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 “I have more attacking options than I’ve had for a long time, that’s for sure,” said Mr Wenger the other day. “Three, four, five years ago every year we lost a big player. In the last two years we’ve added players, like Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez. “Of course that strengthens the …
Read More “Our best side in years? Try this comparison and see what you think.”
By Tony Attwood How much influence Untold actually has on football is not the thought that occupies many of my waking moments, but I do occasionally ponder. If you read these pages regularly you’ll know we have suggested a few things that we have subsequently had an impact: the idea of statues around the Emirates …
By Tony Attwood If you’ve been reading Untold for a while you might have noted that part of our philosophy is that although we are Arsenal fans, we should all support grassroots football in our area. Thus although Drew and I are season ticket holders at the Ems, we also pop off and see other …
Read More “The Vanarama Conference rule changes but the flare problem grows”
By Walter Broeckx The first thing I have to say is that I wrote this article two days before the match against Manchester City for the Community Shield. So as I write I don’t know the result. If we won against City you will understand that I will be over the moon. If not… then …
Read More “Football is not always about today (and why good things happen in threes).”
By Tony Attwood In the build up to the Ems Cup I had a couple of rants against the pay TV channel BT Sport over their status as Arsenal’s media partner, which sat uneasily with their overtly anti-Arsenal broadcasting policy, as witnessed since the channel started.. Yesterday they had the rights to the Uncharitable Shield …
Read More “Arsenal first XI beat Man C reserves (apparently)”
By Walter Broeckx Arsenal started this first chance to win a trophy with the following team: Szczesny, Debuchy, Chambers, Koscielny, Gibbs, Arteta, Wilshere, Ramsey, Alexis, Cazorla, Sanogo. So a first start for Alexis in the first match with something at stake. And Sanogo was preferred to Giroud after his 4 goals in the Emirates cup …
Intro… Our match previewer of last season – Dom – is sadly unable to write the previews for Untold for 2014/15, and so, upon hearing the news I went out a-searching for a replacement correspondent. My eye was drawn last week to an advert in the Strand magazine which read thus… “Demobilised officer and gentleman finding …
By Tony Attwood This is Arsenal’s 20th appearance in the Charity / Community Shield, and Man City’s 10th. Here’s a list of the clubs that have won the shield the most time – in descending order by wins. Club Appearances Wins Last match won Manchester United 29 20 2013 Liverpool 21 15 2006 Arsenal 19 …
Read More “What (if anything) are we to make of the Community Shield?”
By Walter Broeckx I must admit that when I saw the first mention on twitter about Howard Webb retiring I thought it was a joke. It actually was a joke. Something in the style of erecting a statue outside Old Trafford. And something about the bookmakers changing the odds for the worse for MU becoming …
Read More “Howard Webb, gone from the pitch but not gone in terms of influence”
The beautiful game is one of the easiest competitions to manipulate because of the absolute power the referee and his assistants enjoy. It is also one of the hardest games to police because of the difficulty in interpreting an official’s decision, except when it is obviously wrong according to the Laws. So we might ask: …
By Tony Attwood There was a brief discussion on Untold about the club badge recently. I thought I might update the issue, and indeed add something about the club motto – just in case it is of interest. Below is a statement issued by the Club when the crest was introduced in 2002, and below …
Read More “The origins of the Arsenal badge and the club’s motto”
By Tony Attwood Sorry Walter – the chance of a trip down the road for the qualifying game has gone. We’re off to Turkey. But exactly where in Turkey I am not sure. There seems to be quite a bit of info around saying the old stadium iof our opponents s being remodelled with difficulty …
By Tony Attwood Top of the list (at least in terms of Uefa co-efficient) of clubs that Arsenal can draw in the Champions League qualifier are Athletic Bilbao who are about to sign Arteta and Monreal – according to the Star, the Metro and the Express. Athletic Club, generally known in England as Athletic Bilbao, and …
Read More “Champions League draw: who’s who, what’s what, when’s when (etc)”
By Walter Broeckx After our first article on the video ref in which we set the scene and our second article in which we showed what the football authorities from Holland are doing to improve the refereeing standards we have shown in a third article what the PGMOL are doing in England to improve refereeing. …
Read More “The video ref is on his way part 4: how PGMOL works to silence its critics”
By Walter Broeckx In our first article on the video ref we set the scene Then in our second article we showed what the football authorities from Holland are doing to improve the refereeing standards Now we can write down what the PGMOL is doing in England to improve refereeing. …
Read More “The video ref is on his way part 3: the Premier League”
If you want to run a blog and entrap readers the rule is simple: write a headline such as “Arsenal to sign mega super star” or “Arsenal winning race to sign top defender” or whatever. Just don’t mention the name, or that the source for your story is the Metro, the Star or the Express. …
Read More “Would you like to write about Arsenal’s latest transfers? Here’s how.”
By Tony Attwood I wrote yesterday about how I feel that the management of Arsenal through the period of building and moving into the Emirates has been a masterpiece – a work of genius. A masterpiece that other clubs, such as Liverpool and Tottenham want to emulate. A masterpiece that they think they are certain …
Read More “Mr Usmanov claims we could have had success much sooner. But is that right?”
By Walter Broeckx In the first article I tried to give a short resume of what happened in the past. And on how the Dutch who always have been rather innovative in the past are once more taking the initiative in terms of something that is now still very controversial but that in my opinion is …
Read More “The video ref is on his way. Part 2 of our review of this innovation”
By Walter Broeckx Since I started writing for Untold a few years ago one of my main interests has been in writing about referees. As a referee myself I think I can add a bit of extra insight in the refereeing world and from my own experience I can see how and what can improve …
Read More “Standing still is not an option. The Video ref is on his way”
The Emirates Cup: a view from the cheap(er) seats by Blacksheep As you may know if you are a regular visitor to Untold, Tony and I usually travel to the Emirates together (and indeed to some father flung and more exotic grounds – such as Corby Town or Grantham). But this weekend as I was …
Read More “Football at the Emirates: the view from the cheaper seats.”
by Tony Attwood It is not something you read every day on Untold, but the truth is there was a time when Tottenham could have had it all. It was in the 1960s. They did the Double in 1961, and won the Cup in 1962 and 1967, plus the Cup Winners Cup in 1963, the …
Read More “It’s not only winning things that counts. It’s the genius of staying there”
A personal perspective by Tony Attwood Taking on the subject of Qatar, what it is, what it stands for and indeed what it is doing, is dangerous ground. Dangerous because opinions are so polarised that anything one says is going to be open to discussion, debate, and dissent. So I headline this, a personal perspective. …
Read More “Qatar, Fifa, Barça. Is this how we want football to be?”
By Tony Attwood Having done my bit of summarising as to where we are following the Emirates Cup I’m going to take the plunge and try and do a bit of thinking about how it has been so far for us, and what our rivals in the Premier League are up to. Now I do …
By Tony Attwood Thinking inside the box, and clutching at stories that require no effort, these are the daily activities of most sports journalists. The vision is of an audience that is only interested in the now, not the deeper analysis. “Simple words for simple souls” is the motto. It is as if the 1960s …
Read More “How we may have found an answer to the defensive midfielder issue”
By Walter Broeckx With Tony at the Emirates I have not idea what BT will do today so for those who want to inform us you can do so. With Valencia winning with 3-1 against Benfica they took over the lead from us and we had to at least score a goal to win the …
