By Bulldog Drummond To cover up its acceptance of Russia, Fifa expands its powerbase even further Why does English football refuse to act on match-fixing, when the rest of Europe takes it seriously? Of course, if we win all five of our remaining games we will finish fourth and thus be back in the Champions …
Read More “This weekend we’ve got to think of Tottenham, as well as Arsenal”
Why does English football refuse to act on match fixing, when the rest of Europe takes it seriously? by Tony Attwood Fifa knows that by allowing delegates from Russia and Belrus to all its events, including of course the World Cup finals in Qatar, it is opening itself up to criticism. So even before websites …
Read More “To cover up its acceptance of Russia Fifa expands its powerbase even further”
By Tony Attwood In October 2020, under the headline Exclusive: Uefa admit match-fixing is now too big for them to fight it we ran the story about Uefa’s new policy of recruiting private companies to help it fight the scourge of match-fixing. The “Exclusive” tag was not 100% accurate, however – what we should have …
Read More “Why does English football refuse to act on match fixing, when the rest of Europe takes it seriously?”
Part 1: The players Arsenal are planning to buy. Today with have five names that have not been mentioned before among those said to be joining Arsenal this summer. Also seven updates on progress with incoming players. 25 players are meanwhile said to be going away. No Player Source Club Notes 1 Max Aarons Daily …
Read More “The 63 players Arsenal are looking to sign and the 24 being sold this summer”
By Sir Hardly Anyone As you may have noticed if you read our occasional reviews of transfer tittle-tattle, Untold Arsenal doesn’t think much of newspapers and websites that fill up their columns with speculation about who Arsenal are going to sign in the summer, not least because of their accuracy in the past few years, …
Read More “Could Arsenal be about to re-sign Serge Gnabry?”
Corruption in football? Oh look its somewhere else, never here. Super League clubs lose case in the Spanish court. Barcelona in deep trouble By Sir Hardly Anyone In an article for The Players’ Tribune, Xhaka described the “pure hatred” he received from “supporters” when he was booed in the home game against Crystal Palace. “When …
Read More “Xhaka, and how a media/fan conspiracy nearly lost Arsenal an invaluable player”
By Tony Attwood Enquiry into child abuse by employees at football clubs is yet again being hampered by the FA. In the Guardian today you’ll find this comment: The British public has “run out of patience” with English football’s failure to reform itself, the sports minister, Nigel Huddleston, has said, as he confirmed legislation for an …
Read More “Corruption in football? Oh look its somewhere else, never here.”
By Tony Attwood The Spanish judiciary has opened the door to sanctions against the clubs which joined the Super League, by lifting the ban on punishing them, that was imposed a year ago in Spain, following a case bought by Uefa. The new hearing took place in the Madrid Commercial Court according to Le Figaro. …
Read More “Super League clubs lose case in the Spanish court. Barcelona in deep trouble”
By Tony Attwood Of course when Arsenal are losing it is dead simple for the media. The club needs to buy these players immediately, and sack the manager. And let’s report a gathering of a hundred people outside the club as an uprising on the streets. Interestingly the media treats each of these topics rather …
Read More “As Arsenal improve, so the level of wild, unproven attacks on the club rises”
By Dr Billy “the dog” McGraw The last 24 games this season and last: not yet title winning form but getting closer Tottenham and Arsenal have been using very different methods of developing their clubs of late, and as we ponder the notion of getting St Totteringham’s Day back this year (that’s the day when …
Read More “Tottenham and Arsenal, which club is progressing, which is slipping?”
By Tony Attwood From the Guardian feed on yesterday’s match. This is the article that starts: “Arsenal won five in a row not so long ago. They followed up that sequence with four losses in five, then last Wednesday rocked up at Chelsea and routed their London rivals 4-2.” Factually correct of course, but clearly …
Read More “When reporting on Arsenal, reality is the last thing in the journalist’s mind”
by Tony Attwood No one would pretend that this has been a glorious season, just as very few people will recognise the supreme irony of fans who proclaimed that Wenger should go because “fourth was not a trophy” are now anxiously looking at the league table in the hope that we might make fourth after …
Read More “The last 24 games this season and last: not yet title winning form but getting closer”
By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal v Manchester United: the tackles, the fouls and the yellow cards Arsenal v Manchester United. On home / away form we are clear favourites. Because Untold is based in the East Midlands and because of the kick off time of today’s game we’ve just got time for one more article before …
Read More “Arsenal v Manchester United and the implication of the tactics and the team”
By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal v Manchester United. On home / away form we are clear favourites. Elneny and Eddie: what happens now to Arsenal’s heroes against Chelsea? One of the intriguing factors this season is looking to see how various clubs near the top of the league have performed against each other. And indeed as …
Read More “Arsenal v Manchester United and the evolution of Arsenal’s new secret weapon”
By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal v Manchester United. On home / away form we are clear favourites. Manchester United are one of that small number of teams that have beaten Arsenal, more than Arsenal have beaten them. The current score is 100 wins to them, 85 to us with 50 draws. Although to get to this …
Read More “Arsenal v Manchester United: the tackles, the fouls and the yellow cards”
By Bulldog Drummond Elneny and Eddie: what happens now to Arsenal’s heroes against Chelsea? No sooner is one member of the “big six” swatted away with ease than up pops another one ready to be dealt with. But the big news is that Manchester United have finally got their new manager. He is a …
Read More “Arsenal v Manchester United. On home / away form we are clear favourites.”
By Tony Attwood I have long wondered (and occasionally mentioned) my puzzlement over why Mohammed Elneny was not utilised more in the Arsenal team, particularly when we were hit by injuries. Indeed back in 2020 I wrote the headline What do Arsenal have to do to get a good press? Play Partey and Elneny. It had …
Read More “Elneny and Eddie: what happens now to Arsenal’s heroes against Chelsea?”
By Tony Attwood Chelsea v Arsenal: a ray of hope in the recent home and away figures Oh what fun. After such a miserable three results, smashing the Russian Oligarch XI 2-4 at the oil terminal was a wonderful victory. And the “There’s nobody here” song was a beautiful bonus. Even the complete cock up …
Read More “There’s nobody here, just like the old days. Arsenal smother Chelsea”
By Bulldog Drummond Have Arsenal improved or declined in relation to last season? Chelsea v Arsenal: Tackles, fouls and yellow cards Chelsea v Arsenal: a ray of hope in the recent home and away figures We know that Chelsea have a few injury problems, with Mateo Kovacic, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ben Chilwell all out. Alexandre …
Read More “Chelsea v Arsenal: the Arsenal team”
By Bulldog Drummond As we approach tonight’s game against Chelsea there are many correspondents talking as if the whole of Arsenal is a disaster, and suggesting that the management should be changed along with most of the players. It is interesting that this is primarily the result of three games – which is exactly what …
Read More “Have Arsenal improved or declined in relation to last season?”
By Bulldog Drummond We had quite a debate recently after a reader tried to convince us all that the analysis of tackles, fouls and yellow cards was pointless when “everybody knows cards are a product of quality and not quantity of fouls.” Actually, not everyone knew this, simply because it is completely untrue, as the …
Read More “Chelsea v Arsenal: Tackles, fouls and yellow cards”
By Bulldog Drummond The home and away figures of Arsenal and Chelsea return us to a sense of reality after the wild assertions that Refs give yellow cards because of the quality of the fouls committed which according to our correspondent “everyone knows” but which the figures show is completely untrue. Pos Team P W …
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By Tony Attwood La Liga president Javier Tebas, president of La Liga, got rather annoyed with the Super League clubs accusing them of “lying more than Putin.” This was just about the time Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli told an audience at the Financial Times’ “Business of Football Summit” in London last month. “Twelve clubs signed …
Read More “The Super League is still alive and kicking and here’s why”
By Tony Attwood The correspondent known as “Ukp” recently wrote to Untold, commenting on our use of the “tackle/foul/card stats” noting that this is “where you analyse numbers of fouls Vs number of cards and deduce ref bias, when everybody knows cards are a product of quality and not quantity of fouls.” I am not …
Read More “Do refs give yellow cards because of the quality or quantity of the fouls committed?”
What happened to the 134 players said to be coming to Arsenal last summer? Last summer the journalists’ failure rate in predicting transfers was 96%. And what made this even more staggering than the size of that number is that this was their most successful window since we started tracking transfer rumours around ten years …
Read More “The 58 players Arsenal tipped to sign this summer with over 130 days to go”