Arsenal welcome The Creature from the Black Lagoon By Billy The Dog McGraw, Landlord of the Toppled Bollard, Islington. At the heart of the matter there are three creatures. Oysten the Greater, Oysten the Lesser, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. All three have a significant part to play in the world of Blackpudlian …
Read More “Billy the Dog’s match preview – Arsenal welcome The Creature from The Black Lagoon.”
by Tony Attwood The Arsenal History project, organised by Arsenal Independent Supporters Association, and (I think it is fair to say) welcomed by the upper echelons of Arsenal FC, has taken on a new direction. We are starting to publish memories of fans – and at the moment we are focussing on memories of the …
Read More “It’s about being six years old and freezing cold, or travelling from Australia just to see a game”
By Tony Attwood Star of stage, screen and the members pack Well, if you have received the full Arsenal members’ pack, and put in your DVD (at least the round thing in the pack), and then worked your way through the Ray Parlour stuff, watched the goal of the season countdown, and wondered what next, …
Read More “Untold Arsenal appear on the Arsenal membership DVD; Arsène copes well, I make predictions”
OK, that would be just me then. Or at least that is what it often felt like when he was in the team. In his short, peak period, I thought he was God’s gift to the team, and was certain he was going to become one of the all time greats. There’s even a little …
Read More “Stand up if you adore Martin Hayes”
By GF60 “Looking back is sometimes dangerous because we see the past that we want to remember and not the past that has happened in reality.” With all-seater grounds, nancyfied and oh so safe stadia, no-one will ever know again, the thrill of being able to tell the crowd size merely by the pressure on …
Read More “Highbury, Crush barriers, Cliff Holton and Stanley Matthews. A trip down memory lane”
By Tony Attwood If you’ve ever clicked on the links that I sometimes throw in at the end of articles you might have found your way onto the Woolwich Arsenal web site www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk The site covers, in a very erratic and idiosyncratic manner, the history of Woolwich Arsenal from its foundation as a professional club, …
Read More “Should we not all worship Jack Humble?”
Heysel – the Belgian perspective. By Walter Broeckx The history of the Heysel stadium goes back to 1927. In those days the city of Brussels decided to build a brand new stadium which was meant to become the home for all kind of sporting events in the Belgian capital. It was finished in 1930, thus celebrating …
Read More “Heysel May 29”
by Walter Broeckx As someone asked if we could not only give a bit of general view on the goals that we conceded but an overall view on all the statistics I will try to do this. I will only take a look at the league and the performances and will not speak about cup …
Read More “Arsenal throughout the last 20 years. How are we doing today?”
By Walter Broeckx A reader asked it we could look at the goals conceded and compare this with the invincible year. A fair question and so I went on to do some research on this. And if you just look at the bare facts they say: 2003-2004 : conceded 26 goals and won the title. 2009-2010 …
Read More “Is it the defence that is the problem? The stats suggest not.”
16-1, I should explain, was the number of shots for each side. And there isn’t too much point in doing any analysis of a match like this. We needed to win, and Fulham were thinking of the Europa League, and we did what was necessary. Most amusingly Tottenham didn’t. Djourou came back and had a …
Read More “Lansbury is the big surprise as Arsenal win 16-1”
Click for the latest Arsenal V Fulham premiership betting odds —————————————— Herbert Chapman’s first match in charge of Arsenal was at Highbury. It brought in a crowd of 53,000 and was against Tottenham. We lost 0-1. I have often wondered, in this era of the Catastrophist, if the crowd sang for him to be sacked. …
Read More “Chapman and Wenger: how the crowd respond to our biggest losers”
Which is why, in between everything else, I have been calling this, Tiny Totts week. And in a sense this is the article I have been building up to all season. I doubt that the Tinies even know the importance of this match in historical terms. They probably know it in hysterical terms but then, …
Read More “It is 100 years almost to the day since the first Tottenham v Arsenal game”
Today’s Sponsor: ArsenalGifts.com Today’s sponsor: ArsenalGifts.com is a one-stop shop for all things Arsenal related, from replica kits and retro shirts through to Emirates Stadium tours, memorabilia and novelty items. They even sell “Making the Arsenal”. Visit http://www.arsenalgifts.com —————————- Welcome to the land of the Pig’s Head. A Billy the Dog McGraw special. In the …
Read More “Welcome to the land of the Pig’s Head”
It’s been months since we talked about players and matches, what with midweek dribble ball and the invasion of the hatchet men last saturday, so here’s a quick run down on this saturdays team, before a quick review of the opposition and their semi-illustrated history. —————- Almunia Sagna Vermaelen Silvestre Clichy (Eboue, Traore) Ramsey, Denilson, …
Read More “Arsenal Burnley: a delightful and insightful fistful of pratfalls”
By Walter Broeckx I think almost everyone has something from the past on which he thinks : If I had done so and so at that moment in my life what would have happened to the world. You can imagine that people who have met, let’s say, someone like A. Hitler long before he was …
Read More “Me and Wayne Rooney. How I nearly changed the world”
To recap and explain (or vice versa) Football 1.0 started when Preston North End were thrown out of the FA Cup in 1884 after a complaint from Upton Park FC that Preston had been paying their players. As a direct result of this Preston got together with other northern clubs and formed the Football League …
Read More “Welcome to Football 3.0 and bid farewell to the old regime.”
Billy the Dog was not quite in the best of moods or the finest of fettle when I met him on the allotment to discuss the game against the almighty Notlob in the Land of the Fabled Beast. I started by asking the question everyone asks, “Is there life in Bolton?” “It doesn’t really matter,” …
Read More “Life in Bolton, and other elements of chaos theory”
By Walter Broeckx In the comment section of this site a couple of days ago there was a comment from a Gooner from South Africa who was declared not a real fan of The Arsenal because he did not live in England. I must say that from my own experience I never had some one …
Read More “A Johnny Foreigner can never be a true Arsenal fan.”
Arsenal vs. Stoke preview On Saturday, Arsenal play host to Stoke City on a day that marks the 100 year anniversary of the first ever North London derby! Pulis is marking himself to be a bit of an Allardyce in terms of management approach: he makes no apologies for his side’s style of play, and …
Read More “Arsenal v Stoke, the facts, stats, and the result before it even happens”
Today is the day we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first ever Arsenal v Tottenham game. There is a full article on this on www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk This day was, in a very real sense, the start of a process that led us to Highbury, Division I and Herbert Chapman. So it seems appropriate for a …
Read More “On the 100th anniversary of Arsenal v Tottenham, what sport tells us about life”
A word of warning. In this article I will not be hiding my bushel under a 40 watt bulb. I’m over the parrot. (Sorry if English is not your first language, that’s a really stupid play on words. In simple talk I am happy and I am going to boast). Let me put it another …
Read More “Arsenal programme on Wednesday to run article by UNTOLD ARSENAL”
Just in case you have missed my endless ramblings over the past nine months – I have written a book about Arsenal in 1910, called Making the Arsenal. Today the cover and an extract of the book has gone on line, and orders are now being accepted for delivery as soon as copies are printed. …
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ALL TOMORROW’S PARTIES: Arsenal results before the game starts. So, where were we? Everyone’s been off being kicked for their country during Cripplegate Week, and everyone is injured, so we are putting out the under 11s for this fixture. Arshavin’s out, Cesc is probably out, my cat’s out (but that’s a cat-flap issue) and Theo …
Read More “SPOILER ALERT: Man A vs Arsenal, teams, report, result before it happens”
A review of “Forward, Arsenal” by Bernard Joy Bernard Joy was the last amateur player to play for England. He played for the University of London, Casuals (with whom he won the Amateur Cup – which I should add for younger readers was a very big deal in earlier times, getting huge crowds, and sometimes …
Read More “Arsenal is nothing without its history and heritage”
Arsenal – the club for every day of the week By Ian Trevett, Editor of Highbury High Untold Arsenal has kindly allowed me to write a feature for the site and invite readers of the Tony’s excellent blog to contribute features to the Arsenal fanzine Highbury High. Highbury High has become a close ally to …
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