By Tony Attwood Ian Wright made his comments last night on BBC Radio 5, and I think it is fair to say that it caused the chair of the discussion and the other guests a certain on the show an amount of discomfort and uncertainty as to how to handle the conversation thereafter. Unfortunately for …
Read More “Ian Wright claims football media and the FA are both racist”
By Tony Attwood I must say I was singularly surprised by the large number of comments Untold received from Manchester City supporters after I commented negatively on the ownership of that club. Most of these comments were to my mind of very little merit being simplistic and/or crude, and so did not get published, and …
Read More “Does the sponsorship of a club really mean that fans can’t criticise the sponsor?”
By Andrew Crawshaw My recent look at squad values using data from the website transfermarkt.com indicated a total value of the City squad as being well in excess of £900m whilst that of Arsenal was virtually £500m. To put this discrepancy into perspective mere are the stated values of the two squads starting 11s broken …
Read More “Manchester City’s two nil win should have come as no surprise to any Gooner”
By Tony Attwood Quite why some of the Manchester City supporters felt like singing “Only one Arsene Wenger” during this game, I am not too sure although I’ve never understood northern humour. Perhaps it was not a recognition that one could win the League and FA Cup across a number of years without the input …
Read More “Arsenal v Manchester City: how the media continues once more to have no idea”
By Walter Broeckx Arsenal XI: Cech, Bellerin, Sokratis, Mustafi, Maitland-Niles, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Ramsey, Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang. Subs: Leno, Holding, Lichtsteiner, Elneny, Torreira, Iwobi, Lacazette. The new era starting today with also two new players in the starting line up : Sokratis and Guendouzi. Certainly the latter is a big surprise when we bought him I …
Read More “Arsenal – Manchester City 0-2: the Untold match report”
By Bulldog Drummond. This is the hardest game to select a team for, as we have not yet seen the manager in action when not testing out the players in the pre-season matches. Maitland Niles is the obvious replacement at left back, and I suggest Monreal will not even make the beach so he is …
Read More “Arsenal v Manchester City Hoovers. Opening day blues for us and the champions”
By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal ended last season with a mixed collection a results Date Game Res Score Competition 08 Mar 2018 AC Milan v Arsenal W 0-2 Europa League 11 Mar 2018 Arsenal v Watford W 3-0 Premier League 15 Mar 2018 Arsenal v AC Milan W 3-1 Europa League 01 Apr 2018 Arsenal v …
Read More “Arsenal v Man City: How it went in the past, and the new comers”
By Bulldog Drummond Coming back to the list of injuries after not having followed the details since the end of last season is something of a shock. And unless you’ve been following the details I think you might be shocked too. Ready? As before I am using the Physioroom list. And I would warn you …
Read More “Arsenal v Man City: the injuries and recent games between the two.”
by Andrew Crawshaw We didn’t undertake any detailed analysis of referee performances last season so I am not going to try and replicate the referee previews this season. Instead I am going to restrict myself to an informative (I hope) post of who is allocated to which match. The data is liftd straight from the …
Read More “EPL Matchweek 1 the Games and Officials”
By Lady Market Dominance In English culture, and maybe elsewhere, the domestic vacuum cleaner is often known as the Hoover, the Hoover being a dominant make of the product dating back to the early 20th century. So dominant did it become in the market that the word passed into the language as meaning “to take …
Read More “Arsenal v the Hoovers. Background to Sunday’s game at Arsenal Stadium”
by Andrew Crawshaw The Arsenal Women’s senior squad was ‘compact’ to begin with, our injuries have reduced the available players to an alarming level. For the last match against Juventus we only had four substitute players of whom one was a senior squad member. Goalkeepers Sari Van Veenendaal – available for selection Pauline Peyraud-Magnin – …
Read More “Arsenal Women take a small squad to Tolouse”
By Walter Broeckx For many years I have been spending a lot of my spare time on reviewing the referees in the PL and more specific in Arsenal matches. I have done this on my own and I have done this with the help of other Arsenal supporting referees. And we have done this with …
Read More “Eight years late a TV station finally confirms the referee bias against Arsenal”
By Andrew Crawshaw Less frantic activity generally yesterday than on many previous transfer deadline days with not as many players moving. Having said that Everton signed three in the last 10 minutes and Fulham added another keeper. Tottenham added no-one as has become a well-established fact. The first PL club ever to sign no one …
Read More “After Deadline Day August 2018 – The full Arsenal Squad that remains”
By Tony Attwood By the end of course it was getting truly ridiculous. Indeed as Short Fuse announced, “Arsenal’s transfer window descends into farce as structural problems remain.” What they didn’t realise was that the farce was created by the media as time and again they told us deals had been done, and were confirmed, when …
Read More “Arsenal transfers – the full table of all 122 rumours, plus the view from White Hart Lane.”
By Sir Hardly Anyone We’re almost there it is almost done – at least in terms of the buying. And as you probably expected, despite all the frantic suggestions by the People Regularly Engaged in Spurious Stories (or PRESS for short) nothing is happening thus far concerning Arsenal in terms of buying, although Perez looks …
Read More “Transfer remnants: What exactly are Arsenal doing, and what is a Spurs fan saying?”
Sir Hardly Anyone reflects on another wasted night at the bar. I have generally thought most “reporters” who cover transfer chit chat to be half baked, but some of those I have met in this fenêtre de transfert don’t seem even to have made it into the oven. And to hear the silly little people …
Read More “The final night of transfer rumours: Sir Hardly Anyone in the home of the half baked”
Arsenal Squad as at 16:00 on Wednesday 8/8/18 by Andrew Crawshaw Firstly here is my list of the players who I believe are still with the club and count as over 21 as at January 01 this year, the qualifying date for this coming season. These players are those that will form our maximum list …
Read More “Arsenal Squad as at 16:00 on Wednesday 8/8/18”
By Tony Attwood There has, I think, not been a transfer market quite like this one, and that for two reasons. One is that the Premier League summer market gets crazier every year, first because each year the media tries to do more and more to outdo whatever crazy things they got up to last …
Read More “Why the panic? What’s going on? How this summer’s transfer market has turned itself upside down.”
By Sir Hardly Anyone What happens to the bloggettas owned by newspapers when their computers get overheated in the, well, err, heat? This morning, Wednesday 8 August, we find out as Foot Lond, the Daily Mirror’s endlessly automatic computer generated churning bloggetta, runs the story, “There’s less than a week left of the transfer window – …
Read More “Arsenal bid £100m for player in transfer rumour untouched by even The Hollow Men.”
By Dr Billy “the Dog” McGraw, head of pyschology at the University College Hospital of the North Circular Road. According to the Daily Telegraph, “Arsenal’s new head coach Unai Emery could be an unmitigated disaster or a phenomenal success. We do not really know, and that alone is a radical departure from the past decade when …
Read More “How strange that Emery and Wenger should be so alike”
by Tony Attwood So Mr Kroenke has made an offer to buy the shares of Mr Usmanov in Arsenal, and it seems Mr Usmanov is willing to deal. Mr Kroenke will then own just over 97% of the shares. At this point, under English law all the other shareholders must be offered the same deal. …
Read More “What is the difference between Stan Kroenke and Henry Norris, and who’s to blame?”
By Sir Hardly Anyone And so as the word “slammed” is taken out of its cupboard and prepared to be given a massive overdose of multiple use by so-called journalists, we approach the last mile, the final furlong, the extra yard and the finish line which is not so much about to be passed with …
Read More “All the experts agree: at least one of these Arsenal transfer deals will happen in the next 48 hours”
by Andrew Crawshaw Monday before the season gets underway this coming Friday (Man United v Leicester). No news yet on the PL website about which referees have been appointed to blow the whistles but there are some other snippets of news. STOP PRESS (or perhaps I should say STOP BLOG) – it is being reported …
Read More “Early Season Preview: The nine (yes 9) innovations we’ll have to get used to.”
By Tony Attwood During the last 10 years as you well know we have won 3 FA Cups, and this obviously was not good enough for some people who attended matches. And of course was wholly unacceptable for the media who jumped on this, as they often do with their perceived negatives when reviewing Arsenal. …
Read More “What has been Arsenal’s best period in history, and can Emery replicate that?”
By Tony Attwood As you will know, if you are a regular reader, the media and their tail coat hangers on, have created more transfer rumours in terms of players joining Arsenal, than ever before. (We’re not keeping a record of rumours of leavings since we had that summer two years ago in which every …
Read More “Predictions agree (!), attacking Bellerin, Chambers going, fighting the media”