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 This was quite a night in the Emirates. Noisy, some serious long-term chanting, nervy. I thought the elderly gent (well, my sort of age) just along from me was going to have a heart attack but his wife helped him up at the end and he made it out. You could feel …
Read More “Unbeaten run gets to 11: but were the press actually there?”
By Walter Broeckx Well that was an interesting match I think. Just as in Turkey we didn’t get it handed over on a platter. It was hard work from the start to the finish. Not helped by a ref who just as the one in Turkey managed to go from brillant to blind within seconds. …
Read More “Alexis on the score sheet, Arsenal go in the group stage”
By Bulldog Drummond So, having brought you Arsenal against some toffees it is now time to face the turkeys. I don’t have to bring you the news about Giroud since it is all over the papers, displaced only by the heroics of the players from one of the Empires greatest ancient cities – Milton Keynes. …
By Tony Attwood Oh how the media love to ignore the big question. It doesn’t matter whether it is something unbelievably important such as the mass abuse of vulnerable children in Rotherham or something trivial (and yes I mean that by comparison) such as football, there is either an ineptitude or a conspiracy which leads …
“I can categorically tell you Mario Balotelli will not be at Liverpool,” Brendan Rodgers said earlier this month. There’s quite a difference between that sort of statement and the sort that Mr Wenger says, which is mostly of the “I can’t tell you, because nothing is agreed, but yes, we are looking,” variety. But what puzzles …
Read More “Liverpool’s story telling: a different way to approach football”
By Walter Broeckx After a few articles about our match against Everton a few interesting discussions could be read in the comment section. I thought it would be interesting to go in to this matter a bit deeper. As an assistant with over 100 matches done including teams of the Jupiler League in Belgium I …
Read More “Everton, the assistant, carrying the flag and an experiment”
by Don McMahon The above expression is a direct translation from a local French expression (I bet Walter knows it and maybe has a similar one in Flemish as well) and it basically means that a double-standard is being applied to some decision or judgement or use of tools that need to be encouraged. In …
Read More “One weight, two measures: double standards on the field.”
by Tony Attwood Last season Aaron Ramsey scored 16 goals in all competitions. Which is a fairly decent total – until you remember that he only played 35 games, when it suddenly becomes a very good total. It is almost one in two. In the league it was 10 goals in 23 – again approaching …
Read More “Arsenal’s tactical revolution slowly comes to fruition”
By Walter Broeckx Referee : Kevin Friend Date 23/08/2014 At the start of this match it seemed that the ref got an easy game. No real fouls. I think he fell asleep after some 10 minutes and then when he had to act he lost his touch somehow. There was hardly a foul being committed …
By Tony Attwood Sometimes I say naughty things, like calling a player sold by Liverpool to Barcelona a vampire. Its terrible. People write in and complain. Never mind this is the “greatest league in the world,” so it will survive, and quite probably so will Untold. And yes, Mr Mackay said awful things, but you know …
Read More “Oh football: from England’s emails to Russia’s occupation, it’s in a mess”
By Bulldog Drummond. I was taking a stroll to my club yesterday when a fella-me-lad comes up and says hey ain’t you that Bulldog Drummond what writes review for the Times Literary Supplement and I said well young urchin yes that’s right. And he hit me. I picked myself up and asked him why and …
Read More “Everton in August; what a thought! Bulldog’s match preview”
By Tony Attwood Of course, whether we need more players or not is a matter for debate. I look at Giroud’s 40 goals for Arsenal and think that signing up a new player to replace him would be silly, given that it takes players a year or so to bed in – especially if they …
Read More “Why we don’t sign every player some think we need”
By Tony Attwood Ever since the opening match of the season in which I pointed out that, what to me seemed the biggest problem with the game, (the persistent time wasting) was not picked up either by TV or by the press, I have been wondering why. I can see why the TV directors don’t …
Read More “Why newspapers follow TV in not reporting time wasting”
Everton v Arsenal 23 August 2014 – The Match Officials By Andrew Crawshaw Referee – Kevin Friend Assistants – A Garratt & M McDonough Fourth Official – M Oliver Kevin Friend was born in 1971. His home county FA is Leicester and Rutland. He started refereeing as a 14 year old in local football …
Read More “Everton v Arsenal 23 August 2014 – The Match Officials”
By Tony Attwood Football matches are a matter of tactics, psychology and ability. In the novel by Robert Rankin, “Knees up mother earth” Brentford Utd beat Arsenal in the FA Cup by playing a bunch of circus performers instead of trained footballers in their team. That’s psychology – although not of this world. In effect …
Read More “Forget home advantage, the world of football is changing.”
By Bulldog Drummond There are, surrounding Arsenal today, quite a number of civilians who acknowledge only three concepts – one they are (by their own claims at least) Arsenal supporters, two that Arsenal are rubbish and three if only they were allowed to manage the club, by the appliance of common sense and quite possibly …
By Walter Broeckx Yes it’s over. What is over? The season. Why do I know this? Ah because the experts told me so. Which experts? Ah the self declared experts on twitter and facebook and even on Untold they can be seen. This is where we stand today. And tomorrow. The season is over because …
Read More “Warning: get to the life boats, woman and children first”
Avoiding Those Big Embarrassing (Away) Losses By Bootoomee Arsenal’s losses in the premier league for 2013/14 season: Arsenal 1 – 3 Aston Villa Manchster City 6 – 3 Arsenal Liverpool 5 – 1 Arsenal Chelsea 6 – 0 Arsenal Everton 3 – 0 Arsenal Manchester United 1 – 0 Arsenal Stoke City 1 – …
Oh! We need a Dee ehM…. ARSENAL 13. The season has begun. After the 1st round of games we are placed 3rd, behind Chelsea and ManCity (champions elect). As per predictions we have no chance of the league title. The reason, well, we don’t have a DM. Or rather a beast of a DM. Now …
By Walter Broeckx If we compare this match with the one on Saturday it is almost unbelievable that the final score was 0-0. From the first second and you can take this literally: it was an open match. Ba trying to shoot directly at goal from the kick off and if it wasn’t for an …
By Bulldog Drummond Success and achievement are boring – at least if you are a journalist. If you have to write about success then personalise it, and make the person you write about be eccentric, self-centred, opinionated and if possible abusive. But most of all follow failure – especially if it involves someone who is …
Read More “Beşiktaş JK preview: the media’s universal desire to moan and the issue of accents”
WHY DON’T THE REFS CALL ¨OBVIOUS¨ PENALTIES? By Don McMahon While watching the Arsenal struggle to dominate Crystal Palace on Saturday, there were at least 2-3 incidents against Arsenal players where many supporters claimed we should have had a penalty awarded. Having officiated for many years and been the target of such complaints from both …
Where Can We Improve? By Pete I am as much as a loyalist as anyone who frequents this site but I thought it might be interesting not only to review areas where there is room for improvement (after all nothing is perfect), but to do so constructively. Tony has already written a piece around …
By Walter Broeckx As I couldn’t see the match live as I was appointed to do a match as a referee myself at the same kick off time as the Arsenal match I had to see the match already knowing the final score. So the tension then is missing a bit compared to seeing it …
