By Tony Attwood There has been some commentary recently about why Arsenal had their worst season in 20+ years in the League and FA Cup last season. A few people argue it was down to an individual player or two, some cite the entire defence and some cite the management. I personally find all such …
By Tony Attwood So Manuel Pellegrini is the new West Ham manager and Arsenal have done their usual trick of keeping everyone guessing. In fact Arsenal do it so well that even those people trying to write stories about how Arsenal often do the unexpected find themselves stumbling around the club’s history grasping at straws. In …
Untold Media: how the different “outlets” reported the decision to appoint Emery Seeing what the media did in response to the news that they had been quite wrong in suggesting Arteta’s move to Arsenal was done and dusted is quite illuminating, as the media has immediately divided into camps. But interestingly, none of the drainpipes, …
By the Untold Arsenal Managerial Executive Committee & Bif the dog. . And if you don’t get the headline don’t worry. It’s a very English joke that Blacksheep came up with. . Anyway. the man from PSG is apparently coming to Arsenal after Arteta blew his chances by demanding total control of transfers in the …
By The Arsenal Speculator You will of course have heard about Mr Abramovich and his trouble with getting a visa which would allow him to live in England. The general consensus seems to be for the moment that this could be part of a broader process of checking by UK banks to see if they …
by The Arsenal Philosopher. When Arsenal invited Arsene Wenger to manage the club, they knew what they were getting – a man who exercised total control over everything in the club, from the menus to the transfers, from the design of the academy to who to give young player contracts to. And now there is …
By Tony Attwood I see that Arsenal Fan TV won an award at the Football Blogging Awards, which I suppose might just tell us something about where we are. I suppose for me it is a bit like giving an advertising award to a company that make daily, “hello I believe you were involved in …
By Tony Attwood In a move that has taken the football world by surprise Mikel Arteta has resigned as Arsenal manager only days before he (or possibly Thierry Henry) was due to be announced as the new manager. In a statement the man who played 110 games for Arsenal said, “A certain expert football analyst …
By Tony Attwood You can’t read a transfer rumour about Arsenal without the issue of defenders coming up. One is retiring, one is out injured for the rest of the year and one (or is that two?) are useless. So we desperately need defenders by the shed load. I’m not sure what the general opinion …
by Tony Attwood It was only a few weeks ago that Arsène Wenger suggested that a European Super League was on the way. In saying that he made the point that one way for the Premier League to respond might be to cut itself to 16 teams. That would leave Manchester City as champions for …
By Sir Hardly Anyone The news that is being splashed around is that Arteta will get the Arsenal manager job and will invite Santi Cazorla to be his assistant. Meanwhile the ever knowledgeable Arsenal Youth website gives us a list of the youngsters likely to be let go. These includes Aaron Eyoma Chiori Johnson, Jay …
Lacazette Can Use Arsenal Form to Fire France to World Cup Glory “Alexander Lacazette” by Chelsea Debs (CC BY-SA 2.0) The World Cup this summer will feature many Arsenal players and the one that looks to have the best chance of winning the World Cup appears to be Alexander Lacazette. He has been in …
By Tony Attwood Transfer rumours concerning Arsenal have been continuing apace since Arsene Wenger announced he was leaving at the end of the season, without any question being raised about who the new manager is and what he wants. If that is actually happening it is a major change of policy for the club, and …
By Tony Attwood It is fashionable these days to pick on a player, describe him as useless and then say the manager is an idiot for playing him. When TV, blogs, radio and newspaper columnists all join in, the opinion becomes the truth, and it can take quite a bit of individual analysis and determination …
by Tony Attwood Of course not everyone buys into the remourceless rampant low-level abuse this club suffers on a daily basis. David Wagnar of Huddersfield Town, for example, said of Mr Wenger, “I can’t imagine that this can happen again, so this only shows he has done something extraordinary. Words don’t describe enough how big …
By Tony Attwood Thus we approach the end of days: the very last Wengerian game. Let’s see where he left the injury list # TEAM No. down Last man fallen What he done 1 Watford 9 A Gray Knock 2 Leicester City 9 D Simpson Groin Injury 3 Everton 7 W Rooney Knee Injury 4 …
by Tony Attwood We’ve played Huddersfield Town 75 times so far, and beaten them 34 times, drawn 25 and lost 16. Of course the most interesting historic period is what happened when Herbert Chapman left Huddersfield and came to Arsenal as manager in 1925. Chapman managed Huddersfield from 1 February 1921 until the summer of …
by Sir Hardly Anyone Here’s a nice one to start with… “For 22 years, what this guy has done not just for Arsenal, but for English football, people should remember. I think they came to a moment where people just want to see someone else. It’s not a matter of if you win the Europa …
By Sir Hardly Anyone and R.E. Ports. The team of intrepid opinionators at Sky Sports have told us that Arsenal need to replace the entire team if the club want to escape relegation next season, which makes Craig Burley seem positively modest in believing that that Arsenal need to sign just six new players this …
By Tony Attwood It was a sad way to say a personal farewell to watching Arsenal coached by Arsène Wenger last night, but even so I’m glad I went to see just one more Wenger game and reflect back on 22 years of the Wenger teams I’ve watched. And indeed to try and remember what …
By Bulldog Drummond So we’re off to Leicester tomorrow for our own personal final farewell to Mr Wenger. And this means looking again at the rather gruesome away record we have. It really has been a truly horrible away season, and it must be a great relief all round that Arsenal don’t need to get …
By Tony Attwood In November 2016 we ran the story “Arsenal in November. Exactly how bad are we year after year?” It was a piece that examined one of the regular adages that had become beloved of lazy football journalists – a simple explanation as to why Arsenal are so awful as a football club. …
By Bulldog Drummond A few of us are lucky and we’re going to at least one of the away games – in our case Leicester City. But for most today is the end of the era, and it is pleasing to note that not every journalist has lost it, themselves, and everything else at this …
By Bulldog Drummond “Confusion reigns over future of £30m Arsenal target” Thus sayeth Football 365 which adds, “Arsenal are set to beat Bayern Munich to the signing of centre-half Caglar Soyuncu. Or maybe not.” Hence revealing that the confusion which reigns is actually primarily in the minds of those who invent fantasy transfers and indeed most …
By Bulldog Drummond (I know that headline is a bit odd, but just read on to see what nonsense the media is stating today). As we have seen in the last article on the basis of current form and home and away results in the season, this looks like an 3-1 win to Arsenal. The …