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 is not normally my style to emphasise the fact that things are getting worse, but then also it is not my style to ignore statistics that take all issues into account. And if we compare Arsenal after seven league games this season with the same moment last season the comparison does …
Read More “Last season, this season, later this season… is Arsenal on the way up?”
By Sir Hardly Anyone. Football, it seems, has fractured. Or if you preferred, it has splintered. Splintered into a million little splintery things that are…. Well splintery. But here are some of the many diverse stories slurping around on the floor of the football hothouse, each screaming for attention until trodden underfoot by the pressure …
Read More “Barcelona in PL, Large Sam sues FA, Usmanov speaks, Fabregas throws pizza”
By Tony Attwood The Independent has carried the story that Lacazette has said he has been taken aback by the nature of refereeing in the Premier League, the player quoted as saying “The refereeing decisions still surprise me. Sometimes I think it is a bit dangerous. “But then I see that nobody is shocked, so I …
Read More “Player speaks about weird refereeing, mass boycott planned, Arsenal to move into debt?”
By Tony Attwood I know I know. I have bored you stupid with talk about evidence. The huge amount of evidence we have gathered year after year to show that the level of errors made by PL referees is so ludicrously high that at times the PGMO might as well employ a computer to give …
Read More “How the media use fake evidence to attack clubs over crowd figures”
by Tony Attwood October 2015. Expected to do their usual demolition job on a lower league team Arsenal lost to Sheffield Wednesday in the league cup 3-0. True the Ox and Theo were injured early on, but even so it was a shock. As were Mr Wenger’s statements afterwards, in which he said none of …
Read More “From humiliation at Sheff Wed to the Magnificent 7 youngsters in the space of 2 years.”
by Andrew Crawshaw Following my look at the Squad values of all of the clubs in the Europa League, the question arises: do the results of the first two games show any deviations from where one might expect them to be based on squad values (expressed in millions of pounds). To clarify, where the league …
Read More “The Europa League: are the clubs performing as we might expect so far?”
By Stevie Bee A game of one half if ever there was one. Izqueiŕdo how it actually wasn’t settled until midway through the second half, the Knockaert blow ultimately being landed Bruno-style by AFC’s Iwobi. In the first half, it was all Arsenal apart from one moment when B&HA stole a March on the sleepy …
Read More “A radically different approach to reviewing the Arsenal v Brighton game”
By Walter Broeckx Arsenal team at the start: Cech, Holding, Mustafi, Monreal, Bellerin, Kolisanac, Ramsey, Xhaka, Iwobi, Alexis and Lacazette. On the beach: Ospina, Mertesacker, Wilshere, Maitland-Niles, Elneny, Giroud, Walcott. So no Özil as was said but Iwobi was fit again. At the back Koscielny didn’t pass his late fitness test and Holding took his …
By Bulldog Drummond A sunday noon kick off means there won’t be time for me to do the usual chit chat in the morning, what with having to get up and get to the meeting point for us all to drive from Northants to London (allowing time for the chaos that now seems to be …
Read More “Arsenal v Brighton, the teams who’s injured and who deserves a rest”
by Andrew Crawshaw Our last two games, WBA in the League and BATE in the Europa League show that we are still on the wrong end of more decisions than we get in our favour. Last weekend Mr Madley had four penalty decisions to make and only managed to get one of them right and …
Read More “Arsenal v Brighton and HA. 1 October – The Match Officials: could be a lot worse”
by Bulldog Drummond There have been 15 games between Arsenal and Brighton dating back to January 1935 when Arsenal won in the FA Cup. At the start of that month Arsenal were third. During the course of the month Arsenal played five games (two in the Cup, three in the League) and ended the month …
Read More “Arsenal v Brighton & HA, and the champions of the long ball game.”
By Sir Hardly Anyone A quick round up of what’s being said and considered and contemplated and basically just made up in the world of footie. Here we go. “Do I see myself staying? Of course I do,” said Jack Wilshere after his performance against BATE. “I have always been at Arsenal, I love this club. …
By Tony Attwood It is not impossible, but it is quite rare for a club to go through a whole season without a bad run. Most of the time, for most clubs, the aim is not so much never to have a blip, but rather to come out of it as fast as possible. Arsenal’s …
Read More “Keeping the momentum while developing the production: the Arsenal Way”
By Tony Attwood It’s been a long ol’ time since I watched Beetee Sprout doing a football show, and it took Martin Keown to point out what a reserve team Arsenal put out, and then made the point about what an amazing player Reiss Nelson is. He’s 17. Who needs Mbappe? But we …
Read More “Good win, excellent kiddies, weird sprouts. Arsenal’s reserves and youngsters beat BATE”
by Bulldog Drummond Since the plane has taken off, and indeed landed in foreign parts, we can now be fairly sure that Alexis Sánchez, Mesut Özil, Alexis Sanchez, Alexandre Lacazette, Laurent Koscielny, Granit Xhaka, Aaron Ramsey and Petr Cech were apparently not seen at the airport! But not that sure, as will perhaps become apparent …
By Tony Attwood There is a bit of research doing the rounds from an organisation called “Voucherbox” (which seems to have something to do with the Vouchers you get from people like Virgin) which even on the face of it looks so bizarre as to be unbelievable. Yet they want us to believe it straight …
Read More “Leaving games early – are these figures right, and a look at BATE and injuries.”
by Andrew Crawshaw I thought I would look at the squad values of the clubs in the Europa League just to see how big the differences are between Arsenal (most valuable) and the others Arsenal are in group H along with FC Köln, bate Borisov and Red Star Belgrade. Using the figures from Transfermarket.com to …
Read More “Squad Values in the Europa League. Arsenal are big players in a modest pool”
By Dr Billy “the Dog” McGraw To start with the name, the obvious point of course is that BATE is of course ФК БАТЭ Барысаў – I’m glad we’ve got that sorted. Although also it must be admitted that BATE is an acronym of Borisov Automobile and Tractor Electronics. I gather there has been a …
By Tony Attwood You know the joke about the Greek league and how Olympiacos have won it seven times in a row and ten times in the last 11 seasons (Panathinaikos getting in the way just once). Well that’s nothing. At least nothing when compared with Belarus. Here’s their list of champions in recent years Season Winners …
Read More “Everything you didn’t know about BATE and probably want to keep it that way”
by Andrew Crawshaw There is something supremely satisfying about a 90th minute goal to win a match, particularly when the opposition have been wasting time throughout the second half. Arsenal started their WSL season with a hard fought win against a side that always seem to cause us problems. On a sunny afternoon at Borehamwood …
Read More “Arsenal Women v Birmingham, 23 September. The most satisfying of goals.”
By Tony Attwood Given the history of Pulis the manager his suggestions that his team are “too honest” does not bode well for the clubs that have yet to play WBA. So the questions arise: Can you actually be too honest? Has the momentum of strange refereeing decisions changed in Arsenal’s favour? Does it matter …
Read More “Has the refereeing tied turned, or was it all a set of random events after all?”
By Bulldog Drummond First off, our regular review of the supporters of the clubs we play. Today, of course, WBA.West Bromwich Albion supporters are now something of a case unto themselves. Upon meeting they may say, “You see the Albion yesterday?” To which the reply is, “Bostin!” “Bostin!” replies the first. “Bostin” rejoins the second. “Bostin,” repeats …
Read More “Arsenal v West Bostin Albion: the teams and a guide to the language”
by Andrew Crawshaw Just a quick one this week – our officials for tonight’s gamet are :- Referee – Robert (Bobby) Madley – age 30 from West Yorkshire and FIFA Accredited Assistant Referee 1 – Lee Betts, From Norfolk and FIFA Accredited Assistant Referee 2 – Marc Perry – from the West Midlands Fourth Official …
By Bulldog Drummond And this is what we were told about: the fixture congestion of the Europa League. In this case it is Monday, Thursday, Sunday, although the Monday game is caused by TV, not the Europa. How are we taking it? Well, we’ve shot up to fourth in the injury league, although to be …
Read More “Arsenal v WBA. Men down, and how many Arsenal games Gibbs missed through injury”
By Bulldog Drummond What is it that marks out West Bromwich Albion from other clubs this season? There are three factors that seem to make them special in the the Premier League. First the number of yellow cards. While Crystal Palace have picked up 15, West Ham 13 and Chelsea 12, WBA are …
