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 It may seem hard to believe but there was a time in the latter part of the 20th century when the Football League Division 1 had a “big four” made up of Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool and Everton. Sometimes that was a big five, because Manchester United were included when they were …
Read More “The finances of the top clubs are weird and not wholly sustainable.”
By Sir Hardly Anyone Each year we gather together the rumours of players coming and going in relation to Arsenal, and then at the end look at how many we got and how many were correct. The normal figure is around 110 players rumoured to be coming and most of the existing squad leaving. The …
Read More “The 27 players Arsenal are tipped to buy and the 16 who are leaving”
By Tony Attwood With the media awash with nonsense rumours about who Arsenal are going to sign I thought it might be worth looking back at the players we signed last summer and in January. Here is the table, with the values taken from Transfer Market, although quite how they calculate the market value of …
By Sir Hardly Anyone This week I met up with Poswinch McKillybody, to get the latest “Fleet Street” ravings. I must admit I thought he looked under the weather, looking somewhat like a halibut which had been asked by another halibut to lend it 20 quid till next Wednesday. When I mentioned this to another …
Read More “Laca off the Barcelona, Auba to Real Mad & Sokratis leaving if no Champs League”
By Tony Attwood This is the time when newspapers do their summary of the league season, an exercise which is in part the offering of opinion (fair enough) but also an exercise in deflection. “Deflection” is known by many names but in essence it involves focussing attention on one topic while ignoring another, which is …
Read More “Gripes, innovations and bias: the curious world of the football journalist”
by Andrew Crawshaw After our agonising third place finish last season, one point behind Manchester City, hopes were high at the start of this season that second place and Champions League qualification would be an achievable objective this time round. We had recruited well in summer with Pauline Peyraud-Magnin, Tabea Kemme, Lia Walti, Viktoria Schnaderbeck …
Read More “Arsenal Women WSL Champions – how the season unfolded”
By Tony Attwood For this article I’ve looked back over the last ten seasons, comparing the key aspects of each season. Here’s the table for the top six at the end of this season… Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts 1 Manchester City 38 32 2 4 95 23 72 98 …
Read More “How did Emery compare with Wenger? A comparison of seasons”
By Tony Attwood I have no objection to people presenting their opinions, and of course I do it all the time. But I am troubled by some of the opinions I see. For example, the Guardian newspaper recently ran a column in which one supporter of each Premier League club was invited to write a …
Read More “The aftermath: what one fan thought of Arsenal’s season”
By Sir Hardly Anyone Of course Liverpool v Tottenham will not be the first Champions League final involving a club that is not a champion in their own country. Indeed I am not sure if there haven’t been Champions Leagues finals in which neither club involved is a champion either in the season of the …
Read More “Presenting a champions league final without champions – and without comment”
by Andrew Crawshaw I know I am late with this review, I can only apologise and claim extenuating circumstances. The Women’s Super League Season finished on Saturday, a day before the Men’s Premier League and whilst it didn’t have quite the same drama, as Arenal had won the League with a game to spare, it …
Read More “Arsenal v Manchester City (Women) match review of the end of season game”
By Don McMahon We beat Valencia 4-2 at their home ground. What a useless lot of twits Arsenal are, taking so much time to beat a team that had almost never lost in Valencia! That’s the inveterate critics view….. From a psychological and cognitive point of view, backed up by neurological evidence and a vast …
Read More “Arsenal: When rightful criticism turns into baseless negativity”
By Bulldog Drummond In a later post I will consider how this season has gone compared to recent Wenger seasons, but as we all know we already have four more points than we had at the end last year. As for how it will all pan out in this game, the manager said in the …
Read More “Burnley v Arsenal, past games, coming below the Tiny Totts, and the teams”
By Bulldog Drummond And this is it for another season, except for that little issue lurking a few weeks away of the 7th European final in the history of the club (I’m not counting the super cup) to be played in front of 6000 Arsenal fans in the furthest reaches of Europe with no direct …
Read More “Why a win against Burnley is utterly vital to avoid chaos at the start of next season”
By Sir Hardly Anyone. There was much to-do this morning as Bumpus McGreggor fell into the Toppled Bollard, watering hole of the football journalist elite, for his usual pre-work quart and chaser. For he had about him a look which clearly indicated that he had a story that was clearly his and clearly no one …
Read More “We may be in a final, but we can only afford Championship players”
By Tony Attwood As you might expect the media is full of the glory of four England clubs being in the two European finals. BBC Radio 4 didn’t actually mention that three of these clubs are based in London, and very noticeably listed Arsenal as an afterthought after celebrating Chelsea’s win on penalties, but yes, …
Read More “Arsenal have a desperately awful team. So how come we made the final?”
By Walter Broeckx Arsenal standing in front a this match that could define the first season under Emery as a success or as more of the same as the season before. Team at the start: Cech, Koscielny, Sokratis, Monreal, Maitland-Niles, Xhaka, Torreira, Kolasinac, Ozil, Aubameyang, Lacazette. On the beach : Leno, Mustafi, Elneny, Guendouzi, Mkhitaryan, …
Read More “Final score and live match report EL Valencia – Arsenal : 2-4 (agg 3-7)”
By Bulldog Drummond The question is simple: do the recent reversals and upsets in the league make the players more determined in the Europa semi-final, or do those reversals leave them worried about making a mistake, tentative for fear of being the one to let in a goal? We know the season is gone and …
Read More “Valencia v Arsenal. Media predicts Arsenal will play with only 10 men.”
By Lindo Shabangu Why maybe it’s not all so bad over there at the Arsenal! Ok, here we go, my attempt to write a coherent expression of my thoughts and conderluded feelings towards my team, the gooners. I read an article the other evening in the Sun whilst on my Lithuanian family holiday – …
Read More “Why maybe it’s not all so bad over there at the Arsenal!”
By Tony Attwood It is of course not just the media that constantly attack Arsenal players and seek to undermine them by suggesting that the current crop of players are no good, will soon be sold and that new players will be brought in. For there are some people who sit near me in Arsenal …
Read More “Ceaselessly abusing Arsenal players while winning 3-1 can’t be good for any of us.”
By Sir Hardly Anyone. Football journalists love what in the olden days was called “browsing and sluicing” and is now called something somewhat more basic. Now many of them look like the warrior Tetraites, 30 years after retiring and having had several late nights out on the town. That is to say, rather gone to …
Read More “The negative effect that transfer rumours can have on the brain.”
By Tony Attwood Just Arsenal News recently published an article titled “It’s Arsenal’s fault for appointing a clown as the manager” and it immediately became one of the most read articles among the Arsenal blogs and online newspaper columns. And I think it is quite wrong. The essence of the article is that Emery should …
Read More “Mr Emery is not a clown, and Arsenal’s failure is not his fault”
By Tony Attwood If you went for a stroll around Arsenal Stadium during the close season last summer you might well have been surprised by the amount of scaffolding against the walls of the ground. It went all the way round and as a result passers by found their from Arsenal station aross to Holloway …
Read More “Emirates Cup returns: but what does that mean for the stadium development?”
By Walter Broeckx Arsenal starting their last home match with a few changes. Maitland-Niles is suspended after his amazing double yellow card at Leicester so we see Lichtsteiner for the first time in a long time and probably a last time. Arsenal team: Leno, Lichtsteiner, Sokratis, Mustafi, Monreal, Torreira, Xhaka, Mkhitaryan, Özil, Aubameyang, Lacazette On …
Read More “Final score and live match report Arsenal – Brighton & Hove Albion : 1-1”
By Bulldog Drummond Before the matches this weekend the story was that “If Tottenham and Chelsea both win and Arsenal don’t beat Brighton, they won’t be able to qualify for the Champions League via the league.” As it was even the traditionally pro-Tottenham media had to back off their latest display, the Guardian noting “they …
Read More “Arsenal v Brighton: the line ups and the media comments”
By Sir Hardly Anyone Roll up roll up roll up. Take a deep breath, pause, prepare a tumbler full of your favourite tipple, swallow hard and settle yourself down for another cart load of gibberish, fresh (well freshish) from the keyboards of those not yet disinfected. For it is 9am in the Toppled Bollard, drinking …
