By Dr Billy “the dog” McGraw (senior weaponry advisor to Professional Game Match Officials Ltd) The secretive organisation, PGMO, which is believed to control football refereeing at the professional level in England, have long been rumoured to be closely associated with the Italian Mafia, and it seems that the influence of their patrons is spreading. …
Read More “PGMO ready to recommend that all league referees should be armed during matches.”
By Walter Broeckx As I talked about Francis Coquelin the other day a few of our readers said that for them Monreal was one of the absolute revelations of the last year too. I urge you to not do this, as in a way it takes away the surprise about the new articles I already …
Read More “Nacho Monreal from weaker link to top left back”
By Tony Attwood. One of the great consquences that there might be if Fifa falls is that the FA, a big supporter of Fifa, of Jack Warner and of Platini, might fall down into the hole with them. It doesn’t matter whether it has been the FA’s inability to deal with Richard Scuadmore’s sexist commentary …
Read More “The masters of failure and ineptitude; but why are supporters having to pay for their errors?”
By Usama and Walter ARSENAL vs. OLYMPIACOS COMPETITION: UEFA Champions League MATCH NO. 2 DATE: 29th September 2015 VENUE: Emirates Stadium (London, England) MATCH OFFICIALS: REFEREE: Bas Nijhuis (Netherlands) 1st LINESMAN: Rob van de Ven (Netherlands) 2nd LINESMAN: Charles Schaap (Netherlands) 4th OFFICIAL: Mario Diks (Netherlands) First Half Fouls, Advantages, Cards, and Penalties Time Foul by Foul …
Read More “Ref Review: Arsenal – Olympiacos : a match of two halves”
By Tony Attwood Just how good are Arsenal players in relation to those of other clubs? Obviously one answer is to look at the league table, and I will come to that in a moment, but there is another source of such information: the analyses of the type put out by WhoScored.com One of the …
Read More “Just how well are Arsenal doing on a player by player basis?”
By Walter Broeckx Of course the headlines were about Alexis and Özil and they were well earned and deserved. Alexis with two amazing goals and Özil with a goal and an assist and some amazing touches and vision. Yes they were the main stars of the show, at the end-point of some great attacks from Arsenal. …
Read More “Arsenal’s hidden star among the stellar performers, celebrated on the birthday of his most illustrious predecessor”
. By Tony Attwood. . How to be a millionaire – 1. Be a billionaire and start an airline. How to be a millionaire – 2. Be a billionaire and buy a football club. . Same old same old. You’ve almost certainly heard one or probably both of those before. But such …
Read More “Why big clubs are no longer being bought and sold: re-interpreting the evidence”
By Kev The sad rise of the Fantasy Football Manager So Brendan Rogers is the latest casualty. After failed attempts to destabilise Arsenal and manoeuvre Wenger closer to the exit door, the FFM get their other man. But who is the FFM? Saturated TV coverage, Dream Team Competitions and computer games consoles have created a …
Read More “The sad rise of the Fantasy Football Manager”
By Walter Broeckx For years we had to hear the same old story: Arsenal cannot win the top matches so they are no good. And each time we drop points this gets repeated by the media and the 5-second brigade. And even Neville came out with the wrong preparation for top matches last week. I …
Read More “Arsenal and top matches”
By Tony Attwood This week I heard someone interviewing two guests on TV. They disagreed over some point or other and the interviewer said, “That’s what we like about football – everyone can have an opinion.” And yes of course in a moderately open democratic society everyone can have an opinion. That opinion might be …
Read More “Where does Liverpool sit in relation to evidence based football analysis?”
By Usama and Walter LEICESTER CITY vs. ARSENAL COMPETITION: English Premier League MATCH NO. 7 DATE: 26th September 2015 VENUE: King Power Stadium (Leicester, England) MATCH OFFICIALS: REFEREE: Craig Pawson 1st LINESMAN: Michael Salisbury 2nd LINESMAN: Gary Beswick 4th OFFICIAL: Robert Madley First Half Fouls, Advantages, Cards, and Penalties Time Foul by Foul For Description …
Read More “Ref Review: Leicester – Arsenal, good performance from the ref”
By Tony Attwood You know the world has gone even madder than it was yesterday when you wake up and see the Daily Telegraph (that most sneering, jibing anti-Arsenal of papers) has done a double somersault and turns itsself on its head (if you see what I mean). Of Arsenal against Olympiakos they said, “little …
Read More “What are they smoking at Anfield? (And Fleet Street)”
By Walter Broeckx Arsenal made four changes to the side that started against Olympiacos in the Champions League. Cech came in goal in the place of Ospina. Per Mertesacker played in the place of the injured Koscielny. And Ramsey and Monreal started again. The Arsenal team that started was Cech, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Gabriel, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ozil, Ramsey, …
Read More “Arsenal – MU 3-0, early Arsenal blitzkrieg pays off”
By Bulldog Drummond I rather like the new phrase on Untold Arsenal: “Evidence based football reporting”, and as anticipated a survey of the media this morning shows very little of it. Endless opinion of course, but very very few stats. Indeed the few that I have found seem to involve journalists knocking Arsene Wenger …
Read More “Arsenal v Man U: the evidence based preview of the game”
The Referee Preview by Andrew Crawshaw Following Usama and Walter’s review of the Chelsea game Ref Review : Chelsea – Arsenal. How Mike Dean & Co screwed an entire game… here is the updated table of shame Wrong Important Decisions Favouring Arsenal Favouring Opponents 2nd Yellow Cards 0 7 Red Cards 0 6 Penalties 0 …
Read More “Arsenal vs Manchester Utd. Expect elbowing and wrestling with impunity.”
By Walter Broeckx Every year, every f*cking year, season after season after season after season Untold Arsenal has been banging the drum about the gross incompetence of the PGMO the organisation that is responsible for delivering the referees for the PL and of course as he is their main man Mike Riley. Mike Riley who …
Read More “PGMO: how long do we have to put up with this useless organisation?”
By Tony Attwood . Gary Neville has written a little piece in the Telegraph about how the only thing that Arsenal need to change in order to win the league is their preparation before a match. . As is the way with the modern Telegraph article it is a piece full of pictures (because we …
Read More “Gary Neville the telepathic footballer, and the drive towards evidence based analysis”
By Walter Broeckx We all remember the story of Fabianski from the last years. The Polish keeper now plays for Swansea. And for the Polish national team. But in his Arsenal days his career got some bad moments. Now bad moments happen to each keeper. His match against Porto where he made a mistake and …
Read More “From Fabianski to Ospina; please try not to undermine our goalkeepers”
By Tony Attwood When Arsène Wenger arrived on his first day at work at Highbury, he found, somewhat to his surprise, that there was a large gathering of journalists on the steps of the Marble Halls. Enquiring within why they were there, he was told that no, this was not how press conferences were held …
Read More “At last, after years of our waiting, Arsène Wenger changes his approach.”
By Walter Broeckx As in most things in life there are two ways in how you can react to bad things like a defeat of Arsenal that come your way. One way is to take it on the chin, swallow what needs to be swallowed and then get up and move on. The other way is to …
Read More “Every defeat is the possible start of a new era”
By Tim Charlesworth So the Goonersphere is full of hysteria and disappointment again. Olympiacos was a horrible game and a horrible performance, however you look at it. We’re all full of blame and recriminations. The hysterical attacks on Wenger for picking Ospina are plain silly, as if to imply that it was predictable that …
Read More “Hysteria and disappointment: the defence of Piers Morgan”
By Walter Broeckx As you all know Mike Dean is just like the other Mike we love to write about on Untold: Mike Dean. Maybe Untold wouldn’t be the same place if Mike and Mike wouldn’t be around. Because it is the fact that Mike Riley got the job of becoming head of the PGMO …
Read More “Mike Dean and Arsenal something seriously wrong. More evidence and strange behaviour”
By Tony Attwood Platini is no revolutionary but a hindrance to true change at rotten Fifa That headline from the Daily Telegraph marked an interesting moment in the history of commentary on Uefa and Fifa, one of the first articles that turned against Platini in the English press, and which started to question Uefa. And …
Read More “It looks like Platini and the FA are made for each other.”
By Usama and Walter TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR vs. ARSENAL COMPETITION: League Cup THIRD ROUND DATE: 23th September 2015 VENUE: White Hart Lane (London, England) MATCH OFFICIALS: REFEREE: Andre Marriner 1st LINESMAN: Lee Betts 2nd LINESMAN: David Bryan 4th OFFICIAL: Andy Woolmer First Half Fouls, Advantages, Cards, and Penalties Time Foul by Foul For Description & …
Read More “Ref Review League Cup : Tottenham Hotspur – Arsenal”
By Tony Attwood Theo Walcott has scored 12 goals in his last 13 Premier League starts. It is the sort of scoring that takes the mind back to someone like the incredible Jack Lambert who in Arsenal’s first ever league winning season scored 38 league goals in 34 games. That was in 1930/31, and I …
Read More “As the entity behind shouted “You’re useless Walcott” a dark despair overwhelmed me”
