shocker on the cards at the Vicarage Road as Watford are leading Spurs 2-1 in the match with few minutes left to play?
A shocker did actually happened at the Vicarage Road as Watford beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 at fulltime to consequently restricted them to 3 points lead on Arsenal in the table after today’s start in the PL matches.
Well done boys. The jigsaw puzzle pieces are getting into place as they should. Unai watch out for the PigMob when AFC starts cruising.