Untold Arsenal: Supporting the club, the manager and the team

By Sir Hardly Anyone

Half of the referees who took Arsenal games last season, have had an Arsenal game this season.

The man who took control of five Arsenal games last season and awarded more fouls against Arsenal per game than any other referee has already had four Arsenal games this season. At this […]

By Tony Attwood

There is a piece in the Daily Mail today by Ian Ladyman that says, “Mikel Arteta would finally appear to be moving Arsenal forwards. It has taken a while and his team are still short of where they need to be, but there are signs of progress.”

That sentence symbolises all that […]

By Sir Hardly Anyone

When it all happens at once the football media invariably has one response: ignore it all and say Arsenal’s manager is in trouble.

It really is laughable… Prior to yesterday’s match the Daily Mirror – owners of Football.London, ran the headline Mikel Arteta in danger of repeating Unai Emery mistake […]

By Tony Attwood

We noted last weekend how, in playing Arsenal, Liverpool upped their level of fouling dramatically – and ultimately disrupted both the Arsenal team and the Arsenal manager enough, to be able to take the game.

Newcastle are made of different stuff but once again the foul was the weapon of choice. While […]

By Bulldog Drummond

The story so far: Arsenal v Newcastle and when life in Europe really isn’t worth it

Both Arsenal and Newcastle are at the bottom end of the injury table – Arsenal with two men out and Newcastle with three. This compares with the upper reaches which includes Everton with nine men down, […]

by Tony Attwood

It’s a while since we’ve reiterated the rules on yellow cards (one of our three prime measures of club and player tactics) so in case you have forgotten they are…

Five yellows accumulated before match week 19 results in a one-match ban.

Ten yellows accumulated by week 32 will result […]

By Tony Attwood

According to an “exclusive” in the Daily Mail “Football’s lawmakers IFAB [are planning] to discuss increasing half-time to 25 MINUTES in a bid to accommodate Super Bowl-style entertainment shows.” (Their capitals, not mine. They do that sort of thing in the Mail).

They then go on to talk about the “15 minute […]

By Tony Attwood

Yes one year ago after 12 games played, Tottenham were top of the league. And just to prove that I am not making it all up, here is the table

Team P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Tottenham Hotspur 12 7 4 1 24 10 14 25 2 Liverpool […]

By Tony Attwood

What helps a club get to toward the top of the league? Is it a policy of team rotation and using lots of players? Or the number of tackles that the side put in? Or maybe a propensity for fouling. Or perhaps the opposite – not fouling. Or maybe it is changing […]

by Tony Attwood

Gary Hoffman has left his job as chair of the Premier League after just 18 months in the job.

The reason is that the 18 clubs other than Newcastle and Manchester City didn’t like the way they were not consulted over giving the Saudi sovereign wealth fund the ok to […]

By Tony Attwood

The Arsenal policy, as we have tracked it over recent years, is to try and cut tackles down dramatically, and this of course has changed Arsenal’s style of play. In the end the referees are forced to reduce the number of fouls given against Arsenal players, simply because we are not tackling.

[…]

by Bulldog Drummond

Now here’s a sentence you don’t see everyday in the Evening Standard. Liverpool, we are told, are

Facing an Arsenal side in excellent form,

OK pause for a moment to pick yourself up off the floor, before we proceed to notice that the only problem with the little article is […]

By Bulldog Drummond

Arsenal enter the game against Liverpool with a significant disadvantage. In fact two significant disadvantages.

Which is interesting as the clubs are not that far apart from each other in the way they play. Arsenal make just about one tackle more per game than Liverpool. Given the speed and number of events […]