Arsenal women in the FA Cup 2018, from Yeovil to Wembley

This is part three of our major review of Arsenal Women’s season. Previously we have published Part one: the review of the league season Part two: Two cup finals in one season So onto our review of the Women’s FA Cup This was played as a straight knockout competition open to all Women’s clubs in …

Ramsey, Wilshere and Lacazette to leave in huge Arsenal shake up?

An Untold History in the Making   Historians on occasion report all-art war on the battlefield or through the missiles being dropped as being preceded by a phoney war in which each side launches its vast array of propaganda and bluster, but no one gets killed.  The name became a particularly common expression for the …

Arsenal women: two cup finals in one season

Part two of our review of the women’s league season, by Andrew Crawshaw Part one can be found here. So as we saw in the earlier part of this summary we had three managers during the season – here is a summary of their league results:- Played Won Drawn Lost For Against Pedro Losa 3 1 …

The 70 players now tipped join Arsenal and the transfer window isn’t even open

By Sir Hardly Anyone This is the third summer in which we have kept a record of many of the players who are tipped to join Arsenal when the transfer window opens. Several interesting pointers of late.  First, although there was a little bit of a slow down once while we waited to find out …

How Arsenal will line up under Emery and the ten players he is going to sign

By Sir Hardly Anyone New names new tactics, that is always the promise of the new manager, but of course it never makes sense to undertake a total revolution all at once.   So the suggestion in the Express that Mr Emery is going to build his Arsenal team around Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Aaron Ramsey is interesting …

Arsenal Women – Part one of our season end appraisal: the League

A review of the women’s league season, by Andrew Crawshaw A season with some success but more a season of ‘might have beens’. The final week of the season saw two games with wins over Sunderland 2 – 0 and Bristol by 6 – 1.  Unfortunately Manchester City also won their final two games and we …

Why people who argue for a new defence at Arsenal are missing the point

By Tony Attwood There has been some commentary recently about why Arsenal had their worst season in 20+ years in the League and FA Cup last season.   A few people argue it was down to an individual player or two, some cite the entire defence and some cite the management. I personally find all such …

How Emery fits into the tradition of appointing Arsenal managers

By Tony Attwood So Manuel Pellegrini is the new West Ham manager and Arsenal have done their usual trick of keeping everyone guessing.  In fact Arsenal do it so well that even those people trying to write stories about how Arsenal often do the unexpected find themselves stumbling around the club’s history grasping at straws. In …

Emery dismissed as useless, Santi Caz a traitor, Pochettino’s managerial triumphs

Untold Media: how the different “outlets” reported the decision to appoint Emery Seeing what the media did in response to the news that they had been quite wrong in suggesting Arteta’s move to Arsenal was done and dusted is quite illuminating, as the media has immediately divided into camps. But interestingly, none of the drainpipes, …

So not Arteta after all. It looks like Dick Emery, or maybe that’s just my poor eyesight.

By the Untold Arsenal Managerial Executive Committee & Bif the dog. . And if you don’t get the headline don’t worry.  It’s a very English joke that Blacksheep came up with. . Anyway. the man from PSG is apparently coming to Arsenal after Arteta blew his chances by demanding total control of transfers in the …

Mr Abramovich, the new stadium, Wembley, and stuff.

By The Arsenal Speculator You will of course have heard about Mr Abramovich and his trouble with getting a visa which would allow him to live in England.   The general consensus seems to be for the moment that this could be part of a broader process of checking by UK banks to see if they …

Total control and total dominance can work, but in the end innovation in football suffers

by The Arsenal Philosopher. When Arsenal invited Arsene Wenger to manage the club, they knew what they were getting – a man who exercised total control over everything in the club, from the menus to the transfers, from the design of the academy to who to give young player contracts to. And now there is …

The Football Reality: Seeing alternative possibilities always makes more sense.

  By Dr Billy “the dog” McGraw, senior psychologist at the University College Hospital of the North Circular Road. Forget Arsenal for a moment.  Just think about winning the League.   According to lots of supporters and a lot of people who make their money out of talking about football, argue that how one goes about …

FA Cup final leaves Arsenal top of the list, but raises an intriguing question

by Tony Attwood It was a slightly interesting cup final for those who like to mix a few facts in with the opinion.   Chelsea have now won the FA Cup eight times since they were formed and immediately gained a place in the Football League in 1905 – so that is eight in 113 years.  …

Arsenal is full of people who really don’t want to be there, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

By Tony Attwood I see that Arsenal Fan TV won an award at the Football Blogging Awards, which I suppose might just tell us something about where we are. I suppose for me it is a bit like giving an advertising award to a company that make daily, “hello I believe you were involved in …

The curious cases of match fixing in the world cup, Champs League, and, well, generally

By Tony Attwood The one time Uefa president Michel Platini who is now formerly known as the “disgraced former president” as if  most administrators of major football organisations are not still a disgrace, has recently admitted the draw for the World Cup in 1998 was fixed.   He called it what translates roughly as “a bit of …

Mikel Arteta resigns as Arsenal manager

By Tony Attwood In a move that has taken the football world by surprise Mikel Arteta has resigned as Arsenal manager only days before he (or possibly Thierry Henry) was due to be announced as the new manager. In a statement the man who played 110 games for Arsenal said, “A certain expert football analyst …

Five great players, six great reserves and Arsenal win the league

By Tony Attwood An interesting piece in the Telegraph today includes a review of Granit Xhaka which instead of just joining in the general “he’s rubbish get him out” actually looks, as we tried to do earlier this season, at his figures.   Their commentary reads, “Divides opinion, doesn’t always track his runner and is liable to …

Arsenal are said to be trying to find new defenders. Why age could be an issue.

By Tony Attwood You can’t read a transfer rumour about Arsenal without the issue of defenders coming up.   One is retiring, one is out injured for the rest of the year and one (or is that two?) are useless.  So we desperately need defenders by the shed load. I’m not sure what the general opinion …

Fifa aims for greater control of football with new summer club competition

by Tony Attwood It was only a few weeks ago that Arsène Wenger suggested that a European Super League was on the way.  In saying that he made the point that one way for the Premier League to respond might be to cut itself to 16 teams. That would leave Manchester City as champions for …

The 64 players who have been tipped to be coming to Arsenal in this summer’s window

By Sir Hardly Anyone The news that is being splashed around is that Arteta will get the Arsenal manager job and will invite Santi Cazorla to be his assistant. Meanwhile the ever knowledgeable Arsenal Youth website gives us a list of the youngsters likely to be let go.  These includes Aaron Eyoma Chiori Johnson, Jay …

How you can be a football “expert” just like everyone else.

By Tony Attwood It was way back in 1966 that the defining research into being an “expert” was conducted.  Not in football but generally.  What does it take to make someone an expert in a particular field? Since the media love phrases like “our panel of experts” and “our chief football correspondent” (which implies expertise), …

Lacazette Can Use Arsenal Form to Fire France to World Cup Glory

Lacazette Can Use Arsenal Form to Fire France to World Cup Glory   “Alexander Lacazette” by Chelsea Debs (CC BY-SA 2.0) The World Cup this summer will feature many Arsenal players and the one that looks to have the best chance of winning the World Cup appears to be Alexander Lacazette. He has been in …

Is the Arsenal board really pushing ahead with a signing without talking to the new manager

By Tony Attwood Transfer rumours concerning Arsenal have been continuing apace since Arsene Wenger announced he was leaving at the end of the season, without any question being raised about who the new manager is and what he wants.   If that is actually happening it is a major change of policy for the club, and …

The curious case of Arsenal’s worst defender who turns out to be second best in the league

By Tony Attwood It is fashionable these days to pick on a player, describe him as useless and then say the manager is an idiot for playing him.  When TV, blogs, radio and newspaper columnists all join in, the opinion becomes the truth, and it can take quite a bit of individual analysis and determination …