Tottenham v Arsenal; the injuries, the media picks the team and recent runs.

By Bulldog Drummond On 8 February Arsenal were ten points behind Tottenham.  A win in this game would leave us just one point behind them. In terms of injuries both Koscielny and Lichsteiner are thought to have a chance of being available for selection for the Tottenham match.  Otherwise it is just our three long …

Tottenham Nomads v Arsenal; what the statistics tell us.

By Bulldog Drummond The key issue we have been debating of late, of course, is the home / away difference, and it is particularly interesting in relation to this game.   Here’s the home league table… Home games only Team P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Manchester City 15 14 0 1 50 …

The dramatic decline in Arsenal’s away form and what we can do about it

By Tony Attwood The fact that there is nothing wrong with Arsenal as a team is not something that you will read in many publications.  What you will see over and over again is that there is something wrong with Arsenal as the main theme, and things need to be changed. But, let me take …

Another serious misuse of football statistics by those who should know better

By Tony Attwood In the affterglow of last night’s lovely victory for Arsenal, I want to turn to something different, not because I didn’t enjoy last night, but because this is Untold, and we like to cover stories no one else will cover. And what we consider here is a perfect example of the creation …

Arsenal v Bournemouth: team selections from around the media and the form guide

By Bulldog Drummond The key thinking ahead of this game as far as the media is concerned – or at least the media that bother to look at such things – is that Bournemouth have a host of injuries and Arsenal don’t.  There’s not too much on exactly how this is going to help Arsenal, …

Arsenal v Bournemouth: the home and away form, and the injuries

by Bulldog Drummond The good news is that this is a home game – not just so that we can go and see it, but also because we can go into the game with a really good track record at home… Home games only Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts 1 …

How are Arsenal doing this season compared to previous years?

By Tony Attwood The central question is a simple one: are we doing any better this under Mr Emery than previously under Mr Wenger? The reason for asking is that the campaign to oust Mr Wenger was also very simple, consisting just of the message, “Wenger Out”.   It didn’t talk about how much money might …

Arsenal v Southampton: three versions of the teams and what’s happened lately

By Bulldog Drummond As we all remember, I am sure, it was a defeat away to Southampton that started Arsenal on the downward turn earlier in the season after the unbeaten run. Here is what has happened from the last Southampton match onwards Date Game (all PL except as marked) Res Score 16 Dec 2018 …

Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo to Arsenal. What will it mean, and will it work

By Tony Attwood So the word is that Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo known to us ordinary folk on Monchi, is going to be our new technical director.   He is Spanish, so can talk to our manager, is 50 years old, and played in goal being one of those goal keepers who spent most of his time playing …

Chelsea banned, FA fined, Coventry on the edge…

By Tony Attwood We’ve been here before, and before and before: the issue of the transfers of young players, and the way English clubs treat them.   There have been warnings and fines for several clubs over time – Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City – I won’t go through it all again, as we have covered …

Arsenal v BATE: three possible outcomes – and the reactions that will follow

By Bulldog Drummond OK – three possible outcomes tonight… 1: We win easily and go through without any worries This implies a couple of early goals and then a third which means that even if an away goal emerged, it would be of no immediate significance. The reaction from the media would be Arsenal scrape …

Will Arsenal fans turn on Emery if next season starts badly?

By Tony Attwood There is an article in the Daily Star which basically says that if Arsenal do not get off to a good start next season, supporters will be calling for the manager to be sacked. I don’t know if that is true at any level.   A terrific run this season, after the …

Arsenal a selling club, Freddie backs Eddie, next season’s team, Tottenham’s nickname

Sir Hardly Anyone takes a look at the latest gibberings from the media. Steve Sidwell says he is shocked at how events have unfolded at Arsenal since he left the club, with the expected progress having never materialised.  That is interesting since after he left the club, Arsenal had an unbeaten season while winning the …

Arsenal v BATE. What can we expect

by Bulldog Drummond Since the run of unbeaten games ended at Southampton on 16 December Arsenal have played 14 games.  Seven have been lost, six have been won and just one has been a draw. Date Game Res Score Competition 16 Dec 2018 Southampton v Arsenal L 3-2 Premier League 19 Dec 2018 Arsenal v …

Why won’t the media ever investigate the cause of referee errors?

by Tony Attwood We have a national curriculum in schools in England which sets out the subjects all students have to study up to the age of 16.  In that list of subjects is “science.” Now if you were taught science reasonably well, you might recall that included in that subject is something called “the …

Sir Hardly Anyone’s update on Arsenal’s director of football quest and other tales

By Sir Hardly Anyone One of the key things to remember with football blogs is that a number of correspondents who, well, not to put too fine a point on it “correspond” with the blog, don’t actually read the series of articles on which they are commenting (nor even all of the most recent) as …

Where can Arsenal go from here?

By Tony Attwood We’ve been looking at different aspects of the new reign of Mr Emery at Arsenal and trying to see where it leads.   Articles thus far include How to kill a player: the issues of Ozil So should we be supporting Emery, given the way things are going? Is Mr Emery getting …

Is Mr Emery the right man for the job? The worrying signs…

by Tony Attwood I suspect that anyone who was present when Patrick Vieira came on as a substitute for his first appearance for Arsenal at Highbury, will never forget the moment.   Young and inexperienced though he was, and with his manager on the other side of the world still working in Japan, and with a …

Is Mr Emery getting Arsenal right, or is he leading us down the wrong path?

by Tony Attwood Yesterday Walter in his article How to kill a player raised the issue of how the club is treating Ozil, which itself raises the question, how does the issue of Ozil fit with our long-running banner headline “supporting the club the manager and the team.”  It’s something I have been becoming increasingly uncomfortable …

So should we be supporting Emery, given the way things are going?

by Blacksheep Hello everybody, I doubt you’ve missed me but it has been a very long time since I wrote anything for Untold. This is mostly because I’ve been busy writing non-football stuff but also because I’ve not really had anything to say. Like Tony I was initially quite encouraged by the recruitment of Unai …

BATE v Arsenal: ruminations on the team, the injuries and BATE’s potential

by Bulldog Drummond Arsenal’s commentary on the injured shows us Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang In full training. Mesut Ozil In full training. Sokratis In full training ahead of schedule. Granit Xhaka In full training. Aaron Ramsey Right knee. Being assessed ahead of BATE Borisov (a). Whether they will all play or not is another matter of course, …

How the media comes daily to the rescue of the referees

By Tony Attwood I have not kept exact records over the years on the issue, and sadly I don’t have the spare time to go back and check, but I get the impression that there are more articles in the mainstream media about referees these days than there were even just one year ago. It …

Sir Hardly Anyone reviews the opinions of Jamie Carragher on Arsenal

By Sir Hardly Anyone It is rarely difficult to distinguish between a football journalist with a grievance and a ray of sunshine, and that is certainly the case in the aftermath of the latest wild ranting and raving from Jamie Carragher. Take for example the Daily Express’ approach with its headline “Chelsea news: Jamie Carragher …

Arsenal are quite clearly a top four club, but there’s just one problem

By Tony Attwood There have, for many years, been certain clubs that are apart from the rest, because of their crowds and their historic results. The exact list of such clubs has changed over time, but it has, since the end of the first world war, included Manchester United and Arsenal, because of the consistently …

Arsenal beat the away barrier, but it is still not enough

by Tony Attwood Arsenal have now finally improved on last season’s awful away record.   Here’s the current table for away games only Pos Team P W D L F GA GD Pts 1 Tottenham Hotspur 13 11 0 2 30 13 17 33 2 Liverpool 13 9 3 1 24 8 16 30 3 Manchester …