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 Just a quick one from me, as I’m supposed to be building fences this morning… Arsenal travel to QPR to face a fairly mediocre side struggling to avoid relegation. QPR are a great example of the logic that spending doesn’t necessarily improve a side as you would expect, and that too much …
By Phil Gregory Arsenal host Aston Villa in one of Saturday’s 3pm kick offs, but no doubt some eyes will be on the earlier Chelsea vs. Tottenham game. The pre-match chat about that game has been covered excellently in our new game week preview by Arun, but I will just add that should Spurs slip …
Read More “Arsenal versus Villa: the “mind the gap” edition”
By Phil Gregory Arsenal are off to Goodison Park for our midweek game, after a weekend devoid of Gooner-related activity. This probably went in our favour despite our excellent recent run of performances, with tired legs benefitting from a bit of an extra breather, those carrying knocks better rested and the chance for some of …
By Phil Gregory In recent days the excellent David Conn of the Guardian has published an article on the fallout of the Commons Inquiry into Football Governance’s inquiry and the FA’s subsequent reply to that document. As longer-term readers may recall, I submitted a report to the committee and was cited in their final report …
By Phil Gregory The extremely timely slump of Tottenham continued yesterday, with a defeat for our beloved neighbours versus an Everton side on the up. This offers us the tantalising prospect of cutting the deficit to Spurs to one point with a win against Newcastle. Overtaking Spurs would be particularly sweet “what, apparent the worst …
Read More “Preview: Arsenal versus Newcastle, Tottenham watch on anxiously.”
By Phil Gregory It’s a breakfast blog from me as, were it not for somebody mentioning the Milan game is today not Wednesday in the Untold comments, I would have got the day of the game wrong. Breakfast blog may be a slightly misleading title, as I’m really hoping to get this done before my …
By Phil Gregory Arsenal travel up to Anfield early doors for the 12.45pm kick off on Saturday, playing against a side confident of a result after their recent skin-of-their-teeth Carling Cup triumph. While Liverpool fans can correctly point out trophies are trophies, if we put rosy ideals to one side, the grim reality of the …
By Phil Gregory There’s nothing like an incisive and cutting RefWatch to discourage from writing a match preview which attempts to analyse on the basis that the relative qualities of the two teams will have a greater influence on the match outcome than the prick man in black, but alas I have my commitments, so …
By Phil Gregory Recently the Arsenal Supporters Trust issued a three page document in which they took a look at Arsenal’s books and posed a few questions based on their analysis. I’d advise readers to have a look at that document before continuing, seeing as my article is looking at parts of their work, though …
Read More “Football finance: a look at the AST’s financial analysis of Arsenal (part one of many)”
By Phil Gregory After a night to forget in the midweek, a trip away to Sunderland isn’t the ideal bounce back fixture most would ask for, but such is the way the schedule has fallen. The defeat virtually ended our hopes of going through to the next round, and with the Premier League out of …
By Phil Gregory After a tight win over Sunderland, our quest for the top four received a timely boost with another poor result on Chelsea’s behalf. With the return of the Champions League however, such issues take a back seat. Previous tumultuous league campaigns for the Arsenal have resulted in good runs in the Champions …
Read More “Europe is back – Previewing Arsenal’s trip to Milan”
By Phil Gregory A resurgent Sunderland side lie in wait for Arsenal on Saturday afternoon, though a 7-1 drubbing of Blackburn could prove to be the catalyst for revitalising our own campaign. The draw at Bolton recently means that we really must be getting the three points from Sunderland if we are serious about catching …
Read More “After a brief accidental sejour, the preview returns for Sunderland vs. Arsenal”
By Phil Gregory Well, 0-0 versus Bolton was a disappointment and a serious blow to attempts to haul in Tottenham. The odds on that front are getting near the stage where it would be irrational to expect us to overhaul our neighbour should we not shrink the gap over the next few games. Fortunately Chelsea …
Read More “The view from the stands: Bolton vs. Arsenal match report”
A run of three straight defeats in the league suggest the FA Cup could well be a welcome diversion for Arsenal this weekend. With Manchester United crashing out to a last minute winner from Dirk Kuyt, one highly credible winner of the Cup has been eliminated. Considering City are also watching on from the sidelines, …
By Phil Gregory From early on this season, it became clear that 2011-12 for Arsenal would be a matter of damage limitation: bed in the numerous new recruits, regroup and push on to secure that vital top four berth, with the title realistically not attainable this year. The great run we went on after our …
Read More “Ten points from Tottenham – will we overtake our rivals?”
By Phil Gregory After three defeats on the trot, it makes sense to have a look at the next few fixtures coming up to see where our season is going to get back on track. After three league defeats on the bounce, the FA Cup offers a little welcome respite provided Alex McLeish’s Aston Villa …
And with the arrival of Manchester United to the Emirates, so to there is the slightly less heralded return of myself to the exalted company of the Untold bloggers. Fortunately Tony hadn’t put me on probation for crimes against sportswriting, in actual fact I had to put my blogging commitments on pause with university workload …
Arsenal travel up to Villa for the first of many games over the traditionally congested Christmas period. We’ll unfortunately be doing so without Kieran Gibbs, who has had a setback and was sent to a specialist yesterday. A quick Google revealed to me that Kieran is 22, which came as a bit of a shock …
By Phil Gregory A 1-0 defeat was certainly difficult to take from a valiant performance away at City. We went there with a multitude of defensive injuries but in fairness, a defensive unit that appeared fairly solid until changes were forced upon us. Indeed it is no coincidence that an injury to Djourou early in …
Read More “The City reaction: defensive analysis, Lawro and his pie and an Arsenal infiltrator”
By Phil Gregory Arsenal are off to City tomorrow, and by a good stroke of luck, I am too. Through a contact, a friend has managed to secure a couple of tickets for what promises to be absolute cracker of a game. I’ll be in the City end however, so should I never post on …
Read More “From the stands: the Untold Preview. City versus our mighty Arsenal”
By Phil Gregory Before I kick off the preview proper, I thought I’d briefly mention the Commons Inquiry into Football Governance. As long-term readers will know, about a year ago I put together a submission for it, and wrote it up in a series of articles for Untold. What was great though was the recognition …
Read More “Preview: Arsenal, Everton (and the Commons Inquiry Comes Back to Haunt Me)”
Arsenal are looking to bounce back from a disappointing home draw versus Fulham in Saturday’s Premier League game against Wigan. There was controversy last season when we trekked up to Wigan, partly refereeing and partly fixture related. If my memory serves, that game was our second in 48 hours, so in order to avoid injuries …
A great match in midweek versus Dortmund secured our Champions League qualification, and with it the opportunity to perhaps rest a few legs in the final group game. The Carling Cup game early next week is another such tie, but with City coming to the Emirates rotation is most likely to be on a “needs …
——————————- “Making the Arsenal” – the book of Arsenal’s rebirth ————————— By Phil Gregory Excellent work from Tony, Walter and other valued contributors have kept Untold ticking over during the barren wasteland that is the international break. Well them, and Sepp Blatter who said some very foolish things and rightly got taken to task by …
Read More “The Untold Preview (Or, How Many Times Can You Mention Arsenal.com Citing Untold?)”
By Phil Gregory West Brom. One of those games where, last season, you remember exactly where you were when you heard that we were three nil down (if of course, you weren’t fortunate enough to be at the ground or somehow watching it live). I was fresh into my year abroad and only allowed myself …
