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 We’ve covered the story about Tottenham’s new stadium a number of times, about the uncertainties and delays, and indeed the changes of plans. Of course there have been some sniggering from the Arsenal end at the club’s delays and misfortunes, and outrage at their having a compliant local authority (which Arsenal most …
By Tony Attwood Getting older is a bit of a pain, especially when bits of you start going wrong. With me of late it is the eyes – but fortunately all can be fixed with cataract surgery. Thank goodness I live in the 21st century. Except, there is a period after the operation is done, …
Blacksheep and I were lucky enough to go to both the semi final and final at Wembley, so we are back there this year. And we are playing… Bradford or Reading It will be our 28th semi final. and thus far have won 18 and lost 9. 28 is more than any other team. Oh …
By Tony Attwood Paul Scholes has now set himself up as a spokesperson for the “Arsenal is in decline” movement claiming that “Over the years, the big players who were really ambitious – Vieira, Thierry Henry, Cesc Fàbregas, Robin van Persie – have all left, “They left for the simple reason that Arsenal are not in …
Read More “Scholes joins the no-evidence “its true cos I say so” gang.”
THE FA Cup Weekend – Match Officials by Andrew Crawshaw Taking the games in the order in which they are to be played Bradford City FC v Reading FC 12:45 Saturday 6 March – Live BT Sport Referee – Lee Mason Assistants – Michael Mullarkey and Marc Perry Fourth Official – Michael Jones Lee has …
By.Don McMahon The recent mini-crisis, otherwise known as the media tempest in a teapot or the aaa meltdown or the night of the brain-dead(the aaa national holiday), allowed me and most of humanity to appreciate how dramatic the media and our fickle aaa plastic fanboys can be. The Wenger out chants once again rang through …
By Bootoomee I chuckled as I read Tony’s epiphany giving up on engaging the AAA in debates about the running of our beloved Arsenal Football Club. I have always gone with the less conciliatory approach of mocking when necessary because as an avid Internet comments reader and poster, I know for a fact that people who …
Read More “The Lies the Media Fabricate and The Gullible Fans Who Spread Them”
By Bulldog Drummond So here we are, nine points behind Chelsea with 11 games to play. On the same date in 1998 we were 11 points behind with 12 to play. And just like now, still in the FA Cup. In 1998 we’d had a fairly awful late autumn, winning two and drawing two league …
Read More “All tonight’s results before they happen and QPR v Arsenal.”
QPR v Arsenal 4th March 2015 – The Match Officials by Andrew Crawshaw With this game so soon after the weekend, I have not been able to update the table of shame so it remains the same as for Sunday. Wrong Important Decisions Favouring Arsenal Favouring Opponents 2nd Yellow Cards 0 15 Red Cards …
Read More “QPR v Arsenal 4/03/15 – The Match Officials. “Pathetic one sided refereeing””
By Tony Attwood Is it all over for Alexis Sanchez? He scored 12 goals in 24 Premier League games – but none in the last six. Why’s that? It is worth looking at because there are early signs in the pubs outside the offices of our national daily papers that Sanchez has had it, he’s …
Read More “The evolution of Alexis and the evolution of the team”
By Tony Attwood “That facts that nowadays the manager clearly hasn’t got a clue about how to set up a team tactically, that his ability to motivate his players is conspicuously lacking and that his Midas touch has gone into reverse, when it comes to developing talent, count for nothing when you consider his stellar …
Read More “Beware this story about Arsenal support is boring and you’ve probably heard it before.”
Arsenal fans at home and away.by pararealist. . Arsenal fans are a strange bunch. . First there are the away fans. . They sing their hearts out for the team and give vocal support whatever is happening on the field. . Then there are the home fans. . Now, the home fans expect to be entertained …
By Tony Attwood One of the things the children who run the mass media and lead their little camp of followers never quite understand is the essence of support. It is emotional, tied to one’s tribe. But us fans also tend to know our statistics. And some of us have actually read a book or …
Read More “Arsenal’s win ratio, two assists from Ozil, and the trick of body language”
By Bulldog Drummond And so it goes. The world as two groups of people. Those who understand the notions of context and history, and those who think that the only thing that matters is what has just happened. I’m reminded of a few acquaintances who I had earlier in my life, who on hearing some …
Read More “Arsenal v Everton. Teams and recent stats compared. (And Chelsea)”
By Tony Attwood I must confess at once that I didn’t write that headline – although I wish I had. It came from News biscuit – a wonderful satirical site, and one I’d recommend to anyone with an off centre sense of humour. The point of their piece is that Representatives of Europe’s biggest …
By Tony Attwood So what are the children chattering about today? Well, the Telegraph, having run the story a day or two back that the Arsenal board were fed up with Mr Wenger have now dropped that one and instead gone with the fact that the transfer budget for this summer will be £50 million. …
Read More “More Arsenal purchases this summer, and how Chelsea are getting such high transfer fees”
Arsenal v Everton – 01 March 2015 – The Match Officials by Andrew Crawshaw Following Walter’s review of the refereeing of the Tottenham game Ref Review Tottenham – Arsenal here is the updated Table of Shame Wrong Important Decisions Favouring Arsenal Favouring Opponents 2nd Yellow Cards 0 15 Red Cards 3 14 Penalties 3 14 …
Read More “Arsenal v Everton – 01 March 2015 – The Match Officials”
By Tony Attwood The highest win rate a club has had in the Premier League, across a complete season is I think, 68%. In January and February prior to the Monaco match, Arsenal achieved a win rate of 80%. Including the Monaco match the ratio for the League, FA Cup and the single Champions League …
Read More “Arsenal: the lines are now clearly drawn. Time to sort out the children.”
What’s happened this year to our junior teams? Part 2 – U18 team By Andrew Crawshaw In Part 1 I looked at the fortunes of our U21 team, (What has happened this year to our Junior Teams?) in this part I will first try and place the U18 setup into the context of the Youth …
By Tony Attwood Last Friday I attended a modern jive dance in Cambridgeshire, despite having an Achilles injury, that should been keeping me off the dance floor for as long as it takes to repair itself. I went because being at home night after night writing about Arsenal and Bob Dylan is OK but ultimately …
FA Youth Cup – Arsenal v Crewe Alexandra Meadow Park, Borehamwood Thursday 19th February Match Report by Andrew Crawshaw Crewe Alexandra FC are currently in 18th place in League 1 (third tier of professional football); the club was formed in 1877 and named after Princess Alexandra, they were founding members of the second division in …
By Tony Attwood When an organisation is battered into a corner the best way out is subterfuge, to make it look as if you are doing something when doing nothing, to suggest x is the issue when it is y and above all to stop people talking about z. The generic terms are “putting up …
Read More “What does an organisation do when its been rumbled?”
By Tony Attwood Many who push out the mantra that coming fourth is not a trophy forget what happened after George Graham won his two league titles. Following the wonder 1991 triumph of just one defeat through the whole season, Arsenal found themselves in 10th in 1993. Worse we scored the lowest number of goals …
Read More “Monaco look like a latter day George Graham team”
By Tony Attwood REDaction, the Arsenal supporters grouping that focuses on the atmosphere at home and away matches has published the results of a survey of over 2,000 Arsenal fans in relation to issues such as kick-off times, ticket prices, and access to live football for younger fans. Of those surveyed (and of course such surveys can’t …
Read More “RedAction and other fans’ groups choose to ignore the older supporter”
By Tony Attwood Today we publish two reports. This introduction s about how José Mourinho is waging his own battle against refereeing decisions. The next is about how the English model of utter secrecy in terms of referee inaccuracy is not the only one possible. About how other countries have come into the open and allowed everyone …
Read More “Why is PGMO giving Mourinho the arena to make all these complaints?”
