Football is in the grip of the biggest ever takeover, while Arsenal’s debts are growing

A word of warning: stop massacring soccer! And so it goes on: Le Matin in Switzerland has launched a wholehearted attack on Fifa.  Not the sort of thing you read in England, but it is big in Europe. But because you may have missed it, here is what Le Matin and the media in much …

Are Arsenal on track for the top four at the end of the season?

By Tony Attwood (and a calculator) Is it possible to judge, after 18 games (which is to say 47% of the season) whether it is likely that Arsenal will end up back in the top four?  I’ve played with this little exercise before, and quite enjoyed it.  So here we go again… The league table …

Why England is the odd one out when it comes to player vaccinations?

By Tony Attwood In the Bundesliga: 94 per cent of players have been fully vaccinated against Covid.   In Serie A the figure is higher: 98 per cent.   For La Liga it is 93 per cent. For Ligue 1 in France it is 95 per cent.   In the Premier League it is 77 per cent. The …

Uefa plans to torpedo Fifa expansionst programme: and how!

By Tony Attwood Europe and South America are planning a “new world championship”.   It is, of course, not an issue being widely discussed in the Fifa supporting English newspapers, although the Daily Mail did break ranks and cover it recently, but the story is out in Europe and all over their media… Here is what …

So it’s another where I can say “I was there”; but some memories are not so good

by Tony Attwood My best “I was there” moment is undoubtedly, “I was there for the final game of the unbeaten season”.    Last night doesn’t replace that moment, but it’s another one for the little collection: “I was there when Charlie Patino scored on his debut.” And although I am sure this won’t go …

Arsenal v Sunderland: the Arsenal team

By Bulldog Drummond Picking a team for tonight’s game does involve making a few choices but much of the line up is replicated among the various media that offer predictions.  The one outlier however is the Mirror that tells us “Arsenal youngster Charlie Patino, who has previously been compared with Manchester City star Phil Foden, could make his debut appearance for …

The last six games, how we fit the games in, and what happens if we can’t

by Bulldog Drummond The last six league matches chart is obviously less relevant than normal when we are playing a tier-three team, but it does give an indication of the feeling around the club… The last six games of each club Team P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Manchester City 6 6 …

Sunderland are given over twice as many yellow cards as Arsenal per game

By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal v Sunderland: a contrast in statues Arsenal v Sunderland: difficult years for the opposition on and off the pitch Three of the four quarter finals in the League Cup this season are being played in London.   Brentford are playing at home to Chelsea, and Tottenham are playing West Ham while the …

Arsenal v Sunderland: a contrast in statues

By Bulldog Drummond The picture to the left, in case you are wondering, is of Sunderland manager Bob Stokoe, who won the cup for Sunderland in 1973 and famously galloped onto the Wembley pitch at the end to celebrate what was a famous win for the underdogs. I find that statue interesting, because as Tony …

Arsenal v Sunderland: difficult years for the opposition on and off the pitch

By Bulldog Drummond Next up we have third tier Sunderland in the League Cup quarter-final at 7.45 on Tuesday.  The match, although not part of the season ticket package, is sold out – which aside from the enthusiasm of Sunderland supporters to see their team, reflects well on the ongoing Arsenal policy of very low …

How to speak nonsense: a guide to being an anti-Arsenal journalist

By Tony Attwood It goes on day by day, week by week.   Sometimes it is ignorant, sometimes deliberately attempting to be disruptive, sometimes misleading, and just occasionally with a hint of a possible development.  But it is always there. Take this one: Emile Smith Rowe warned he ‘doesn’t deserve’ to be in Arsenal team despite Leeds …

How Arsenal changed their tactics against Leeds and thus secured the win.

By Tony Attwood This is a completely new analysis – not just for Untold but I think for anyone.  It compares the statistics of two matches: Everton away, which we lost and Leeds away which we won.  The question is, do the stats tell us how this change came about? Before the Leeds match the …

When will the media men apologise for getting Arsenal so wrong?

By Tony Attwood Oh how the pundits love Arsenal defeats because it means they can justify the notion that Arsenal are now going to bring in a whole new group of players which gives them more and more stories.   As the Mirror put it a little while ago after the defeat to Everton, “Arsenal have …

Leeds v Arsenal. The Arsenal team, bloggers’ warnings,

By Bulldog Drummond Leeds United v Arsenal, the form guide, home and away Leeds v Arsenal: the tackles, fouls, yellow cards. Time for Leeds to wake up. Leeds v Arsenal: what recent results tell us about tomorrow’s game… Leeds v Arsenal – the media’s change of heart plus the injuries. Leeds v Arsenal: the head …

Leeds v Arsenal: the head to head of both the teams and the managers

By Bulldog Drummond Leeds United v Arsenal, the form guide, home and away Leeds v Arsenal: the tackles, fouls, yellow cards. Time for Leeds to wake up. Leeds v Arsenal: what recent results tell us about tomorrow’s game… Leeds v Arsenal – the media’s change of heart plus the injuries. Curiously, given that Leeds has …

Leeds v Arsenal – the media’s change of heart plus the injuries.

Arsenal v Leeds: a history in seven videos. It is indeed a funny old world what with suddenly bits of the media waking up to the fact that Mikel Arteta has managed to work with Martinelli and got him to produce the results that we could see when playing lower calibre opposition in the Europa …

Leeds v Arsenal: what recent results tell us about tomorrow’s game…

By Bulldog Drummond Previously… Leeds v Arsenal: the tackles, fouls, yellow cards. Time for Leeds to wake up. Leeds United v Arsenal, the form guide, home and away So as we consider the game tomorrow against Leeds we can have a look at recent results.  Here’s the league table for the last six games… Team …

Leeds v Arsenal: the tackles, fouls, yellow cards. Time for Leeds to wake up.

By Bulldog Drummond Thankfully the updated data on fouls which was somewhat delayed (perhaps the computer had covid) has finally come through so we can now look at the forthcoming match against Leeds in the usual way: Club Tackles Fouls Yellow cards Arsenal 252 153 24 Leeds 330* 204 47* Percentage Leeds above Arsenal 31% …

Leeds United v Arsenal, the form guide, home and away

By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal v Leeds  – a history in seven videos Normally around this time, Untold would publish its comparison table of tackles, fouls and yellow cards, but today we can’t do that because the data on fouls per club has not been updated by any of the sources we use, since the last …

The case against Infantino and Fifa comes back to life and could get tastey.

By Tony Attwood If you are a regular reader of Untold you will know that for some time we have been following the legal case running in Switzerland concerning Infantino, head of Fifa, and the Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber, and the allegations of a conspiracy between them. Two things to note in this case: …

Do we need Xhaka. Why does he get so many cards? Or actually, does he?

By Tony Attwood Most days, you’ll find someone in the media or on a blog complaining about Xhaka and saying Arsenal have to get rid of him.  Personally, when I watch him at a match, I don’t see what  the problem is.  He is a tackling midfielder – and these are the guys who pick …

Arsenal v West Ham: the real Arsenal step forward with a brilliant display

By Tony Attwood So we won the match, we won the possession, we won the corners and no one was caught offside.  It was exciting and encouraging, and certainly, for me entering the ground there were no confrontations with over-aggressive stewards, which made it a perfect night.   True there were lots of empty seats in …

Arsenal v West Ham: teams, and what you don’t need to know but is still interesting

By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal v West Ham: videos of games across the years. We are now far enough into the season to start making some sense of the number of appearances players have had, and perhaps learn one or two points from this. The first thing that strikes me is that we are only using …

Arsenal v West Ham, covid outbreak and an important bit of transfer news

By Bulldog Drummond Today’s Game: Arsenal v West Ham- the videos of past matches We have the usual scurrilous scaremongering ahead of tonight’s game with the Mirror shouting Arsenal latest Premier League club hit with Covid outbreak after positive tests in camp under which the article says “Arsenal have joined the growing number of Premier …

Arsenal v West Ham: what will the ref do, and Arsenal after 16 games over the years

By Bulldog Drummond A most interesting riposte to our last article from a West Ham supporter wondering why we didn’t mention the Manchester City stadium when writing about the gigantic cost to the English taxpayer of giving West Ham their stadium for 99 years.  A somewhat illogical comment of course, but still, we’ve answered it …