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 Even if you don’t know the exact numbers, you’ll probably recall from endless articles plus radio and TV broadcasts, that over a five year period from 2009 to 2014, Arsenal did rather poorly against other teams that ended up in the top four. Of course losing against a fellow-top-four team means zero …
Read More “Wenger v “M”. Tactical naivety, blaming the medics,”
By James Bailey We are still a few weeks away from the end of the year, but there is no doubt that it has been a great year for the team. Arsenal has been performing well in matches and the team is looking at what could be a thrilling Christmas league position. There are several …
Read More “Previews: A (Possibly) Thrilling End to a Great Year”
By Tony Attwood Yes, it’s that time again. The time when pontificaters in all the media will tell us that one team (usually Arsenal, but occasionally others) are having a crisis of injuries and that it is Arsene Wenger’s fault. Of course what they generally don’t do it compare Arsenal’s figures with those of other …
Read More “It’s November so it must be injury crisis time (and ticket price analysis time)”
By Tony Attwood Blimey! I say again, “blimey!” I take the day off to go and see “Kinky Boots” – the wonderfully funny feel-good musical in the West End, and return to open the computer the next morning and find not just one, but two football stories that made me feel good. One of …
By Dr Billy “the dog” McGraw, senior adviser to the clinically ill, University Hospital of the North Circular Road. As expected, Alexis Sánchez played for Chile last night. And indeed was rather successful as Chile beat Uruguay 3-1 in a World Cup qualifying match. Following his hamstring injury which he picked up training for Chile …
Read More “Alexis played for 84 minutes for Chile last night while Man U face their own problems”
by Tony Attwood The reports in the press suggest that Alexis is going to start the game for Chile tonight. Against this Arsène Wenger has warned the Football Federation of Chile that Alexis could spend up to three months on the sidelines if he is risked in the World Cup qualifier against Uruguay. Alexis was …
Read More “Alexis will start, injured or not; when will the madness stop?”
By Tony Attwood There has over the years been a very obvious difference of opinion about Arsenal and its stadium. I don’t recall too much discussion about the stadium and its finances while it was being built – indeed I think most fans welcomed its arrival – especially those on the season ticket waiting …
By Captain Sir Hardly Anyone It has been a little while since I last addressed an expectant nation (as it were) but with the glass opening ready to creak on its hinges in just a month and a half, surely there must be some more transfer news. And well blow me sideways and raise the …
Read More “Ten transfer stories that are making the news as the new window approaches”
By Tony Attwood Earlier this season Untold published a match preview based on tactics. It didn’t get too many comments and one of those that did come in said, “this is the most boring article I have ever read.” Now I don’t take those sort of comments as indicative of everyone’s view, but the article …
Read More “It’s not just the transfers that transform a team, it’s the tactics too.”
By Tony Attwood Getting your ideas across in the modern age can be difficult – which is odd when we have more technology to help us do just this, than ever before. For example, you are reading a website run by a small bunch of Arsenal supporters who believe that there are issues that need …
Read More “Why Linekar and Collymore should be applauded for their stands against the media”
By Tony Attwood Richard Scudamore chair of the Premier League has issued a diktat to the effect that at least one block of away supporters must be in a lower tier section approaching the pitch (or in the case of the Tax Payers Stadium, within a few hundred yards of the pitch). This announcement was …
Read More “Stadium reforms: away fan positioning to change and safe standing proposed”
By Norman 14 Re the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee enquiry into The Governance of Football – the Committee questioning of Greg Clarke, Chairman, The Football Association, and Robert Sullivan, Director of Governance and Regulation, The Football Association. There are 40 pages of transcript, and most of the questions relate either to …
Read More “Commons Committee questioning of Greg Clarke, Chairman, The Football Association,”
Open letter to FIFA on Remembrance Day From: Tim Charlesworth, football fan, UK To: Gianni Infantino, President, FIFA 11th November 2016 Dear Gianni FIFA’s allegation that the poppy is a political symbol is an interesting one, and one that is difficult to deny. It certainly has a symbolic meaning and has the power to move …
By Tony Attwood I have often written on the subject of Greek football, and the issue of Olympiakos (four of whose matches in the last year have been abandoned due to crowd violence – mostly from supporters of the team they are playing, over ludicrous refereeing decisions). Now Greek football is back in the news, …
Read More “Violence and corruption in Greek football, humanity and respect at Rochdale”
By Tony Attwood Some figures have been released by CIES Football Observatory concerning transfer expenditure over recent years. Unfortunately as I have found before, the CIES figures are not complete and have a rather strange basis for their analysis – in this case they only record purchases between clubs in the top five leagues. Also …
Read More “Who spends the most, and who gets the most from player sales?”
By Tony Attwood With enough Americans voting for a man who doesn’t believe climate change is happening, and that his political opponent should be put in prison, it would be nice to have a bit of positive news from Arsenal just to keep us going, but as you’ve probably heard Alexis Sánchez has been injured in Chile. …
Read More “Reasons to be cheerful are slipping away like snow in spring”
By Josif As Untold Arsenal has already reported, someone who calls himself a journalist actually gave advice to a football team to use violence as a legitimate way to win the game over their rivals. Just like many people who use their own brain-cells to make conclusions on what the hell is going on with …
Read More “How Tottenham’s 451 fouls can equal no red cards at all.”
By Tony Attwood Senior officials and management found involved in dubious deals, and guilty in court of crimes? That must be another boring “told you so” story about Fifa from Untold with a mention that we spotted the change in Swiss law which allowed the raid on Fifa’s in December 2015. Well, actually no. It’s …
By James Bailey Arsenal midfielder Alex Iwobi has said that he is amazed by the level of support there is for his football team at home in his native Nigeria. Speaking to the Evening Standard, Iwobi revealed that during an international match, supporters were shouting out his team’s name – rather than his! Arsenal …
Read More “Why Arsenal Is Nigeria’s Favourite Football Team”
. by Blacksheep FIFA (in their infinite wisdom) have decided that the remembrance poppy is a ‘political symbol’ and therefore should not be sported by players of England and Scotland in their forthcoming World Cup qualifier. Not surprisingly, as this game takes place on the 11 November (the traditional day of remembrance of those who …
Read More “Fifa and the poppy debacle: the poppy just like Fifa is a “political act”.”
By Tony Attwood It was quite a move by the Daily Telegraph to publish its “kick them” article when speaking of how Tottenham could try and beat Arsenal. And there was some of that, but it was the elbow of Wanyama that really caused the concern. We could see Theo holding the back of …
Read More “The Telegraph advised Tottenham to kick Arsenal, but an elbow was as effective”
By Bulldog Drummond The joy of having a big squad – a squad of 25 players registered and five more youth players in serious contention – is that there is always choice. Those old days when a player would be risked, and more often than not (or so it seemed) get a worse injury as …
Read More “Arsenal v Tottenham: trying to find the team for today’s match”
By Tony Attwood It used to be so easy in bygone days – I could write a piece about how many managers Tottenham had had in the past week, and we could all have a little laugh, and that would be the preview. Then we had the period when the anti-Arsenal-Arsenal mob put forward the …
Read More “Arsenal v Tottenham: trying to find the future of the Tiny Totts.”
By Tony Attwood (and his abacus) According to the Guardian today (in a more upbeat mood than of late it must be said), “Arsenal have actually lost only once in their last eight matches against their bitter rivals, and have not succumbed at home since 2010.” In the bloggettas the story is somewhat more downbeat. …
By Tony Attwood Against Leciester away, earlier this season, a group of supposedly Arsenal supporters started to chant “Spend some ****ing money” (**** = not offending NxNow) and “We want Wenger out” etc. Of late I have not heard much from them, as they have left the complaining to the journalists who are always happy …
Read More “The danger of asking for simplistic change at the start of a season.”
