Match report: Arsenal – Dinamo Zagreb 3-0

By Walter Broeckx Arsenal has made a few changes for this match. In the place of the injured Coquelin came Flamini. And Joel Campbell started in the place of Gibbs. On the bench for the first time in a month we find Aaron Ramsey who was back in full training since this week. Also on …

Arsenal play a team whose player failed a drug test. So what is Uefa’s reaction?

By Tony Attwood Arsène Wenger has revealed that the response of Uefa to his criticism of the way they handle doping has been to send 10 anti-doping officers to Arsenal’s training ground last Friday to carry out random checks on his players. And who would expect otherwise?  Target Zagreb?  Ask why Olympiacos F.C. are still …

Arsenal v Dinamo Zagreb; there are matters lurking beneath

This preview is respectfully dedicated to the memory of Adam Brogden by Joe Let’s start with a rather bizarre story about continuity. Or lack of it. You see, nobody knows for sure how old GNK (“GNK” stands for “Građanski nogometni klub” or “Bourgeois football club“) Dinamo Zagreb actually is. If you take the current official story …

A typical week in the life of an Arsenal scout

By Danny Karbassiyoon Danny Karbassiyoon is an ex-Arsenal player who went on to become Arsenal’s scout in North and Central America.   Danny’s autobiography, Danny Karbassiyoon – what’s it like? will be published by Untold Arsenal in the next couple of months. Before receiving a phone call from Arsenal’s Chief Scout with an offer to join …

There has to be some good news somewhere. Ah, here it is

By Tony Attwood Of course defeats get me down.  They always have, ever since I was a child supporting a very weak Arsenal team indeed. But I learned, as I moved out of childhood, that you can’t let these things get at you.   I can’t do anything about Arsenal’s performance; indeed I’m not sure …

WBA – Arsenal 2-1, an unfortunate slip

By Walter Broeckx Arsenal made a few changes both in personal and in line up for this match. Bellerin came back in at right back in the place of Debuchy and also Kieran Gibbs came in but not in the place of Monreal but in the place of Campbell. Gibbs played at the left flank …

Oh no, it’s Pulis away. Push-knock-kick-shove-foul-push-kick-shove.

By Bulldog Drummond. . So we go into this game with quite a record.   Top of the ratings according to WhoScored.com R Team Shots pg Discipline Possession% PassSuccess% Rating 1 Arsenal 16.1 682 55.7 83.8 7.15 2 Manchester City 17.6 772 57.0 84.6 7.07 3 Chelsea 14.8 734 54.1 83.2 7.06 4 Manchester United …

WBA v Arsenal 21 November 2015 – The Match Officials. Beware the assistant refs!

West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal Saturday 21 November 2015 – The Match Officials by Andrew Crawshaw   First here is the updated Table of Shame following the referee reviews of the Everton and Swansea games Referee Review: Arsenal – Everton : the dead sparrow review Lee Mason in charge for this one.  58% overall weighted …

Ah finally back to football: not everyone is back but there is some good news.

By Walter Broeckx After the boring interlul matches we finally can have something to look forward too.  Arsenal players have flown in from all over the world and we have a match to play on Saturday. Alas, what I had hoped for hasn’t materialised. I had hoped for a return of Ramsey and The Ox …

The governance of Arsenal. How hard can it be?

by Tony Attwood Remember Portsmouth FC?  Won the FA Cup in 2008, and were runners up in 2010.   Went through a lot of owners with their own unique brand of governance.  Now playing in the fourth division, after a seemingly endless series of owners did the dirty on the club.  Oh and there was …

Football: a powerful force for good in the world

. ByDon McMahon Unless you have actually seen terrorism and the extremist mentality that fostered it, it is hard to comprehend. Having lived and worked in the Middle East and seen the everyday Muslim, versus the tiny minority of fanatics, it comes as no surprise that one of the terrorists’ aims was to generate and …

Is Governance the Problem at Arsenal?

By Vintage Gooner Who owns Arsenal and how is it governed? Although many fans would answer that Arsenal belongs to us, the truth is that we fans are just consumers of goods and services from the club we love. We are very important to the club but this gives us no element of ownership. Good …

Life under Fifa: the misery of living under the yoke of incompetent tyranny

By Tony Attwood What is the difference between being ruled by the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and being ruled by Fifa? Well Fifa don’t arrange or allow the execution of many people, nor do they send them off to Siberia.  But they do steal other people’s money, are utterly corrupt and have …

How come tiny and modest sized nations achieve so much more in football than England?

By Tony Attwood The emergence of Iceland as a footballing nation capable of getting to the European Championship finals made me wonder how they had done it.    Or rather, I wondered if the notion I put forward in 2010 (and which has now regularly been copied by others) as to why England do so badly …

Rangers lose big tax case; Rangers win big tax case. In Scotland both can be true

By Tony Attwood As I have tried to say each time in the past that I have covered a story about Rangers and their financial issues, I am not Scottish, and my knowledge of Scottish football is at a distance.  I have been to Scotland, I have watched football in Scotland, and I have watched …

Mathieu Flamini – Levulinic Acid King

Mathieu Flamini – Levulinic Acid King by Andrew Crawshaw   There have been a number of reports recently in the Press that our Mathieu is doing extremely well for himself outside the world of football. In 2008 he founded a company, GF Biochemicals, in Italy with a friend Pasquale Granata.  This has been kept very …

Iron cross problems for West Ham, Fabregas foul mouthed rant, Alexis injured: interlull news

By Tony Attwood So just another interlull week in terms of football news (although of course certainly not in terms of anything else). Using the lovely archaic language that the press indulge in these days, Cesc Fábregas’ statement that Chelsea’s season is fucked was described by one over-extended journalist as a “foul mouthed rant”.  An interesting …

yawn, gape, yawn… thank god it’s almost over…

By Walter Broeckx The world looks an awful place these days with all the wars, violence and hatred to other human beings.  If only every individual human being would make sure that he would bring no harm to any other human being then the world would look like a different place. It’s up to each …

Lionel Messi planning a move to Arsenal this summer.

By Billy the Dog McGraw Let me assure you this story about Lionel Messi is not from a bloggetta.  No.  It  comes Untold’s English newspaper of choice (although we give them the occasional bashing for forgetting the evidence and printing silly things).  (In our opinion). But today that is what it says in the Guardian.  Messi …

Do the first 12 games tell us just how the rest of the season will go? Apparently yes.

By Tony Attwood If we take a look at the league table at this point last season (that is, after 12 games – the 12th game last year coming after rather than before the interlull last year) and then compare with the final league position of the club (the last two columns) we can see …

Its the big debate (well ok a small debate). Take the Europa League seriously or win the Double?

By Tony Attwood Well ok, not quite a big debate, but it is getting a bit of an airing. In the coming weeks we will find out whether we are playing in the Champions League, the Europa or neither.  And the question is, should Arsenal play to their strengths in every game and try and …

Ref Review: Sheffield Wednesday – Arsenal

By Usama & Walter SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY vs. ARSENAL COMPETITION: League Cup FOURTH ROUND DATE: 27th October 2015 VENUE: Hillsborough Stadium (Sheffield, England) MATCH OFFICIALS: REFEREE: Graham Scott 1st LINESMAN: Jake Collin 2nd LINESMAN: Mick McDonough 4th OFFICIAL: Nigel Miller First Half Fouls, Advantages, Cards, and Penalties Time Foul by Foul For Description & Decision Points …