This is what happens when the media are left alone and allowed to define football

. They don’t accord us the basic rights that even a murderer gets. By Tony Attwood If you have been reading Untold for a while you will know that part of our view is that a lot of information about football that should be discussed and made public isn’t.  Hence the name “Untold”. By discussing …

Exposed! How Northern bias affects match results, injury tables and the National team.

Exposed! How Northern bias affects match results, injury tables and the National team.   By Proud Kev Okay, it’s a sensational headline. The sort of thing you see on a daily basis by those employed to make up stories. Except this isn’t a made up story. This is based on something Untold often refer to …

Top Games Arsenal Have Won As Underdogs

This article looks at the top football matches that Arsenal have been victorious in when they have gone into the game as underdogs. Arsenal are one of the most decorated teams in English football and have been a major European force for a number years but they are not always the favourites going into games …

Wenger prepares to buy replacement for Coquelin. Trouble is the replacement is injured

. The 20 players Arsenal are apparently just about to sign By Sir Hardly Anyone. . There has been a change in the way that some newspapers are reporting the stories of transfers this January, with anxious editors trying hard to distance themselves from the utter fantasy world of the bloggettas and instead look as …

Just how badly has the recent dip affected Arsenal’s chances of winning the league?

By Tony Attwood The late autumn is a time when Arsenal can dip; we’ve seen it before.  Indeed if you look at where Arsenal stood after 15 games in recent years you get this table of positions in the league Year After 15 games Season end 2015 2 2014 6 3 2013 1 4 2012 …

Arsenal Reserves v Very Fat Sam’s team: the view from behind

by Sir Hardly Anyone (complete with new names – see below). I was a little surprised to hear that prices were not reduced for yesterday’s game, given that Arsenal put their reserve side out.  I mean, normally speaking reserve matches are free at the Emirates. And I know it was the reserves because just before …

Arsenal v Sunderland: 5 December 2015 – The Match Officials

Arsenal v Sunderland 5 December 2015 – The Match Officials by Andrew Crawshaw As I write this (Wed PM) there hasn’t been a referee review published this week so the Table of Shame remains as I gave it last week:- Wrong Important Decisions Favouring Arsenal Favouring Opponents 2nd Yellow Cards 0 14 Red Cards 0 …

Bloody hell it’s Fat Sam again. Time to get out the very big bus park.

. Four of the last seven games at the Ems between Arsenal and Sunderland have been 0-0.  Bus parking anyone?   By Bulldog Drummond Watching the Norwich game on TV I was amazed first at how flippant the commentary was about Alexis Sánchez being pushed into the TV camera pit and then amazed at myself …

New Stamford Bridge, the Olympic stadium and a new ground for Everton. It isn’t so easy.

By Tony Attwood Chelsea have released some plans of what the new Stamford Bridge home will look like if it gets planning permission.  If matters go at all like New White Hart Lane, New Stamford Bridge will change quite a few times and be subject to years of delay before it gets built. But maybe Chelsea’s …

Evidence based football reporting. It can’t be catching on. Can it?

By Tony Attwood If you are a regular reader of Untold Arsenal you will know that one of the fundamentals of our approach is that football opinions are fine, but there is also space for evidence based football reporting to balance out the opinion based reporting.   Indeed there is so much opinion based reporting …

The FA has just left the last chance saloon and is now more likely to be corrupt than Spectre

By Tony Attwood “Spectre is less likely to be corrupt than Fifa.” I love Marina Hyde’s phrase in the Guardian – not only because it is funny but also because it is true. . And that truth was to be found in the latest round of arrests that Walter covered on Untold yesterday.  For one …

Why the purchase of part of Man City by the Chinese state is a matter for concern

Football has in fact just become a front for political and economic maneuvering. By Tony Attwood. Sometimes in football numbers just don’t add up.  Sadly when this happens the politics always does add up, and the result can be rather alarming. And indeed there is something worth considering which is tucked away in the recent news …

One newspaper breaks ranks to support Untold’s research into referee bias

By Tony Attwood It has only taken them six years, but I suppose better late than never. Untold Arsenal has been regularly publishing referee reviews for a long old time, showing over and over again there are clear cases of either gross incompetence of systematic bias by Premier League referees.   We’ve even had a …

Arsenal have managed to halve muscle injuries sustained by Academy players

“The amount of muscle injuries sustained by young players in the Academy there has been cut in half over the last three years.” By Tony Attwood   The story concerns Des Ryan, Arsenal’s head of sports medicine and athletic development and the headline above the story reads, “Galway native Des Ryan has managed to halve …

The decline of Chelsea and the foresight of Wenger all explained in one player

By Tony Attwood Do take a look at the link to the Indy video at the end.  Try not to laugh.  At least not too much.  You don’t want your boss to know you’re watching football rather than working. In June 2014 Cesc Fabregas signed for Chelsea. At £27 million, he was cheaper than Alexis Sánchez, …

Norwich Arsenal, the facts and figures and some made up stuff too.

By Bulldog Drummond Continuing the most in-depth and at times slightly silly preview of the match, which has already included Norwich v Arsenal: Arsenal to field only nine players because of injury crisis Bumping into the Arsenal squad at London Luton Airport, and toffs, when coming out of Norwich Norwich v Arsenal 29 November 2015 …

Norwich v Arsenal: Arsenal to field only nine players because of injury crisis

 By Bulldog Drummond . Yes it certainly is tough days for Arsenal with everyone including have the managerial staff, most of the ball boys and girls and quite a few of those people who stand in the gangways so you can’t get to and from your seat easily, all injured. . I know this to …

Bumping into the Arsenal squad at London Luton Airport, and toffs when coming out of Norwich

By Tony Attwood Last night, me and the Arsenal team went to Luton Airport. Unfortunately we didn’t bump into each other but of course we might have done, and in these days of football journalism even a 1% chance is worthy of a headline claiming it happened. I was there to meet Mandy who was …

Norwich v Arsenal 29 November 2015 – The Match Officials

Norwich v Arsenal 29 November 2015 – The Match Officials by Andrew Crawshaw One new referee reviews to add in to the Table of Shame which now looks like this :- Wrong Important Decisions Favouring Arsenal Favouring Opponents 2nd Yellow Cards 0 14 Red Cards 0 7 Penalties 1 11 Goals 0 4 Total 1 …

When opinion is formed without evidence it can get screamingly side-splittingly funny

By Tony Attwood On Thursday 26 November the sports editor of the Guardian ordered his staff out of the pub and told them to write articles under the heading Premier League: the race for the title (and Europe) A thrillingly open Premier League season has left more than half the teams chasing big prizes. We …

A big stick to beat our dead horse with

……….Don McMahon “The big sticks they carry are in reality tiny twigs and the dead horse they try and beat is, in actual fact, a magnificent stallion that is beginning to kick their collective arses and will rise above them all come May.”   Arsenal are now in a crisis of sorts, having lost to …

Who would you chose to be in your team? Irrespective of the fact that they are not available

. MY  EXTREME   FANTASY  FOOTBALL TEAM . . From  The Brickfields Gunners  Blog . . Do you remember that  great old  football  ad from Nike where the devil ‘s team took on the stars of world football? No?   Here quickly watch it and get up to speed.  ‘After Chelsea’s poor start to the …

Northampton and Leeds in a mess; using taxpayers money, the role of the local MP; the hopelessness of the League.

by Tony Attwood Why is it that football clubs make such easy pickings for criminals?  We’ve often noted clubs from Portsmouth to Rangers and the way they have been destroyed from within and you might wonder if the Football League and Scottish League shouldn’t by now be alert to the tricks that crooks play within …

Which is the dirtiest team in the Premier League, who are the dirtiest players?

By Tony Attwood Following my occasional jaunts around statistics in terms of how well expensive players do when they are brought into a team, and how many players are injured, I thought it might be interesting to look at the team committing the most fouls in the Premier League. I’m interested in this because my …