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 Walter Broeckx Well this wasn’t our best day today. You could see and feel from the first minutes that half of the team was still celebrating our victory at WHL and the other where checking their list to see if they had everything packed for the visit to Belgrade next Tuesday. As a result …
By Tony Attwood A bad day at the office generally can be put right the next day. You know you are off-form and the more you try to correct it the worse it gets. In the end you just have to accept that it was a bad day at the office. The trouble with football …
Read More “Inside the ground at least, we are beating the Anti-Arsenal gangs”
By Billy the Dog McGraw OK, everyone’s dead, semi-dead or deadbeat so we are on the edge of using the 9 year old youth team for the match against the Woobooloos. Here’s one line up – the one that Tony tried out on an unsuspecting public the other day… Almunia Sagna Squillaci Koscielny Clichy Song …
Read More “Referee sends himself off in Arsenal v WBA extravaganza!”
By Tony Attwood Could this be the all-time injury record for Arsenal – or indeed any EPL club? If you are a reader of the Arsenal History site you will know that we recently covered a game in the 1920s in which Arsenal were without 10 first teamers and ended up playing the goal keeper …
By Tony Attwood So having done my bit yesterday to put the boot in vis a vis Liverpool and Manchester IOU here’s what Arsenal FC have been up to The completion of sale of 362 (2009 – 208) private apartments at Highbury Square and the social housing site at Queensland Road generated £156.9 million of …
I have a dream. By Paul Blythe (With obvious apologies) Fourteen years ago, a great Frenchman, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the first of his many contracts. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Arsenal Fans who had been seared in the flames of the withering …
Read More “I have a dream…. of an ever greater and more glorious Arsenal”
By Tony Attwood Christian Purslow, MD of that amusing little club up in the north west, has finally admitted that the club can’t service the debt. While Kenneth Dalglish MBE (a man whom all football fans must remember as a sensational player, and a man of considerable dignity in the aftermath of Hillsborough) seems now …
By Tony Attwood Imagine being told by the boss that he doesn’t think you are quite up to it. Maybe you would like to move on? There’s a good opportunity going in… Norway. Or maybe Malta…. That must be bad enough. But as a footballer being told by people who are supposedly supporting your team …
Read More “Almunia: It’s been a really tough year; plus free club level tickets for WBA”
By Tony Attwood Good news on free tickets, good news on injuries, good news about women, good news about Carlos Vela. It is all Good, Good, Good, Good. Oh yes! First off, the two free tickets for club level this weekend. If you read my meanderings on a regular basis, then in between your need …
Read More “It’s good news day. Win 2 club level tickets for WBA; plus Gibbs is OK and Vela is freed”
By Walter Broeckx For the trip to the Lane we got ref Lee Probert in charge. The result was great but how was the ref? We just will find out. PENALTY: Lansbury runs in the area and falls down. There was a hand of a defender on his back, but I think the ref is …
Read More “The Untold referee index: Tiny Totts vs Arsenal.”
By Tony Attwood I was so enthused last night I went to bed extra late, couldn’t get to sleep, and then woke up late (thank goodness, not getting a full night’s sleep is not good when you get to a Certain Age – as we Veterans call it) and have hardly got time to write …
Read More “Arry says stuff you won’t believe, except, oh, hang on, it was said by Arry, so we don’t”
Arsène Wenger has three Hands!!! By Paul Blythe The Phrygian sage Epictetus said: ‘Everything has two handles, one by which it can be carried and a second by which it cannot’. There may even be a third handle, often not in clear view and the major problem being you need a third hand to …
Read More “Arsène Wenger has three hands – don’t let the media fool you.”
By Walter Broeckx Watching MOTD is one of the highlights in my life. I must say that from the days of Jimmy Hill it was always a joy for me to hear the tune at the start of the program. My wife knew that at that moment she could run around naked in the house and …
Read More “Have they seen the light? It is time to stop fouling goalkeepers”
Untold Injury Index – Gameweek 5 By Dale Higginbottom Do Arsenal get more injuries then their Premier League rivals? That’s what this series of articles will try to answer and put the difficult run of injuries into some perspective. As the match intensity increases to include cup competitions we should expect the league campaigns to …
Read More “How our injury levels compare with our rivals. The Untold Injury Index Week 5”
By Paul Blythe The Art of Name calling. We all have one, more often than not several. The ones bestowed upon us by our loving parents and those used by friends and foes alike, often to describe our obvious flaws and shortcomings. However names often have a deeper more powerful and historic significance often lost …
Read More “The art of name calling: what the names of the Arsenal team actually mean.”
By Tony Attwood Guessing the Lord Wenger’s team for a league match can be tough (as witness the fact that I never get within a million miles of it). So guessing the team for the Diddly Cup match is well neigh impossible. A first teamer that you thought would be rested suddenly starts, and some …
Read More “Arsenal’s team to play the Tiny Totts in the little cup.”
When a draw is a win, when a draw is a defeat By Tony Attwood You know the feeling: you score in the last minute to get a draw and it feels like a win. You concede after having taken the lead and it feels like a defeat. You miss a penalty and it feels …
Read More “Sunderland 1 Arsenal Reserves 1: a great victory”
By Walter Broeckx, the ref A visit to Sunderland and the home referee for Sunderland was Mr. Phil Dowd OTHER: From the start Sunderland can’t commit any fouls it seems. The moment we come near a player who falls down ref Dowd blows his whistle. 0/1 GOAL: A lucky goal but they all count. 1/1 …
From the marmalade of the tackle to the croissant of planning. Sunderland v. Arsenal By Phil Gregory* Coming off the back of a stunning 6-0 against Braga, confidence will undoubtedly be high amongst the Arsenal camp. While the goals have flowed freely at home, with big wins against Bolton, Braga and Blackpool, our away games …
By Billy the Dog McGraw This weekend Arsenal play away to Sunderland – the smallest village to have a team in the Premier League. Beer is 1/3 a pint. The Sunderland web site currently carries an article called “Behind Enemy Lines” which features an illustration of barbed wire in what appears to be a prisoner …
Read More “The Sunderland pitch is tilted and gives an unfair advantage”
by Walter Broeckx At first I only planned to do this series on refs in the EPL. But after the game I thought it could be nice to do this also for the Champions League so that at the end of the season we also could make a comparison between the refs in both competitions. Who …
Can Arsenal win the League with Almunia in goal? by Paul Collins A couple of weeks ago I saw an article in a major newspaper that asked the question “Can Arsenal win the League with Manuel Almunia?” The writer concluded that Arsenal could not win the Championship with Almunia playing in goal. The writer used …
By Walter Broeckx As everyone is again and rightfully focusing on our great attacking play I thought it would be a good thing to have a look at our defensive game. As I pointed out in my early season comparison and like Wenger pointed out at arsenal.com at first sight we tend not to concede …
By Tony Attwood Carlos Vela was 21 last March, according to my maths, and yet it seems like he has been here for centuries. In fact he came in in 2007/8 but didn’t start playing for us until the following season. Year on year his stats are 2008/9 – Starts 10 – Subs 19- Goals …
Read More “Is Carlos Vela not a little too old to be playing for Arsenal”
by Phil Gregory Coming straight from France, the Braga preview. On y va… The season is well and truly on now, with the return of Champions League football, missing apostrophe and all. Life is made much easier by not having to negotiate the play-off round, extra fixtures are rarely desired unless necessary, while Tottenham suffered …
Read More “Arsenal – Braga preview (and missing apostrophes)”
