Arsenal v Brighton & HA, and the champions of the long ball game.

by Bulldog Drummond There have been 15 games between Arsenal and Brighton dating back to January 1935 when Arsenal won in the FA Cup.  At the start of that month Arsenal were third.  During the course of the month Arsenal played five games (two in the Cup, three in the League) and ended the month …

Wilshere’s contract, Man City injury crisis, stupid and unfair ticket allocation, Russian racism.

By Sir Hardly Anyone A quick round up of what’s being said and considered and contemplated and basically just made up in the world of footie.  Here we go. “Do I see myself staying? Of course I do,” said Jack Wilshere after his performance against BATE. “I have always been at Arsenal, I love this club. …

Keeping the momentum while developing the production: the Arsenal Way

By Tony Attwood It is not impossible, but it is quite rare for a club to go through a whole season without a bad run.  Most of the time, for most clubs, the aim is not so much never to have a blip, but rather to come out of it as fast as possible. Arsenal’s …

Good win, excellent kiddies, weird sprouts. Arsenal’s reserves and youngsters beat BATE

By Tony Attwood It’s been a long ol’ time since I watched Beetee Sprout doing a football show, and it took Martin Keown to point out what a reserve team Arsenal put out, and then made the point about what an amazing player Reiss Nelson is.   He’s 17.   Who needs Mbappe? But we …

ФК БАТЭ Барысаў (Bate) v Arsenal: the selections of who actually got on the plane and who didn’t.

by Bulldog Drummond Since the plane has taken off, and indeed landed in foreign parts, we can now be fairly sure that Alexis Sánchez, Mesut Özil, Alexis Sanchez, Alexandre Lacazette, Laurent Koscielny, Granit Xhaka, Aaron Ramsey and Petr Cech were apparently not seen at the airport! But not that sure, as will perhaps become apparent …

Leaving games early – are these figures right, and a look at BATE and injuries.

By Tony Attwood There is a bit of research doing the rounds from an organisation called “Voucherbox” (which seems to have something to do with the Vouchers you get from people like Virgin) which even on the face of it looks so bizarre as to be unbelievable.  Yet they want us to believe it straight …

Bayern, PSG and the FA implicated in continuing deaths of construction workers in Qatar

By Tony Attwood By and large criticism of Fifa, like criticism of the FA, is limited England.  Fifa is outrageous, corrupt and disgraceful at every level and in every regard, and most people seem to recognise this, but the issue is put in a box, carefully kept aside from the fact that English players go …

How are BATE doing, their legal battle with Ipswich and who are we going to put out against them

By Dr Billy “the Dog” McGraw To start with the name, the obvious point of course is that BATE is of course ФК БАТЭ Барысаў – I’m glad we’ve got that sorted.   Although also it must be admitted that BATE is an acronym of Borisov Automobile and Tractor Electronics.  I gather there has been a …

Everything you didn’t know about BATE and probably want to keep it that way

By Tony Attwood You know the joke about the Greek league and how Olympiacos have won it seven times in a row and ten times in the last 11 seasons (Panathinaikos getting in the way just once). Well that’s nothing.  At least nothing when compared with Belarus.  Here’s their list of champions in recent years Season Winners …

Has the refereeing tied turned, or was it all a set of random events after all?

By Tony Attwood Given the history of Pulis the manager his suggestions that his team are “too honest” does not bode well for the clubs that have yet to play WBA. So the questions arise: Can you actually be too honest? Has the momentum of strange refereeing decisions changed in Arsenal’s favour? Does it matter …

Arsenal v West Bostin Albion: the teams and a guide to the language

By Bulldog Drummond First off, our regular review of the supporters of the clubs we play.  Today, of course, WBA.West Bromwich Albion supporters are now something of a case unto themselves. Upon meeting they may say, “You see the Albion yesterday?” To which the reply is, “Bostin!” “Bostin!” replies the first. “Bostin” rejoins the second. “Bostin,” repeats …

Arsenal v WBA. Men down, and how many Arsenal games Gibbs missed through injury

By Bulldog Drummond And this is what we were told about: the fixture congestion of the Europa League.  In this case it is Monday, Thursday, Sunday, although the Monday game is caused by TV, not the Europa. How are we taking it?  Well, we’ve shot up to fourth in the injury league, although to be …

Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion; they don’t pass, they get few cards, they don’t win much at the Ems.

By Bulldog Drummond What is it that marks out West Bromwich Albion from other clubs this season? There are three factors that seem to make them special in the the Premier League.   First the number of yellow cards.   While Crystal Palace have picked up 15, West Ham 13 and Chelsea 12, WBA are …

A moment to pause and celebrate the contribution of Aaron Ramsey

By Tony Attwood Aaron Ramsey has made 215 appearances for Arsenal.  A lot of people believe that for £5m he was a sensational buy.  There is talk of him being the complete central midfielder – a position a lot of players want to play in, but not so many get an absolute chance to do. …

Over 100 PL players entered this season in the last year of their contract, with a total market value of £5bn

by Tony Attwood First off I thought you would like to know that “Santi Cazorla is unlikely to be involved in first-team matters until the turn of next year.”   That is from goal.com Actually it would be rather worrying if he were involved in first-team matters this year since he is not listed in the …

On She Wore’s “Stop getting easily offended at the football”

  By Sifarzone It pains me to write an article positing an opinion opposite to She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. Although I cannot remember the specific authors, my impression of She Wore is that the articles are generally well written, well-meaning and mostly pro-Arsenal. However, the recent publication of the article “Stop getting easily offended …

Arsenal could have won the League… but they didn’t

by Tony Attwood I do on occasion wonder if the mainstream media ever have a peek at what Untold is saying.   It’s not a constant question in my life, but just occasionally when we run a long term campaign, and then suddenly we find that someone in a newspaper writes about the same issue, …

Arsenal’s new signing, worst signing, dumbest race, and best article not on Untold

by Sir Hardly Anyone So we have given in.  Bonkers news, and football transfers are now an all the year racket, and it is not as if someone has stolen the ball.  (Ball / racket geddit?)  Because amazingly we have apparently just made a signing.  And a really weird one it is.  And I want …

The problem with Wenger’s selection policy is that there are invisible forces at work

By Tony Attwood “ARSENAL FANS ANGRY WITH WENGER’S DECISION MAKING” So screamed one bloggetta headline, with the writer, in my humble opinion, utterly missing the whole point of what was going on. Mind you, so did several people who complained that Jack Wilshere got tired and wasn’t up to much in the latter stages. What …

Misleading crowd comparisons for Arsenal, and PL bail out Liverpool.

By Tony Attwood Much is being made of the fact that we have just seen the lowest attendance ever at the Emirates Stadium.   Where reported it reads like a shock horror tale of absolute decline. But sadly although there are some big headlines around, the reporters don’t give any background to help us make a …

Arsenal v Doncaster. The Arsenal team, and memories of thumping Sheffield Utd 9 years ago.

By Bulldog Drummond 23 September 2008 was one of the most famous days in the years of austerity.  For it was the day that a team of youngsters was put out by Arsenal in the league cup, much to howls of derision from the rest of football. We were told it was unfair on the …

Arsenal v Doncaster: tickets, injuries, form, cards, Totts at Wembley, Liverpool 4 without a win

By Bulldog Drummond First off the tickets: I think there are still some tickets available at the usual prices of upper tier tickets £20.00 Adults and £10.00 Concessions and  lower tier tickets £10.00 Adults and £5.00 Concessions.  They will be on sale until 4pm and then that’s that.  There is no purchasing of tickets thereafter. It is …

Can Doncaster repeat their previous triumphs against Arsenal?

by Tony Attwood Probably the key thing you know about Doncaster is that their manager is the son of Sir Alex Ferguson: Duncan.  He has been manager of Preston, and Peterborough (twice).  He joined Doncaster in October 2015.  And well, if you didn’t know that, you know now. In recent years the club has had …

Kroenke and other American owners plan Premier League revolution, and its going to be big.

  by Tony Attwood How many Premier League teams are under American control?   Come to that how mean English league teams are under American control? It’s an interesting question, because despite all the mega power that exists in being sponsored by a country, as Manchester City is, it doesn’t really give the club that …

Corbyn and Bellerin excommunicate Piers Morgan,

by Tony Attwood Some people are game changers.   Some people like Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan (born Piers Stefan O’Meara now known as Piers Morgan) are name changers.  He’s the man of whom the Leveson enquiry said,he was “sufficiently unembarrassed by what was criminal behaviour that he was prepared to joke about it”. Anyway he was at the GQ …