By Tony Attwood Yes, it’s that time again. The time when pontificaters in all the media will tell us that one team (usually Arsenal, but occasionally others) are having a crisis of injuries and that it is Arsene Wenger’s fault. Of course what they generally don’t do it compare Arsenal’s figures with those of other …
Read More “It’s November so it must be injury crisis time (and ticket price analysis time)”
By Tony Attwood Blimey! I say again, “blimey!” I take the day off to go and see “Kinky Boots” – the wonderfully funny feel-good musical in the West End, and return to open the computer the next morning and find not just one, but two football stories that made me feel good. One of …
Read More “Video referee trials have begun in the PL, and England’s disgraceful links with Qatar revealed for what they are”
ARSENAL vs. TOTTENHAM COMPETITION: English Premier League MATCH NO. 11 DATE: 6th November 2016 VENUE: Emirates Stadium (London, England) MATCH OFFICIALS: REFEREE: Mark Clattenburg 1st LINESMAN: Jake Collin 2nd LINESMAN: Simon Bennett 4th OFFICIAL: Andre Marriner First Half Fouls, Advantages, Cards, and Penalties Time Foul by Foul For Description & Decision Points 00:48 Assistant Referee …
Read More “Ref Review: Arsenal – Tottenham: 25 fouls and one yellow card”
By Dr Billy “the dog” McGraw, senior adviser to the clinically ill, University Hospital of the North Circular Road. As expected, Alexis Sánchez played for Chile last night. And indeed was rather successful as Chile beat Uruguay 3-1 in a World Cup qualifying match. Following his hamstring injury which he picked up training for Chile …
Read More “Alexis played for 84 minutes for Chile last night while Man U face their own problems”
by Tony Attwood The reports in the press suggest that Alexis is going to start the game for Chile tonight. Against this Arsène Wenger has warned the Football Federation of Chile that Alexis could spend up to three months on the sidelines if he is risked in the World Cup qualifier against Uruguay. Alexis was …
Read More “Alexis will start, injured or not; when will the madness stop?”
By Tony Attwood There has over the years been a very obvious difference of opinion about Arsenal and its stadium. I don’t recall too much discussion about the stadium and its finances while it was being built – indeed I think most fans welcomed its arrival – especially those on the season ticket waiting …
Read More “When Arsenal built the Ems they stayed in the top 4 to pay off the debt. How will Tottenham do?”
By Captain Sir Hardly Anyone It has been a little while since I last addressed an expectant nation (as it were) but with the glass opening ready to creak on its hinges in just a month and a half, surely there must be some more transfer news. And well blow me sideways and raise the …
Read More “Ten transfer stories that are making the news as the new window approaches”
By Tony Attwood Earlier this season Untold published a match preview based on tactics. It didn’t get too many comments and one of those that did come in said, “this is the most boring article I have ever read.” Now I don’t take those sort of comments as indicative of everyone’s view, but the article …
Read More “It’s not just the transfers that transform a team, it’s the tactics too.”
by the Referee Review Team 1: Details of Match Referees and Assistants Sunderland vs. Arsenal [1-4] Referee – Martin Atkinson 1st Assistant Referee – Stephen Child 2nd Assistant Referee – Stuart Burt Fourth Official – Craig Pawson West Bromwich Albion vs. Manchester City [0-4] Referee – Lee Mason 1st Assistant Referee – Scott Ledger 2nd …
Read More “Referee Appointments and Results Matchweek #10 complete with video evidence”
By Tony Attwood Getting your ideas across in the modern age can be difficult – which is odd when we have more technology to help us do just this, than ever before. For example, you are reading a website run by a small bunch of Arsenal supporters who believe that there are issues that need …
Read More “Why Linekar and Collymore should be applauded for their stands against the media”
by Andrew Crawshaw The 2016 Ladies season is really a tale of nearly but not quite. In the three competitions we won one, came third in one and were knocked out in the semi final of the third. For most Ladies Clubs this would have been regarded as a good season but not Arsenal – …
Read More “Arsenal Ladies – Reflections on the season”
By Tony Attwood Richard Scudamore chair of the Premier League has issued a diktat to the effect that at least one block of away supporters must be in a lower tier section approaching the pitch (or in the case of the Tax Payers Stadium, within a few hundred yards of the pitch). This announcement was …
Read More “Stadium reforms: away fan positioning to change and safe standing proposed”
by Andrew Crawshaw With 9 games gone in the Pl we are now effectively a quarter of the way through the season and this is a good time to see how the referees have been doing. Here are links to the nine weekly reports we have published Matchweek 1 ; Matchweek 2 ; Matchweek 3 ; Matchweek 4 ; Matchweek 5 ; Matchweek 6 ; Matchweek 7 ; Matchweek …
Read More “Referees – First quarter Report. This isn’t healthy.”
By Norman 14 Re the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee enquiry into The Governance of Football – the Committee questioning of Greg Clarke, Chairman, The Football Association, and Robert Sullivan, Director of Governance and Regulation, The Football Association. There are 40 pages of transcript, and most of the questions relate either to …
Read More “Commons Committee questioning of Greg Clarke, Chairman, The Football Association,”
Open letter to FIFA on Remembrance Day From: Tim Charlesworth, football fan, UK To: Gianni Infantino, President, FIFA 11th November 2016 Dear Gianni FIFA’s allegation that the poppy is a political symbol is an interesting one, and one that is difficult to deny. It certainly has a symbolic meaning and has the power to move …
Read More “Open letter to FIFA on Remembrance Day”
By Tony Attwood I have often written on the subject of Greek football, and the issue of Olympiakos (four of whose matches in the last year have been abandoned due to crowd violence – mostly from supporters of the team they are playing, over ludicrous refereeing decisions). Now Greek football is back in the news, …
Read More “Violence and corruption in Greek football, humanity and respect at Rochdale”
By Tony Attwood Some figures have been released by CIES Football Observatory concerning transfer expenditure over recent years. Unfortunately as I have found before, the CIES figures are not complete and have a rather strange basis for their analysis – in this case they only record purchases between clubs in the top five leagues. Also …
Read More “Who spends the most, and who gets the most from player sales?”
By Tony Attwood With enough Americans voting for a man who doesn’t believe climate change is happening, and that his political opponent should be put in prison, it would be nice to have a bit of positive news from Arsenal just to keep us going, but as you’ve probably heard Alexis Sánchez has been injured in Chile. …
Read More “Reasons to be cheerful are slipping away like snow in spring”
by the Referee Review Team 1: Details of Match Referees and Assistants Bournemouth vs. Tottenham [0-0] Referee – Craig Pawson 1st Assistant Referee – Scott Ledger 2nd Assistant Referee – Peter Kirkup Fourth Official – Roger East West Ham United vs. Sunderland [1-0] Referee – Robert Madley 1st Assistant Referee – Keith Stroud 2nd Assistant …
Read More “Referee Appointments and Results Matchweek #09 complete with video evidence”
By Josif As Untold Arsenal has already reported, someone who calls himself a journalist actually gave advice to a football team to use violence as a legitimate way to win the game over their rivals. Just like many people who use their own brain-cells to make conclusions on what the hell is going on with …
Read More “How Tottenham’s 451 fouls can equal no red cards at all.”
By Tony Attwood Senior officials and management found involved in dubious deals, and guilty in court of crimes? That must be another boring “told you so” story about Fifa from Untold with a mention that we spotted the change in Swiss law which allowed the raid on Fifa’s in December 2015. Well, actually no. It’s …
Read More “As another FA corruption story breaks it is clear the FA and Fifa deserve each other. But we don’t deserve either of them.”
By James Bailey Arsenal midfielder Alex Iwobi has said that he is amazed by the level of support there is for his football team at home in his native Nigeria. Speaking to the Evening Standard, Iwobi revealed that during an international match, supporters were shouting out his team’s name – rather than his! Arsenal …
Read More “Why Arsenal Is Nigeria’s Favourite Football Team”
. by Blacksheep FIFA (in their infinite wisdom) have decided that the remembrance poppy is a ‘political symbol’ and therefore should not be sported by players of England and Scotland in their forthcoming World Cup qualifier. Not surprisingly, as this game takes place on the 11 November (the traditional day of remembrance of those who …
Read More “Fifa and the poppy debacle: the poppy just like Fifa is a “political act”.”
By Tony Attwood It was quite a move by the Daily Telegraph to publish its “kick them” article when speaking of how Tottenham could try and beat Arsenal. And there was some of that, but it was the elbow of Wanyama that really caused the concern. We could see Theo holding the back of …
Read More “The Telegraph advised Tottenham to kick Arsenal, but an elbow was as effective”
By Walter Broeckx No live match report this time as I had to be with a rather large group of Arsenal Belgium members who gathered in Leuven to see the match against our neighbours. So this is written a few hours after the match and not during the match as usual. So the shape and …
Read More “Arsenal – Tottenham 1-1: If you can’t win it, make sure you don’t lose it”