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 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 …
By Tony Attwood Aaron Ramsey has made 215 appearances for Arsenal. A lot of people believe that for £5m he was a sensational buy. There is talk of him being the complete central midfielder – a position a lot of players want to play in, but not so many get an absolute chance to do. …
Read More “A moment to pause and celebrate the contribution of Aaron Ramsey”
by Tony Attwood First off I thought you would like to know that “Santi Cazorla is unlikely to be involved in first-team matters until the turn of next year.” That is from goal.com Actually it would be rather worrying if he were involved in first-team matters this year since he is not listed in the …
By Sifarzone It pains me to write an article positing an opinion opposite to She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. Although I cannot remember the specific authors, my impression of She Wore is that the articles are generally well written, well-meaning and mostly pro-Arsenal. However, the recent publication of the article “Stop getting easily offended …
Read More “On She Wore’s “Stop getting easily offended at the football””
by Tony Attwood I do on occasion wonder if the mainstream media ever have a peek at what Untold is saying. It’s not a constant question in my life, but just occasionally when we run a long term campaign, and then suddenly we find that someone in a newspaper writes about the same issue, …
Read More “Arsenal could have won the League… but they didn’t”
by Sir Hardly Anyone So we have given in. Bonkers news, and football transfers are now an all the year racket, and it is not as if someone has stolen the ball. (Ball / racket geddit?) Because amazingly we have apparently just made a signing. And a really weird one it is. And I want …
Read More “Arsenal’s new signing, worst signing, dumbest race, and best article not on Untold”
By Walter Broeckx Having just returned from my holiday in Spain/Catalonia I think we might be at a turning point not just in geography but also maybe in the football world. First I have to say that when Barcelona got Cesc I vowed to never go back to Catalonia as long as they had him. …
Read More “Will the power in European football shift soon as a result of Catalan independence?”
By Tony Attwood “ARSENAL FANS ANGRY WITH WENGER’S DECISION MAKING” So screamed one bloggetta headline, with the writer, in my humble opinion, utterly missing the whole point of what was going on. Mind you, so did several people who complained that Jack Wilshere got tired and wasn’t up to much in the latter stages. What …
Read More “The problem with Wenger’s selection policy is that there are invisible forces at work”
By Tony Attwood Much is being made of the fact that we have just seen the lowest attendance ever at the Emirates Stadium. Where reported it reads like a shock horror tale of absolute decline. But sadly although there are some big headlines around, the reporters don’t give any background to help us make a …
Read More “Misleading crowd comparisons for Arsenal, and PL bail out Liverpool.”
By Bulldog Drummond 23 September 2008 was one of the most famous days in the years of austerity. For it was the day that a team of youngsters was put out by Arsenal in the league cup, much to howls of derision from the rest of football. We were told it was unfair on the …
