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 Tony Attwood “For some clubs it is easy,” Mourinho said. “You just break the rules, you forget the financial fair play, you spend what you want and you get the good players. Easy. For some other clubs, it’s more difficult. You want to follow the rules. You don’t want to be seen with the …
Read More “BT Sprout disgrace; Xhaka and Mustafi brilliant; Arsenal win; Mail critical”
by Bulldog Drummond Since lockdown ended its been a funny ol’ set of results Date Game Res Score Competition 17 June Manchester City v Arsenal L 3-0 Premier League 20 June Brighton and Hove Albion v Arsenal L 2-1 Premier League 25 June Southampton v Arsenal W 0-2 Premier League 28 June Sheffield United v …
Read More “Arsenal v Man C – when the bookies wouldn’t take bets, and team predictions”
By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal are playing in their 30th FA Cup semi-final – no side has ever played in more. They’ve reached the Final on 20 occasions, which is also a joint record (level with Manchester United for both). But where Arsenal stand alone is in the number of times the club has won the …
Read More “Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-final: where do we stand?”
By Sir Hardly Anyone One of the new games in town is for sites to set up headlines and then have articles that have no information on the story in the headline. Take for example “Brighton and Hove Albion star confirms departure as Arsenal ‘lodge’ bid for prime Everton target with free agent deal in …
Read More “8 new players coming to Arsenal to give us 122 transfer rumours this summer”
By Tony Attwood Tony Attwood is a member of Arsenal Independent Supporters’ Association and runs the AISA Arsenal History Society. According to a report in the Telegraph, “A group of cross-party MPs have launched an 11th hour bid to torpedo the Saudi Arabia takeover at Newcastle United, by telling the Premier League any deal …
Read More “Human rights abuses: has our little campaign had unexpected support?”
By Tony Attwood Does it matter what the media in Germany think about Manchester City and its fight with Uefa? After all the Bundesliga does its thing, and the Premier League goes its own way, and Uefa waddles about getting itself in a tangle. Why should anyone in England care about the rest of Europe? …
Read More “What do they think in Germany about Manchester City and Uefa”
By Tony Attwood It has been an interesting few days. Guardiola attacked the media – which was expected but still interesting, for it will be illuminating to see how the media respond. Will they bow down and worship him, as they have consistently done since he arrived in the UK, or after an attack like …
Read More “Some questions asked, not many answered. Arsenal, Liverpool, FFP”
By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal remain pretty much at the top of the injury tree. Newcastle United: 8 Arsenal: 7 Bournemouth: 6 Everton: 6 Leicester City: 6 Aston Villa: 5 Burnley: 5 Tottenham Hotspur: 5 Bottom of the table is Manchester City with one player injured. Here’s the list Player Reason Further Detail Potential Return Status …
By Bulldog Drummond Playing the champions elect brings with it some concerns that we might be badly beaten (given our recent results) and some hope that they will not play well (given their recent results). The takeover of the club’s decision making by the “Fourth is not a trophy” gang has led to a very …
Read More “Arsenal v Liverpool: worryingly Arteta asks for more of what we’ve just been doing”
By Tony Attwood Of course we have not yet had the full details of the CAS ruling in the Manchester City case, but CAS has been overturning Uefa rulings for so long (typically cutting punishments in half) it seems unlikely that Uefa will have much of a mind to let things carry on as before …
Read More “What will Uefa and the clubs that obey FFP do now that FFP has been wrecked?”
By Tony Attwood They worked very hard to get rid of Mr Wenger, some of those people who used to write in here complaining that “fourth is not a trophy” and demanding the removal of the most successful manager Arsenal ever had. And in the end their got their way – although of course it …
Read More “After the removal of Mr Wenger and the victory of Man City, what now for Arsenal?”
By Tony Attwood Whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, the prosecution, the defence, and the threats of bringing down Uefa, the net result is that Manchester City’s actions in relation to the money they have spent, is deemed worthy of a fine (which given the context of the case is not likely to …
Read More “And so, mega-expenditure is not deemed to be a problem”
by Tony Attwood Two years ago an unholy alliance of journalists and card carrying fans supported by the Arsenal Supporters Trust (who had previously claimed that the directors were setting money aside for their own use rather than making it available for transfers) pushed the club into getting rid of Mr Wenger and his staff, …
by Bulldog Drummond Here’s a good headline from the BBC: No Premier League fixture has seen more penalties scored than the north London derby – 19 have been netted in total. So that sets the scene for a game of leg breaking. Here are the men already injured… Calum Chambers Left knee. Ruptured anterior cruciate …
Read More “Tottenham v Arsenal. Injuries, team selections and weird statistics.”
by Bulldog Drummond It’s not an Untold original, but “Doldrum Derby” did strike us as rather a funny way of announce the weekend’s Tottenham v Arsenal game. But it raised the more serious question, “Are Arsenal really in the doldrums?” We’d argue not, given that a season out of Europe all together could work wonders …
Read More “Why not qualifying for Europe would be a great blessing”
We are so close. Don’t let the journalists and bloggers spoil it. By Tony Attwood Arsenal, we have been told of late have been awful. They have a terrible defence and a sloppy attack. Even the return of Santi Cazorla would have taken us shooting up the league we are told. But in fact just …
Read More “Arsenal are just five goals from being top four.”
by Tony Attwood As you may have guessed I am not actually a season ticket holder at Tottenham Hotspur, but rather I lend my support to a club playing at the other end of Seven Sisters Road. And it has been interesting to see just what Arsenal are saying in relation to tickets and next …
Read More “Ticket arrangements for the new season: is Big Brother watching the fans?”
By Tony Attwood That is the claim from the remorselessly Arsenal-hating TalkSport as seen in their headline “STUNNING” followed by Santi Cazorla: Two more goals for ex-Gunner who is now outperforming EVERY Arsenal player except Aubameyang this season It was written by Billy Hawkins and published on 8th July 2020 – although it is interesting …
Read More “Is Santi Cazorla now outperforming EVERY Arsenal player except Aubameyang?”
By Tony Attwood It used to be that the laws governing football would change once in a blue moon, and then only if the moon was the right shade of blue and San Marino didn’t appeal.. But now it seems tinkering is the order of the day. For the talk is that the rule allowing …
Read More “Yet more law changes for football next season, but one rule stays”
By Tony Attwood Leicester have now been awarded over twice as many penalties as Arsenal this season, a factor that has clearly helped them cling on to a position in the upper part of the league. Mind you, they are not the most extraordinary team in this regard. Manchester United have been awarded four times …
Read More “Arsenal are currently the dirtiest team in the League. Does it matter?”
By Bulldog Drummond Previously Arsenal v Leicester, Leicester’s declining tackles, Arteta confirms tactic Arsenal v Leicester: the yellow card kings against the tackle champions In the previous articles we have considered the extraordinary way in which Leicester were committing more tackles than any other club, but getting far fewer yellow cards and giving Liverpool a …
Read More “Arsenal v Leicester: City pull back from hyper-tackles now the tactic is exposed”
by Bulldog Drummond Arsenal get a yellow card for every seven tackles. Leicester get a yellow card for every 17 tackles. This article continues from Arsenal v Leicester, Leicester’s declining tackles, Arteta confirms tactic Looking at our results across the games since resumption we can see the obvious improvement in Arsenal – plus the increase …
Read More “Arsenal v Leicester: the yellow card kings against the tackle champions”
By Bulldog Drummond Both the Mail and Telegraph have reports on Mikel Arteta saying that Arsenal play better without fans. He’s probably the first Arsenal manager to say something along these lines since Herbert Chapman denounced the “boo boys” back in the 1930s. The Mail actually has Arteta saying, “When they play in front of …
Read More “Arsenal v Leicester, Leicester’s declining tackles, Arteta confirms tactic”
By Tony Attwood “The attempt to damage the club’s reputation is organized and clear.” With that one simple statement from Manchester City, the world of football changed, as did the world of football journalism. The ramifications for the club, Uefa, and for independent journalism are still reverberating. And they might well reverberate even more when …
Read More “New security systems hints at threat to serious journalism after Man C case”
By Tony Attwood The Daily Mail’s headline comment, “‘They don’t have much to celebrate’: Jose Mourinho bites back at Arsenal tweet mocking their defeat by Sheffield United… but Spurs face a task to finish above their rivals ahead of Everton clash,” reminded me that even the media’s favourites must sometimes slip down the pecking order …
Read More “The media always have their favourites, but eventually even they begin to have doubts”
