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 Last month every media outlet this side of Proxima Centuri told us at least 15 times that November was Arsenal’s worst month. Only one outlet (this one) gave the reason why November was Arsenal’s worst month. The reason is that whereas in the olden days, the fixture list was drawn at random …
Read More “Everton v Arsenal: a case study of changing managers”
Wenger May Not Be Special But He’s Definitely Something More … By Tai Emeka Obasi. Arsene Wenger is a man many get away with insulting, cajoling, taunting, etc… just because he’s too modest to dwell on unnecessary inanities. Few seasons ago, one man who hates the Arsenal manager with so much passion to promise …
Read More “Wenger May Not Be Special But He’s Definitely Something More …”
By Tony Attwood Topping the group in the pre-Christmas Champions League is something that a lot of fuss was made about, until Arsenal did it this year, when the story suddenly changed to one in which it was pointed out that we could be drawn against opposition that was just as tough as if we …
Read More “What are the actual benefits of topping the Champions League group this season?”
By Tony Attwood Over the last couple of days I have been asking my colleagues on Untold who work on the referee reports whether overall referee decisions have been improving during the course of the season. I had hoped that with our exposure of referee ineptitude and with the news that there might soon be …
Read More “Over half the important decisions made by Premier League referees are wrong.”
By Tony Attwood First, sorry I am late this morning. After the match yesterday, the underground system was in total chaos, with the gates closed against the crowds at both Arsenal and Finsbury Park stations. No one knew what was going on, no one bothered with announcements. And why should the authorities bother? We …
Read More “The most grotesque appalling display by a referee; the most disgraceful awful fans.”
By Bulldog Drummond Arsène Wenger perhaps mindful of the contract negotiations with Alexis decided to make Alexis the key part to his interviews yesterday – particularly speaking about converting Alexis from a winger to a forward and how long it has taken. “I think he has found a good mixture,” Mr Wenger said. “He knows …
Read More “Arsenal v team whose supporters think it is cool to boo a player their man crippled”
By Tony Attwood The Guardian has the story, although it is tucked away as the 17th item down on the home page of its football coverage website. The Telegraph covered it as a possibility back in October but has had nothing since. The Independent has not touched it. CNN has a short piece. Sputnik …
Read More “At long last; legal action against Fifa over maltreatment of workers in Qatar begins”
By Tony Attwood This season there appears to have been a bit of an upsurge in goal scoring with the top six having knocked in 173 goals so far. The difference between the top club and the sixth club is 13 points. P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Chelsea 14 11 1 …
Read More “We can we learn after the first 14 games? A comparison with past years.”
By Tony Attwood In my little piece on the 36 passes that led to the second Arsenal goal on Tuesday I tentatively mentioned the psychological factors involved in making a good team become great, and then greater still. “Tentatively mentioned” because psychological factors are the exact antithesis of the “evidence of my own eyes” approach, …
Read More “The psychology index: how the way players feel influences how they play”
By Sir Hardly Anyone It must be difficult for sports editors when Arsenal win games, and doubly so when they start knocking in lots and lots of goals. Six against Ludogorets, five against West Ham, four against Basel, Sunderland and Hull… What makes it even tougher to take is when a few of these editors’ …
Read More “Arsenal to lose Özil and Alexis this summer as journalists ordered back on the job”
By Tony Attwood Can you imagine what the response would have been if it had all gone wrong last night? Arsene Wenger had the choice: go with a full blooded first team selection and not only aim for a win but hope that PSG stumbled, or put more back up players into the team and …
Read More “36 consecutive passes leading up to the second goal and the feelgood factor rises”
By Tony Attwood So before we go any further time to look at the goal scorers Rank Player Club Goals 1 Diego Costa Chelsea 11 Alexis Sánchez Arsenal 3 Sergio Agüero Manchester City 10 Alexis has also got a couple of goals in Europe. So as we look forward to tonight’s game it is …
Read More “Basel v Arsenal: the teams, the stats, the preview”
By Tony Attwood Every football journalist and most of the bloggettas have told us throughout November that ARSENAL ALWAYS DO BADLY IN NOVEMBER. I wrote it in capitals just in case you hadn’t caught it before. After all it must be very important to know this because they have told us over and over …
Read More “We all know November is Arsenal’s worst month. But what about December?”
Consistently wrong but never in doubt by Don McMahon While surfing various Arsenal and Football websites this week I was impressed and astonished by the number of spurious and unsolicited, unsupported and undeniably wrong posts that misnamed supporters feel it is their democratic right to publish. There are numerous memes that filter through the Ethernet …
By Tony Attwood “Did the new stadium force Ogbonna to misplace a pass that handed Arsenal an early lead? Was the new stadium responsible for West Ham’s half-baked recruitment over the summer?” These questions are posed by the Daily Telegraph, and their conclusion (without of course considering any evidence, for that is never their way) …
Read More “Just how much impact did the stadium have in Arsenal’s 5-1 win on Saturday?”
By Tony Attwood The English papers (other than the Sunday Times) are making little of the financial scandal that erupted across Europe yesterday – perhaps because they were not part of the group that put the research together, perhaps because in their superior manner they think their readers won’t be able to follow the details. …
Read More “What exactly is the finance scandal surrounding Mourinho and C Ronaldo?”
By Bulldog Drummond. It appears that each UK taxpayer has paid about £27 towards giving the club previously known as West Ham a new home for free. Given the number of taxpayers in the country, that is quite an alarming figure. But of course we just get on with it, and let the government treat …
Read More “WHU v Arsenal. The teams, the tactics, the injuries, the cost.”
By Bulldog Drummond Interesting reports today that even though Héctor Bellerín and Mathieu Debuchy, are out injured Carl Jenkinson won’t play at the Tax Payers Stadium (TPS) because Mr Wenger feels Carl is suffering a crisis of confidence. Traditionally psychological reasons for not playing players have been scorned by the pundits and sneered at by …
Read More “State Aid United v Arsenal: no Jenkinson, no Santi, and the problem of moving home”
By Tony Attwood Arsene Wenger has established his most formidable squad for five years – Arsenal will win honours So says Steve Stammers in the Daily Mirror, and just in case you don’t quite believe it and think it is a spoof he goes on… The Gunners crashed out of the League Cup in midweek …
Read More “When the press start saying Arsenal will win honours it is time to start worrying”
By Tony Attwood Commander BJ Harrington, of the Metropolitan Police, one of the police’s most senior football match officers has been talking about the difficulties of keeping law and order outside the Tax Payers Stadium. He did this in giving evidence to the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee, saying, “If you are intent on disorder, you …
Read More “Three times as many arrests at Arsenal as at State Aid Utd? Up to a point Ms Copper”
By Tony Attwood Santi is out for three months, during which time he will have an operation and now the news has broken the media is packed with speculation, because speculation is what the media does worst (at least in terms of predicting the future). In essence there are three possibilities over what to do. …
A kinder Arsenal world…….Don McMahon Recent UK media and press criticism of the Arsenal, after a few uninspired ties and lacklustre performances in the EPL and the CL, exaggerated and exacerbated by our very own aaa trolls, brought me to a point where I questioned the sanity of the aforementioned accomplices. I have adapted an …
By Tony Attwood There is a Marina Hyde article in the Guardian today about the sexual abuse of footballers. It is an article which is so powerful, so insightful, and so very much getting to the key point, that if it would not be a breach of copyright I would reproduce it here. Instead, here …
Read More “As darkness descends on the football world what can the response be?”
By Tony Attwood So for the second match in a row we play the team in 10th position. Here’s the home and away table Home Away W D L F A W D L F A GD Pt 1 Chelsea 6 0 1 20 4 4 1 1 9 6 +19 31 2 Liverpool 5 …
Read More “Arsenal v Southampton: you can prove anything with figures (or not)”
By Tony Attwood Lucas Perez is being tipped to play again in the League Cup quarter-final against Southampton tonight; Olivier Giroud has an injury – either hamstring or groin depending on the source of information. The Giroud injury is said not to be too serious and that omitting him tonight is just a precaution. Chuba …
Read More “Arsenal v Southampton: the preview, plus Bellerin’s quick recovery”
