Untold Arsenal: Supporting the club, the manager and the team
"I believe the target of anything in life should be to do it so well that it becomes an art." A Wenger
By Phil Gregory Nope not Arsene Wenger, but Matt Law who is apparently the Chief Football Writer at the Mirror and recently penned a bit of a hatchet job on Wenger. Thanks to the wonders of the web, I had the dubious pleasure of reading his critique (you wouldn’t catch me dead reading the Mirror) …
By Phil Gregory Unfortunately it was not “that” kind of Arsenal Champions League debut, but I was lucky enough to be at the Emirates for my first Champions League game on Wednesday night. Having only been living in London for a matter of weeks, my previous experience of live Arsenal games was either weekend games …
Read More “A Champions League debut, statistics, food and Carroll”
By Phil Gregory Arsenal’s latest numbers are out and, while I won’t write up an extensive analysis of them here (I’m sure the excellent Swiss Ramble will do that much better than I would), I will pick out a couple of things that I think are the key things to note going forwards. Starting off, the …
Read More “Arsenal’s financials: it’s all about the wage bill”
The club that changed football Making the Arsenal By Phil Gregory Following on from my last article looking at the summers movements and likely additions, I took the plunge and made some predictions for the top of the table come May. With the close of the transfer window and a couple of games under our belts, …
Read More “End of season top of the table predictions – post transfers edition.”
By Phil Gregory Right, so, to follow up on my articles over the summer looking at the various teams competing against the mighty Arsenal at the top of the table, it seems reasonable to put it all together and see where my guess is of the final table. Without further ado… First up, United are …
Read More “Top of the table predictions – the gameweek 0 edition”
By Phil Gregory Following on from my other assessments of our likely rivals at the top of the table this year (Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham), I thought I’d turn my attention to Manchester United before looking at City and making some “top of the table” predictions before the season kicks off this weekend. Until the Van …
Read More “Van Persie has gone to Man U – can the Arsenal expect to push past them this season?”
———————- If you think you know your Arsenal, it is time to think again. ———————— By Phil Gregory (who also keeps an economics blog here) Continuing on in my little series of articles looking at the teams placed near the Arsenal last season, next up is Chelsea. With the Blues finishing in 6th place last …
Read More “Roman is playing at supermarket sweep – should Chelsea FC concern Arsenal?”
By Phil Gregory Talking to my mate Mark during England’s match against Italy, we both found it baffling that a team such as Ireland played ten games over two years for the chance to come to the Euros and play three group matches before being sent packing. It got me thinking about a way of …
Read More “If Fifa had a brain: how to improve international football”
By Phil Gregory Having just read that our talismanic striker and captain isn’t renewing his contract, a summer that has been positive to date now looks like like a mixed bag. There’s a few different scenarios where we might end up with this now. The most unlikely is an about-turn from Robin and him renewing …
By Phil Gregory After their ill-advised dalliance with Kenny Dalglish, Liverpool’s owners saw the light and realised that they needed 21st century coaching and transfer strategies if they are to break back into the big time that is the Premier League mythical “Top Four”. Alas they learnt this lesson after they gave said Scotsman a …
Read More “Liverpool FC – treading water or rising from the ashes?”
By Phil Gregory While “Sky Sports understands…” may or may not ever be true, it seems Spurs are closing in on their new manager which could well be Andre Villas Boas of Chelsea acclaim. This got me thinking about their squad and chances for next season, particularly with Gareth Bale signing a new contract recently. …
Read More “Spurs will be Spurs will be Spurs – but what exactly will that mean next season?”
By Phil Gregory Looking at the midfield for next season, two words loom large: Jack Wilshere. The youngster was a huge player during his breakthrough season which culminated in a sublime display in that fantastic 2-1 victory over Barcelona but missed the entirety of last season after picking up what was initially thought to be …
Read More “Musing on the midfield – does Arsenal need a playmaker?”
By Phil Gregory Arsenal.com published an interesting article on our new signing Olivier Giroud. The part that caught my eye was the debate around whether Giroud will be a starter with Robin or not (leaving aside all contract chat for now). In it, Philippe Auclair said “I can imagine a 4-4-1-1 with Robin van Persie playing …
By Phil Gregory With Giroud announced officially this morning, talk has inevitably turned to what this means for the rest of the squad. Doomsayers cry that it means RvP is on his way out, whereas the more sane of us accept that is still a possibility, but argue that it is more plausible Olivier is …
By Phil Gregory Laurent Koscielny’s France crashed out against Spain it was possibly one of the most dull matches I can remember having watching. Laurent will be pleased with the start and performance he put in against a Spain side that dominated possession but didn’t ask too many questions going forward, content with keeping the …
Read More “EuroWatch: only the German Gunners left… plus murmurings for Marco Reus.”
By Phil Gregory With the group games done and dusted, the ranks of Arsenal men at the Euros has thinned somewhat. Most surprisingly, a Russia side who started impressively have fallen by the wayside, and with them Andrei Arshavin. Russia’s departure means that the situation regarding our little Russian’s Arsenal future will be a little …
Read More “Arsenal Euro watch: group stage round up and looking ahead to the Quarter Finals”
By Phil Gregory Robin Van Persie‘s Holland took a beating from Germany last night to leave their Euro2012 hopes sorely weakened after two defeats in the group stages. Holland look to me like a team who are struggling with finding a role for certain players, and the lack of balance that brings. His performances for …
By Phil Gregory To keep us in Arsenal-related fare over the next couple of weeks I’m going to be keeping an eye on the tournament and anything of interest for Gooners. Without further ado… This evening saw France play England, with Arsenal’s very own Chamberlain starting on the left of England’s midfield in a somewhat …
By Phil Gregory Just a quick preview from me today, as I need to be heading over to the library soon, with finals looming. Arsenal travel up West Brom today looking to tie up third place and with it guaranteed Champions League football, complete with no tricky qualifiers in August. Such a league finish would …
Read More “Premier League finale – Previewing West Brom vs. Arsenal”
By Phil Gregory Arsenal host Norwich on Saturday in our final home match of the season, with the battle for the guaranteed Champions League spot of third place getting interesting with Newcastle in almost unstoppable form of late. I don’t doubt I wasn’t the only person who expected them to drop points versus Chelsea, and …
Read More “Arsenal versus Norwich: the Champions League battle just keeps on getting tighter.”
New update on Woolwich Arsenal’s definitive history Transform your life: Become a professional writer We’re on Twitter @UntoldArsenal ———————- By Phil Gregory Arsenal travel up to the lovely Britannia Stadium to play Stoke on Saturday, a ground that has produced fewer points than controversies for Arsenal in recent years. With Chelsea reaching the Champions League …
Read More “Preview: Arsenal versus Stoke. 0-1 to the Arsenal?”
By Phil Gregory After a disappointing result at home against Wigan, Arsenal are back in action versus Chelsea in Saturday’s early kick off. Chelsea come into the game off the back of an impressive defensive display a demonstration of how not to finish a series of solid chances by Barcelona, and I can’t imagine many …
By Phil Gregory Another weekend, another refereeing calamity to marvel at prior to our very own match. Recently, the refereeing has been so bad that it almost seems like the officials have banded together and said “right lads, drop a clanger every game until they give us video tech”. Now, as Walter et al have …
By Phil Gregory After a barnstorming performance against Manchester City left Arsenal fans asking how the side didn’t score four versus our supposed league superiors, Wolves fans may be looking on a little concernedly. Indeed Wolverhampton Wanderers are rooted to the bottom of the form table with a single point in their last eight games, …
By Phil Gregory Arsenal host Manchester City on Sunday, in a match that has been billed as must-win for the visitors. Already trailing United with the games rapidly running out this season, City head into the match knowing that a win is a must if they are to keep their title dreams alive. For the …
Read More “Arsenal versus City: time to reopen the gap on Spurs.”
