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 Bulldog Drummond Both the Mail and Telegraph have reports on Mikel Arteta saying that Arsenal play better without fans. He’s probably the first Arsenal manager to say something along these lines since Herbert Chapman denounced the “boo boys” back in the 1930s. The Mail actually has Arteta saying, “When they play in front of …
Read More “Arsenal v Leicester, Leicester’s declining tackles, Arteta confirms tactic”
By Tony Attwood “The attempt to damage the club’s reputation is organized and clear.” With that one simple statement from Manchester City, the world of football changed, as did the world of football journalism. The ramifications for the club, Uefa, and for independent journalism are still reverberating. And they might well reverberate even more when …
Read More “New security systems hints at threat to serious journalism after Man C case”
By Tony Attwood The Daily Mail’s headline comment, “‘They don’t have much to celebrate’: Jose Mourinho bites back at Arsenal tweet mocking their defeat by Sheffield United… but Spurs face a task to finish above their rivals ahead of Everton clash,” reminded me that even the media’s favourites must sometimes slip down the pecking order …
Read More “The media always have their favourites, but eventually even they begin to have doubts”
By Sir Hardly Anyone This summer is clearly going to come out with the all time record for the number of players tipped to be coming to Arsenal by the all-seeing, all-knowing media. And to be clear these are not the players that pundits are saying Arsenal “ought to sign” – if we included those …
Read More “115 players tipped to be Transferring to Arsenal this summer: the full list.”
By Tony Attwood There is no doubt that lockdown has changed things. Since the League returned without crowds in stadia, results have reversed, as indeed happened in Germany, with home wins now being the least likely, rather than the most likely result. It is more than likely that referee bias has a significant part to …
Read More “Arsenal reveal post-lock down results are a very different matter”
by Bulldog Drummond As we saw in yesterday’s piece, Wolverhampton have been on a fine run of form, both before and after the break. Date Game Res Score Competition 01 Mar 2020 Tottenham Hotspur v Wolverhampton W W 2-3 Premier League 07 Mar 2020 Wolverhampton W v Brighton and Hove D 0-0 Premier League 12 …
Read More “Wolverhampton W V Arsenal: the teams and recent games”
By Bulldog Drummond Fox Sports is reporting that Arsenal have been fined around £50,000 and warned about its future conduct regarding transfers after the club inserted restricted sell-on clauses in transfer contracts. This news follows the release of Fifa legal documents which have been seen by The Associated Press and relate to the departure of …
Read More “Arsenal fined for misconduct in transfers; misleading statements; injuries”
By Tony Attwood Christophe Jost spotted a comment by Bixente Lizarazu after Arsenal’s last match which intrigued both of us. Lizarazu, as you may know played for Bordeaux and Bayern Munich and got 97 caps for the French national team. So one might think he is a man who most certainly has earned the right …
Read More “The Lawrence award for misleading information designed to put Arsenal down”
By Bulldog Drummond We know from all the research we have been able to unearth just how ghost games influence the referees. Now with teams having played several games since the resumption of football after the lock down phase of the season, we can start looking at just how the experience of playing ghost games …
Read More “The strange statistics that emerge as a result of the lockdown”
by Tony Attwood and Christophe Jost Arsenal winning 4-0 at the Ems…. no boo boys (as Chapman called them), no insults… That undoubtedly helped us. Indeed it is possible that Arsenal might be one of the few teams that sees their home results go up during the lock down, simply because the players know how …
Read More “Empty stadia has changed football in the PL totally. Here’s how.”
By Tony Attwood On 11 December 2019 the table looked like this… Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts 1 Liverpool 16 15 1 0 40 14 26 46 2 Leicester City 16 12 2 2 39 10 29 38 3 Manchester City 16 10 2 4 44 19 25 32 4 …
Read More “Leicester’s strange tackle / foul / yellow figures change as they slip down the league”
By Bulldog Drummond Physioroom is not showing much change in terms of injuries with eight players out. Player Reason Further Detail Potential Return Condition Status Calum Chambers Knee Injury Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury – ACL Injury 29/08/2020 None Ruled Out David Luiz Knee injury “Right knee. Being assessed ahead of Norwich City.” 01/07/2020 Late fitness …
Read More “Arsenal v Norwich: the fighting, the enquiry, the injuries, the team”
By Bulldog Drummond It has been so long since Arsenal played a home game that going back to the Arsenal Stadium will probably feel like an away game to the players. And since we have won the last two away games that could be a help. But since it is technically a home game let’s …
Read More “Arsenal v Norwich: remembering Arsenal’s only home league defeat to Norwich”
By Tony Attwood In the article Is Arsenal a dysfunctional club as Mislintat suggests? I tried to look at what Sven Mislintat had said about Arsenal after his departure. He came to the club as an acclaimed talent spotter and recruiter, but left after 14 months full of very bitter talk about Arsenal and how, …
Read More “Is Arsenal’s transfer policy a hopeless mess as Mislintat has said?”
by Tony Attwood The Daily Mail recently admitted in a headline that “The media play a massive role in the perceptions of players… it is subliminal”. That was a pretty important statement, but it took the Guardian to come out with the unwholesome reality with its headline: Groundbreaking report reveals racial bias in English football …
Read More “The racist bias in football reporting and its implication for all commentary”
By Tony Attwood It all began in March when the Daily Mail ran the headline “FA set to make £20m loss”. That wouldn’t have worried too many people – after all an organisation the size of the FA might make occasional losses one year and then pick up the next year. And we know that …
Read More “FA to lose yet more money in a year of losing money”
By Tony Attwood Before during and after the quarter final match involving Arsenal, Talk Sport which had the licence to broadcast the radio commentary for the game could have mentioned that a win for Arsenal would keep them at the top of the semi-final appearances table. They might have noted that Arsenal have won the …
Read More “Even by their own awful standards, yesterday’s radio commentary was dire”
By Bulldog Drummond. There’s an amusing preview to this match on the BBC website in which “Lawro” says “Sheffield United do not look like they have got a goal in them at the moment” and then goes on to predict a scoreline of 1-1 with Sheffield winning on penalties. Rather quaintly Lawro (not his real …
Read More “Sheffield Untidy v Arsenal – the lineup, the injuries and the chitterchatter”
By Bulldog Drummond. The early news is that David Luiz is obviously available having taken a two match ban and we know that Cedric Soares is fit. Tierney seems to be ok, but Torreira isn’t match fit. Leno, Chambers, Pablo Mari and Gabriel Martinelli are all out for the rest of the season. What psychological …
Read More “Sheffield United v Arsenal; FA Cup 5, but no replay if it’s a draw.”
By Sir Hardly Anyone It is many of long month since I have ventured towards the Toppled Bollard public house – denizen of the dead beat deadwood and the basically dead, who act as so-called “football journalists” to the world at large. But called upon to show my nephew Percy Passage from ‘tup norf (ie …
Read More “As the curfew is lifted, the Toppled Bollard centre for creative writing, re-opens”
By Tony Attwood Of course one can’t begrudge Liverpool fans from having their celebrations for the last couple of nights. True, they might have spread the virus somewhat, but it will only be between themselves, and those people all chose to gather in a group after the club celebrated their thirty year trip to win …
Read More “So just how long will it take Liverpool to catch up with Arsenal?”
By Tony Attwood “‘An absolute mess’: Inside Arsenal, a ‘dysfunctional’ club desperate for a reset.” So reads the headline to an article in the Independent website. And it continues, “The very structure of the club is in question with problems mounting for head coach Mikel Arteta as he bids to return them to where they …
Read More “Is Arsenal a dysfunctional club as Mislintat suggests?”
By Tony Attwood You may recall the hatred piled upon David Luiz because of two errors that led to goals. And the view expressed that it showed how awful Arsenal were not only in taking him on but also playing him. But if you read English blogs and newspaper columns you might have read that …
Read More “Player errors that lead to a goal; it is not quite what you might expect”
By Bulldog Drummond As you may expect our record against Southampton across the years is not bad, but we did have a bit of a blip in 2014 to 2016 losing four out of seven games. Date Game Res Score Competition 23 Sep 2014 Arsenal v Southampton L 1-2 League Cup 03 Dec 2014 Arsenal …
Read More “Southampton v Arsenal: things are not looking so good.”
By Bulldog Drummond These are not the best of times for Southampton at home or Arsenal away. Indeed in terms of Southampton at home we are looking at the bottom of the league. Club P W D L F A GD Pts 16 Aston Villa 15 5 3 7 19 26 -7 18 17 AFC Bournemouth …
