Two players absolutely totally dead certain to sign for Arsenal plus new Director of Football

By Sir Hardly Anyone And those two players are… “£26m star ready to snub Man Utd to join Arsenal after Gunners make contact over deal” That headline is from Football-Talk and it relates to Yannick Carrasco. The other player comes through this headline… “Offer accepted: Player agrees Arsenal transfer after chat with Unai Emery, talks between …

Who will spend money this window, and what Pochettino said about Wenger.

By Tony Attwood One can’t help but smile when one sees headlines such as “Jurgen Klopp facing defensive crisis as Liverpool lose Dejan Lovren to hamstring injury” in the Telegraph, especially if one thinks, “What would they  have said about Arsenal?  And come to that what they have said about Arsenal – although Liverpool didn’t …

Arsenal Women’s Football update – Mind the gap!

by Andrew Crawshaw Following the Christmas break the Women’s league games restarted on Sunday. We started the WSL matches with a 12:30 kickoff away at West Ham.  The match was shown by the BBC on their red button and on-line services in the UK so a decent picture, even if accompanied by annoying commentators. Team …

The Top 5 most likely transfers for Arsenal that you are not supposed to know about

By Sir Hardly Anyone Now we are all used to wild and weird transfer rumours popping up and turning out to be completely untrue, but then there is something else.  For the Daily Excess today published an article on the five players Arsenal are most likely to sign. Nothing odd about that, of course, but …

The Inside Story: how today’s football rumours all come from one source

By Sir Hardly Anyone, our man on the inside. Ever wondered how a club like Arsenal can be so chaotic in its transfer dealings and player management?  Or how there are so many football rumours all swirling around at once.  Or who creates them? And if it is true that there is one mega empire …

Refs get a lot more right than wrong, but anyway it’s ok, they’re English.

By Tony Attwood An interesting article in the Guardian today about making mistakes, by Daniel Taylor, which contains this line… “The referees you see demonised on social media tend to get a lot more right than wrong,” and of course that is absolutely true.  The article goes on to say that with VAR next season …

Journalists panic as transfer rumour could actually turn out to be true

By Sir Hardly Anyone Once upon a time football rumours, which Untold has followed with a combination of absolute disdain and occasional amusement, were out on their own.  Wild and whacky with no sense of Earthly reality, the stories were created by drunken scribblers meandering around the Toppled Bollard public house telling shouting out names …

Final score and live match report FA Cup Blackpool – Arsenal : 0-3

By Walter Broeckx Apparantly Koscielny injured himself before the match so the line up given at first had to be changed. Jenkinson came in his place. Nketiah leading the line in this match. Arsenal team at the start: Cech, Lichtsteiner, Jenkinson, Sokratis, Kolasinac, Willock, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Ramsey, Iwobi, Nketiah On the beach: Martinez, Jenkinson,Medley, Torreira, …

Blackpool v Arsenal: the match preview and team guesswork

By Bulldog Drummond There is little point trying to write out a team sheet because far too much is unknown for this match.  We do know that various academy players have been used this season so far, with Bukayo Saka being the last when he came on against Fulham.  But which ones are still in …

The FA Cup Third Round – All the games and match officials including those on VAR duties

by Andrew Crawshaw Here courtesy of thefa.com are all of the games and officials including those on VAR duty.  Kickoffs are at 15:00 unless noted:- Friday 4 January 19.45pm Tranmere Rovers FC v Tottenham Hotspur, Referee Andre Marriner Assistant Referees Edward Smart & Marc Perry Fourth Official Paul Tierney.  The result was 0-7. Saturday 5 …

Arsenal in the FA Cup, and when unbeatable challengers finally fall flat.

By Tony Attwood When it comes to records in the FA Cup there really isn’t much point looking beyond the top two clubs, since they are so far above the rest, no one else could get close for years.   Club Wins Last win Runners up Last 2nd Total finals Arsenal 13 2017 7 2001 …

Blackpool v Arsenal: contemplating the past and the line ups.

By Bulldog Drummond For Arsenal of course this is the start of the FA Cup this season.  For Blackpool it is match number four.  Here are their results thus far… Date Match Result Score 10 Nov 2018 Exeter City v Blackpool W 2-3 30 Nov 2018 Solihull Moors v Blackpool D 0-0 18 Dec 2018 …

The money available: how each of the top six clubs gets it money

By Tony Attwood Accoding to the Swiss Ramble website, between 2008 and 2017 Premier League clubs had over £8 bn of available cash. Of this 54% came from their own operation – that is TV money, marketing income, sponsorship, gate money, prize money and transfer income.   That money is down to the club’s own operating …

In the men’s team, Arsenal could have two new players. Here are the options

By Tony Attwood Following Andrew’s review of the women’s team (see link at the foot of this article) I thought I would return to my contemplations of the men’s squad, and in doing so I have found that for some weeks I’ve been getting things wrong.   So no surprise there.   But then so has the …

Arsenal have two new players – a Central Defender and a Left Footed Winger

by Andrew Crawshaw OK I know that they are both for the Women’s team, but nevertheless they are welcome additions to our wonderful group of players who are currently short in numbers following a real injury crisis. The Club have announced today that they have signed Katrine Veje a 27 year old left footed winger …

Now and then: Arsenal after 21 games compared with previous years.

By Tony Attwood So how are we now doing after the Christmas and New Year rush, having played 21 games, compared with recent seasons?  It’s a question that fascinates me, even if no one else wants to rush into the numbers. It seems to me to be a relevant question since the whole purpose of …

What we are not allowed to talk about concerning Premier League football

By Tony Attwood In our society there are many things that one doesn’t talk about.  Notions that are considered so awful that they simply can’t be debated – at least not in public.  Notions that, if we had the Thought Police actively working on the streets, would lead to instant arrest just for thinking about …

Final score and live match report Arsenal -Fulham : 4-1

By Walter Broeckx A few changes compared to our last match of last year. Lihtsteiner drops to the bench and Koscielny comes in the team to play in a 3 man defense with Mustafi and Sokratis. Maitland-Niles and Kolasinac as wing backs. Torreira also drops to the bench after having played a lot recentely. Aubameyang …

Arsenal v Fulham: can we recover?

By Bulldog Drummond Mesut Ozil will return it seems or at least he will be assessed before the game against Fulham.  And if he doesn’t play – well there will be another outburst of rumours, all without a trace of evidence. In fact as far as we can tell the problem is a knee injury …

Operation clean hands, when will it start in England?

By Walter Broeckx It has been a rather interesting year for football in Belgium.   Belgium, as you may recall,  reached third place in the world cup,  but at the same time not all was well in Belgian football. It might not be a story that has moved across the Channel but in 2018 a …

How four clubs commit fouls with impunity, while others constantly get punished

Below is the data analysing the fouls and cards awarded by referees.   The key findings are Manchester City commit over three times the number of fouls as Arsenal for each yellow card they get. Arsenal at home have had 22 yellow cards this season whilst Manchester City have just five  and Tottenham and Liverpool have seven …

Matchweek 21 – All the Games and Officials, and predictions

by Andrew Crawshaw Here courtesy of premierleague.com are the New Year games.  Please note that kickoffs are at 15:00 London time unless noted otherwise:- Tuesday 1 January 12:30 Everton v Leicester City Referee: Martin Atkinson Assistants: Stephen Child, Lee Betts Fourth official: Anthony Taylor Everton v Leicester: the predictions 15:00 Arsenal v Fulham Referee: Graham Scott Assistants: Richard West, Neil Davies Fourth official: …

Peter Hill Wood and the end of the dream of an Arsenal owned by its fans

By Tony Attwood As you will probably have heard Peter Hill-Wood died this week at the age of 82.  He came onto the board in 1962 and became chairman in 1982, serving until he stepped down through ill health in 2013. The Hill-Wood engagement with Arsenal goes back to the time of Sir Samuel Hill-Wood, the …

Why the failure against Liverpool was inevitable, and what Arsenal need now.

by Tony Attwood During the past two seasons there was a fair amount of talk, not to mention poster waving, along with a spot of aircraft flying and marching, concerning the future of Mr Wenger.   Not particularly to deny what he had done for the club in the past, but rather to question what he …