Dundalk v Arsenal and a possible statistical error

By Bulldog Drummond Since we beat Dunalk in the Europa League they’ve had these results… Date Competition Home team Score Away Team Res 01/11/20 League St Patrick’s Athletic 1 – 1 Dundalk D 05/11/20 Europa Rapid Wien 4 – 3 Dundalk L 09/11/20 League Dundalk 0 – 2 Sligo Rovers L 20/11/20 Cup Bohemians 1 …

How Arsenal could easily recover from their poor league position

By Tony Attwood In essence there are two approaches that clubs can make when they find themselves in the sort of situation Arsenal currently are in. One approach is to do what they have done before.  For example in Arsenal’s situation this means getting rid of the manager, bringing in a completely new support team, …

The stats that show exactly what Arsenal must do to rise up the league

By Tony Attwood Here is the new data after last weekend’s games.  Figures in black are particularly low for that parameter, figures in red a particularly high. Club Tackles Fouls Tackles per foul Yellow cards Fouls per yellow Penalties for Penalties against Lge pos Arsenal 132 112 1.18 16 7.00 1 0 15 Aston Villa …

Watching Arsenal Women in Person; all for £2.50!

By Andrew Crawshaw Last Thursday I had an e-mail from Arsenal Women asking me to register my membership number with them as a preliminary to being able to apply for a ticket for the WSL game on Sunday between Arsenal and Birmingham. I clicked onto the link provided and entered a few details and got …

What made the Observer newspaper publish its false away wins story?

By Tony Attwood Did someone put pressure on the Observer to publish its misleading story about away results this season? As you may have noticed, last weekend the UK Sunday newspaper “The Observer” published an article purporting to tell readers that the enhanced away advantage they may have heard about which arose during the period …

And so the anti-Arsenal Arsenal claim their finest hour: “we’ll take Arsenal down”…

By Tony Attwood The AAA – the Anti-Arsenal Arsenal – is a movement made up of numerous sub-groups who are brought together by the thought that constant criticism of the club, its players and its manager, is a way to make things better.  They are directly supported by much of the media and many independent …

Newspaper’s misleading data claims there is nothing wrong with PL refereeing

by Tony Attwood The Observer newspaper yesterday published one of the most atrociously misleading pieces of PGMO propaganda yet seen. The article published on 6 December 2020 is headlined: Sing when you’re winning? Home support doesn’t really help football teams The evidence offered in the article shows nothing of the kind, and it is obviously …

Tottenham H v Arsenal: the confirmed predictions, and women’s game live

By Bulldog Drummond Just to say, before we get into the Tottenham game, its Arsenal Women v Birmingham at 2pm.  It is live on the FA Player.   Our preview of that match is here As for the men’s game, the Evening Standard has clearly taken heed of our bit of fun concerning the notion of …

The knives are out against Arsenal as the media goes beserk in its attacks

By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal, according to the media, don’t have a chance.  Not now, not in the future.  No one realises that Arsenal’s away form and Tottenham’s home form are virtually the same.  It is all doom and gloom. “Gilberto Silva claims things ‘would be different’ at Arsenal if Wenger hadn’t sold £18m man” announces …

Arsenal Women v Birmingham City Women: we’ll be there

By Tony Attwood I’m delighted to say that Andrew, who covers Arsenal Women’s matches for Untold Arsenal has got a ticket to attend the Arsenal Women match against Birmingham City tomorrow, and thus be among the 900 people watching the match. If you have not got a ticket and fancy going you need to visit …

Tottenham v Arsenal – so maybe all is not lost… (injuries and recent games)

By Bulldog Drummond This is the season where statistics have been turned upside down, and the fact that the journalists, commentators and writers fail to deal with this topic (in the mistaken belief that the football going public don’t understand maths or don’t like statistics) leaves the field open to us. As we showed this …

Tottenham v Arsenal: unexpected statistics point to an unexpected result

By Bulldog Drummond Tottenham fans will be relishing the game against Arsenal, as a chance to reduce by one their historic deficit in matches between the two clubs (Tottenham have won 65 while Arsenal have won 82). But there are a couple of other numbers that show some interesting pointers ahead of this match – …

Slightly confused BT Sprout thinks away teams might be doing better

by Tony Attwood There is little that is more amusing than a confused commentator – one who spends all the game acting as if he is the arbiter of truth, the interpreter of the game, the know-all of all-things-football, and who then suggests that he thinks maybe away teams have been doing a bit better …

Arsenal make it through the night, and rather jolly it was too

By Tony Attwood “They came, they sanitised, they socially distanced,” says the Guardian while the Daily Mail goes with “‘The Europa League group phase doesn’t motivate some of the players’: Jose Mourinho accuses his Tottenham side of not taking European games seriously after conceding late equaliser at LASK” The Mail does have an Arsenal headline, …

Arsenal v Rapid. The team and some interesting comparative stats

By Bulldog Drummond This being a Europa League game we don’t have too many statistics around to help us, but we have found this little lot from Uefa… Rapid Vienna Assists: 6 Saves: 10 Fouls Committed 68 Fouls received 37 Yellow cards: 11 Fouls per yellow card: 6.18 Arsenal Assists: 10 Saves: 8 Fouls committed: …

Arsenal v Rapid Vienna: how the opposition are doing, and injuries

By Bulldog Drummond It’s all left to play for in Group B of the Europa League… well, not quite.  Arsenal need a single point from their last two games to win the group and Molde FK and Rapid Wien (not Wine as I saw in one outlet) are fighting it out tooth and nail, hand …

Extraordinary story on Blatter in the Athletic which whitewashes current case

by Tony Attwood I received a note at the end of last week pointing out that Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, who have been under investigation by Swiss authorities for some time, are now suddenly facing a more serious charge of fraud.  This comes  after Swiss federal prosecutors intensified a five-year investigation into the pair’s …

The four PL clubs that are getting very special treatment from referees.

By Tony Attwood This season we have been looking at some statistics that seem never to become headline news in the media, but which, when we look at them really give us pause for thought. Below are all the details we have looked at.  And our prime conclusions now are that Liverpool, Leicester, Man City …

Brexit bites the Premier League: we’ll never be the same again

By Tony Attwood It has never been any secret that the Football Association generally feels that while it might not be 1935, it jolly well ought to be.  All English players in English teams playing in the English 1st Division, with none of these johnny foreigners lurking about.  (Mind you they also think they are …

Head injuries: football in England is once again on another planet.

By Tony Attwood On Monday morning I took a call from a friend in the medical services who has little interest in football.  She had been reading up about David Luiz’ injury and was utterly astonished.  As a medic she could understand that in a contact sport serious accidents can happen, and had no criticism …

What on earth is wrong with Arsenal. The media speak out.

By Tony Attwood While there have been some comments about Arsenal’s decline of late, until recently the media in England has been content to avoid placing the blame anywhere, not least because in the last few years the club has followed their advice, changing all the players around, changing the managers and spending, spending, spending. …

Platini and Blatter now prosecuted for fraud, but don’t tell the English

By Tony Attwood I received a note at the end of last week pointing out that Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, who have been under investigation by Swiss authorities for some time, are now suddenly facing a more serious charge of fraud.  This comes  after Swiss federal prosecutors intensified a five-year investigation into the pair’s …

Why are Arsenal doing so poorly at the moment? The hidden truths.

By Tony Attwood There are a number of reasons that are fairly easy to think of. 1: Arsenal have had three managers in the past three years.  That is not the way to create stability and growth. Settled clubs do much better than clubs in turmoil, not least because three managers means three sets of …

Arsenal v the W’s. The “confirmed” predicted team, including Nelson’s twin.

By Bulldog Drummond The news doing the rounds is that Bukayo Saka has recovered from the dead leg he suffered against Leeds last weekend.  We know Pepe is out, Willian and Partey are doubtful, and Elneny and Kolasinac are the victims of the insanity of continuing with international competitions during a crisis.  Except some pundits …

Arsenal: with one goal in the last 5 league games the revival is needed now.

By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal are 12th in the league in terms of home performances, while Wolverhampton are 14th in the league in terms of away performances.  And in fact the performances of the two clubs home and away are identical – two wins and two defeats for Arsenal at home, the same for Wolverhampton away. …