Author: Tony Attwood

By Tony Attwood It is most curious that after three games the media was packed with people who wanted to draw conclusions on just three games, predicting a dire future for Arsenal and noting that this was the worst performance since the Battle of Hastings.  Three games, it seems, told us all we needed to …

Read More “Why Arsenal’s movement is absolutely in the right direction”

by Bulldog Drummond Previously: Arsenal v Villa: predictions built on past experiences Arsenal v Aston Villa: how this referee sees each team: injuries, fouls, tackles, cards Arsenal v Villa. Comparing this season with the opening 8 games in previous years Premier League debts have surged to what look like dangerous proportions Mikel Arteta has noted …

Read More “Arsenal v Villa, Arteta’s anger at Premier League and tonight’s team”

Previously: Arsenal v Aston Villa: how this referee sees each team: injuries, fouls, tackles, cards Arsenal v Villa. Comparing this season with the opening 8 games in previous years Moving on to the home and away figures… Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts 9 Arsenal home 4 2 1 1 6 …

Read More “Arsenal v Villa: predictions built on past experiences”

By Bulldog Drummond On the injury front nothing has changed from what we knew after the last match – Saka was violently assaulted and the referee issued merely a yellow card.  Villa, whose style of play may be seen as somewhat more rumbustious than Arsenal’s have five men out.  Xhaka of course remains out as …

Read More “Arsenal v Aston Villa: how this referee sees each team: injuries, fouls, tackles, cards”

By Bulldog Drummond Last season it was the superb form of our defence (third best in the league across the whole season, and second best if measured during the last two-thirds of the season) that helped us out.   This season so far the defence, now of course completely reconstructed, has been much poorer, being the …

Read More “Arsenal v Villa. Comparing this season with the opening 8 games in previous years”

By Tony Attwood In the article that follows I am deeply indebted to The Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) for data that appears on his Twitter account – always most certainly worth a read.  The conclusions drawn from the data are entirely mine. In this case he is outlining debt levels of Premier League clubs which have …

Read More “Premier League debts have surged to what look like dangerous proportions”

By Tony Attwood Imagine – just imagine – that you had spent oh, I don’t know let’s say $3.5 billion on your football and as a result won the league and other competitions lots of times. And then someone else comes along and effectively says that’s chicken feed.   We’ll invest $30 billion – more if …

Read More “As the League starts to reign in Saudis: what does it mean for Arsenal?”

By Tony Attwood The assault on Bukayo Saka last night has quite rightly caused some protests, even from the normally referee friendly media. Aubameyang has already said he couldn’t believe that James McArthur wasn’t sent off for his challenge on Saka.  And indeed even the normally Arsenal-negative Daily Mirror commented on the situation by saying …

Read More “That James McArthur was not sent off, tells us a lot about refereeing in the PL”

By Tony Attwood The story so far Arsenal v Palace. Patrick’s arrival reminds us how we have fallen (according to some) Arsenal v Palace: What’s happened to Patrick Vieira as manager Arsenal injuries, the home/away portents and past matches with Crystal Palace. How can some clubs commit fouls with impunity while others get card after …

Read More “Tonight’s team and update on entry regulations to the ground tonight”

By Bulldog Drummond Previously… Arsenal v Palace: What’s happened to Patrick Vieira as manager Arsenal injuries, the home/away portents and past matches with Crystal Palace. How can some clubs commit fouls with impunity while others get card after card? Of course, all the negative coverage about Arsenal is continuing in the face of Patrick Vieira’s …

Read More “Arsenal v Palace. Patrick’s arrival reminds us how we have fallen (according to some)”

By Bulldog Drummond As you know, of course, Patrick Vieira (oh oh) returns to Arsenal on Monday. Patrick retired as a player in the summer of 2011, and went to work with the youth development team at Manchester City with the grand title “Football Development Executive” working alongside another ex-Arsenal man, Brian Marwood. He graduated …

Read More “Arsenal v Palace: What’s happened to Patrick Vieira as manager”

by Bulldog Drummond The injury table retains its somewhat unusual look with Arsenal retaining their place either at the top or the bottom, depending on your point of view and which way you are holding up your computer.  Curiously, Crystal Palace are right next to us. Indeed being in the south of the country is …

Read More “Arsenal injuries, the home/away portents and past matches with Crystal Palace.”

by Tony Attwood In case you like statistics, here are a few that have never been published here nor anywhere else before – at least as far as I know. These figures look at tackles, fouls and yellow cards and show that we are keeping our numbers considerably below the clubs that go overboard on …

Read More “How can some clubs commit fouls with impunity while others get card after card?”

By Tony Attwood While the media is of course mentioning the return of Patrick Vieira to Arsenal in his new role as manager, few if any have yet started to comment upon how Patrick’s team is behaving on the pitch in comparison with how Vieira himself was seen as a player. Patrick got 76 yellows …

Read More “These days Arsenal players are taught not to tackle. Maybe they shouldn’t talk either.”

by Tony Attwood There is an article in Le Matin, (the Swiss newspaper that is, not the long-defunct French publication), which looks at some of the developments being suggested for football, such as the automatic detection of offside using technology rather than assistant referees. The writer of the piece notes that Julian Nagelsmann, the “progressive …

Read More “Why rule changes happen – but we never get the one rule change we need”

By Tony Attwood If you ever wanted to undermine a football club the way to do it would be to set up what appears to be a serious news service about the club and then pour forth negative stories all based on the same concept of incompetence spiced with a few quotes from people who …

Read More “Revealed: how the media campaigns constantly to stop Arsenal signing players”

By Sir Hardly Anyone Mikel Arteta insists Arsenal are in a “good place” – but he may have overlooked problems “…more injuries could rock the boat and Granit Xhaka’s knee injury – expected to keep him out for the rest of the calendar year – is a warning for Arteta.” That is the opening of …

Read More “Has Aretea really overlooked a key problem at Arsenal?”

By Tony Attwood There is an article in the Guardian “VAR still a work in progress so expect more controversy and occasional fury” by Barry Glendenning which (obviously) takes a look at the issue of VAR this season. In the midst of this article, the author turns to criticising commentator Richard Keys, and in so …

Read More “Behold: the first admission in the national media that there is a referee problem”

By Bulldog Drummond The headline in the Daily Mail expresses the media’s attitude: “Time to ban Hungary thugs”.  Their article opens, “The Football Association vowed to launch an investigation and file a report to FIFA after racism from Hungary fans marred yet another World Cup qualifier with England and they were also involved in violent …

Read More “Why does the media always excuse the FA when there is chaos at a match?”

By Tony Attwood The thesis that underpins this website is simple: there are many football stories of interest that newspapers and broadcasters will not touch.   Plus many more that might be mentioned briefly but never in depth.  And because these stories vanish from the media, are trivialised or indeed never appear at all, they don’t …

Read More “The hidden problem within football is that problems remain hidden”

By Sir Hardly Anyone Arsenal’s summer transfer window was an utter disaster… for the pundits.   With 136 players highlighted as being ready to be signed by the club, only a handful made it.  Meanwhile with every single player in the first team squad headlined as being in line for a transfer or simply a give-away, …

Read More “Arsenal’s key transfer targets for January 2022 revealed – and you won’t believe it!”

By Tony Attwood Apologies for the delay in publishing this article.  This was due to a technological failure requiring immediate action on my part.   Or put it another way, my glasses broke and I had to go to the opticians to get them repaired. But now on with the show… In Britain today a seemingly …

Read More “Why do many believe that vaccination can harm, while few believe that refs are biased?”

By Tony Attwood The general consensus is simple: Newcastle United is now the the richest football club in the world, Of course it is not their own money earned by having a big stadium packed with fans (as per Arsenal’s 1930s model) or a world-wide marketing system (Manchester United’s approach in the 1960s).  No instead …

Read More “Why the world’s media is alarmed at what the Premier League is now allowing”

By Tony Attwood  There are a number of issues floating around the issue of Newcastle’s purchase by Saudi Arabian forces.  Some affect football as a whole, as we have seen, another is that there is opposition to the move within English football, and the other is that the financial structure of English football is out …

Read More “Could it be that Newcastle’s success isn’t quite as guaranteed as some imagine?”

By Tony Attwood There is an article on the Premier League website under the headline “Find out how the awards for players, manager and goal of the month and season are decided.”   However you might not want to spend too much time there as there is no clue as to how the debates go, only …

Read More “Mikel Arteta is a worthy manager of the month, but the media can’t say why”