This year last year: how Arsenal have progressed under Mr Emery

By Tony Attwood One year ago after 25 games the league table in Mr Wenger’s final season had Arsenal 6th on 42 points.  We were eight points off fourth place and the much derided (at the time) challenge for a Champions League place. Team P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Manchester City …

The Arsenal Junior Teams – January Update Part 3 – The Women’s Development Squad

by Andrew Crawshaw Here is the current League table courtesy of fulltime-league.thefa.com POS P W D L GD PTS 1 Reading FC Women Academy 15 11 1 3 30 35 * 2 Liverpool FC Women Academy 11 9 1 1 31 28 3 Chelsea FC Women Academy 13 9 0 4 11 27 4 Arsenal …

Final score and Live match report Manchester City – Arsenal : 3-1

By Walter Broeckx A few changes to the team. Özil drops to the beach and Iwobi starts in his place. Also Xhaka has a slight groin problem and didn’t travel to Manchester. Arsenal starting with 3 central defenders and with 2 players in defensive midfield positions. Arsenal: Leno, Lichtsteiner, Koscielny, Mustafi, Monreal, Kolasinac, Torreira, Guendouzi, …

Manchester City v Arsenal. Who blinks first and the teams.

By Bulldog Drummond.You don’t need me to tell you that Arsenal’s form of this year has been erratic following the hammering by Liverpool. Date Game Res Score 01 Jan 2019 Arsenal v Fulham W 4-1 05 Jan 2019 Blackpool v Arsenal FAC W 0-3 12 Jan 2019 West Ham United v Arsenal L 1-0 19 …

Matchweek 25 – All the games and officials

by Andrew Crawshaw Here, courtesy of premierleague.com are the full details of this weekend’s fixtures.  nb kickoff times 15:00 unless noted otherwise:- Saturday 2 February 12:30 Tottenham Hotspur v Newcastle Referee: Andre Marriner Assistants: Simon Long, Sian Massey-Ellis Fourth official: Lee Probert Brighton v Watford Referee: Simon Hooper Assistants: Daniel Cook, Darren Eaton Fourth official: Roger East Burnley v Southampton Referee: Anthony Taylor …

The Junior Teams January Review – Part 2; the U23s

by Andrew Crawshaw This article continues from the under 18s update. After a strong start to the season, injuries, red cards and players being called up for first team duties had a massive impact on Freddie Ljungberg’s youngsters.  A win and two draws in October were followed by a dreadful November and December which saw …

The problem with the wild west youth policies

By Tony Attwood It was nearly ten years ago that Chelsea were banned from signing any more youth players – a ban that was eventually overturned on appeal. But now Chelsea are once again waiting to see how an enquiry by Fifa into their transfer dealings in the youth market will pan out.  But this …

Denis Suárez joins Arsenal as we get to the “not a trophy” position.

By Tony Attwood Without playing Arsenal have moved up to fourth in the league – the much sought after “not a trophy” position. Team P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Liverpool 24 19 4 1 55 14 41 61 2 Manchester City 24 18 2 4 63 19 44 56 3 Tottenham …

Transfer updates: who has spent and who we are getting today and tomorrow

By Sir Hardly Anyone So far this transfer window the grand net spend or profit of the bigger clubs are Arsenal – nothing Chelsea – £49.1m net spend – Christian Pulisic who was immediately loaned out. Liverpool – £17m net profit Man City – £15m net profit Man U – nothing Tottenham – £11m profit. So …

The curious case of the uneven effect of referee activity in the PL.

by Andrew Crawshaw Below is a table showing matches undertaken by each referee for the ‘top 6’ clubs (I have also included Everton as they have had the most referees this season) Total games Percent featuring top 6 Top 6 games Arsenal Chelsea Liverpool Man C Man U Spurs Everton Anthony Taylor 20 65% 13 …

Final score and live match report Arsenal – Cardiff City : 2-1

By Walter Broeckx Seven changes to the starting line up. Some understandable… some not so. No Maitland-Niles to be seen and Lichtsteiner starting…. But who am I. I hope that Emery proves me and a lot of us wrong at the end of the match. The inclusion of Monreal is more understandable.  Özil starts and …

Arsenal v Cardiff: the team and the track record

By Bulldog Drummond So what of today? We obviously don’t have Sokratis for several games, and although Koscielny seems just to have bruised his jaw rather than had it broken, I suspect he won’t be risked even if he feels fit. Meanwhile it may be just me but I am finding one or two of …

Matchweek 24 – All the Games, All the Officials

by Andrew Crawshaw Here, courtesy of premierleague.com, are the matches for this mid-week round which is Matchweek 24.  Kickoff times are 19:45 unless noted otherwise.  Predictions for some of the games will appear on the Predictions websites.   The Arsenal v Cardiff predictions are already online. Tuesday 29 January Arsenal v Cardiff City Referee: Mike Dean Assistants: Darren Cann, …

The curious case of the uneven effect of referee activity in the PL. Part 2

Caution and Liverpool Part 2 – Some Details By Gordon Haverland This article continues from the previous post  The curious effect of referee actions on the top six clubs this season. Treatments There are two kinds of treatments, the ones where a physio does not come on to the field to bring the player off …

The curious effect of referee actions on the top six clubs this season.

  By Gordon Haverland and Tony Attwood Is there really any evidence that Premier League matches are being rigged via referees?  That is a question that we are often asked, and we have often replied that yes there is some evidence, but it is not definitive.  However we also note how the PGMO which runs …

Out of three of the four competitions already, what does Arsenal do now?

By Tony Attwood If the question above were posed as “What SHOULD Arsenal do now” rather than as it is written, the answer would undoubtedly be very complicated.  But Arsenal commentators on football don’t do complicated – they like simple, easy solutions.   And therein lies another problem. For the problem with simple solutions to complex …

Live match report FA Cup Arsenal – Manchester United : 1-3

By Walter Broeckx Not much changes compared to the team that won from Chelsea. Cech as expected in goal and Maitland-Niles playing in the place of the unlucky Bellerin. Iwobi starting in the place of Guendouzi. Arsenal team at the start: Cech, Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Koscielny, Kolasinac, Torreira, Xhaka, Ramsey, Iwobi, Aubameyang, Lacazette On the beach: …

The FA Cup Fourth Round – All the Games and Match Officials including VAR

by Andrew Crawshaw Here, courtesy of the FA website are the matches and officials for the 16 matches in the FA Cup Fourth Round:- Friday 25 January Bristol City v Bolton Wanderers 7.45pm, Friday 25 January Referee: Stuart Attwell Assistant Referees: Richard West & Lee Venamore Fourth Official: Craig Hicks Arsenal v Manchester United 7.55pm, …

Arsenal v Manchester United, FA Cup. The team

By Bulldog Drummond I imagine that Petr Cech will play in goal, as that seems to be the arrangement and the player has to stay match fit as he is the backup for the rest of the season. In defence we could use the back four approach although obviously we don’t have Hector Bellerin for the rest …

Arsenal v Manchester United: FA Cup 4th round; the form.

By Bulldog Drummond As you will remember Arsenal are constantly being criticised in the media.   And yet for a team which is being heavily criticised, especially for its defence, Arsenal’s home form remains unquestionably good… Home games only Team P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Manchester City 12 11 0 1 40 …

The battle of the two evenly match Cup giants: Arsenal v Manchester United

by Bulldog Drummond These two clubs – Arsenal and Manchester United – utterly dominate the FA Cup between them.  Indeed the total number of finals that they have played in (20 each) dwarf other clubs as the table below shows.   Club Wins Total final appearances Arsenal 13 20 Manchester United 12 20 Liverpool 7 …

With the emphasis on profit against investment Arsenal finances slip

By Tony Attwood The Deloitte Money League which records the position of clubs from a financial point of view shows, for the first time, six English clubs in the world’s top ten football clubs, thanks to Wembley. Wembley is not a club of course but a source of additional revenue for Tottenham Hotspur.  For with …

Who will win the Europa League?

by Robert Johnson Last season, Arsenal were looking like strong contenders for the Europa League. They drew the first leg of the semi-final against Athletico Madrid at the Emirates. However, their Europa League hopes were ended when Diego Costa scored the solo goal in the second leg of the semi-final. After beating Arsenal, Diego Simeone’s …

Arsenal have a worse defence than Newcastle. But strangely the media don’t notice

By Sir Hardly Anyone. There is a rambling article in the Daily Express website that contains this statement…”Arsenal currently sit fifth in the Premier League table but have once again struggled at the back this season.” Now I think a lot of people would go along with that, probably without even thinking about it too …