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 Every now and then I write about the Glasgow club Rangers – primarily because they represent to me the classic case of the failure of the media to ask why, and the failure to step out of line of the cosy bond they have in which each follows the other and none …
Read More “Rangers still on the brink, and we can be sure there are more to come”
By Tony Attwood Steve McManaman is hardly a person who would make my Xmas card list but I have to say that his dealing of the banner that half a dozen AAA had brought with them and snuck into the WBA game, was very good. He pointed out the sheer utter lunacy of what …
Read More “Asking for the Daniel Levy approach to management is a sign of insanity”
By Walter Broeckx The weekend after European football is always a difficult weekend. And certainly when you have the honour of being chosen for the early kick off on Saturday after having played on Wednesday evening. A match that we had to play against one of the top teams in Europe. Well it was before …
Publisher’s Note There is an important campaign going on at the WBA match today, and the second half of this article deals with that. The first half contains the usual pre-match kick about but I would urge you to keep reading to appreciate exactly what the demonstration at the Hawthorns is about. Thanks Tony …
Read More “WBA vs the Invisibles, and something of far greater importance”
By Walter Broeckx So there we have it… just as I predicted. I know it is getting a bit boring. But it is a fact that I predicted it would happen. And it happened again. Another player injured because of the PGMO referees not doing their job. And as the media always tells that it …
By Walter Broeckx So who can we meet… and who not if the CL groups as they now stand were to be the final tables in each group? If that is the case Arsenal would be second in our group so we have to see at the other top teams in the group to see …
By Walter Broeckx I will not deny that we had a poor start to the season. I will not deny that the matches since Anderlecht were not idea in terms of the results if nothing else. Because I thought that we played rather impressively against Manchester United but we were wasteful with the chances that …
Read More “After a match like this it is easy to be a supporter”
By Tony Attwood Chris Bascombe writing in the Telegraph has said that, “We live in an age where the default position is to be offended by the continued employment of those we don’t consider to be as complete human beings as ourselves. There are now offices full of recent graduates dedicated to a daily web …
By Walter Broeckx Well, well well. This must be a dark night for the dark siders. How on earth did the impossible just became possible. The setting before this match was: Wenger is clueless. Klopp is a master tactician who would bring Arsenal to another level. Possible but not really their current Bundesliga level if …
By Bulldog Drummond In the past we used to have specialists, like brain surgeons, bricklayers and baby minders. Now it seems everyone knows and can do everything. So after weeks of all those people who have never managed even a little team, knowing more about tactics than a man who has won eight major trophies …
Read More “Yesterday everyone was a tactician, today they are all psychologists”
By Tony Attwood So we have an interesting duality. On the one hand we can show that Dean made some terrible decisions in the match last weekend. One the other hand we can see that the TV commentary did not reflect this terrible performance by the ref. On a third hand (clearly there are aliens …
Read More “That difficult question “why?” and a lot of rumours”
By Walter Broeckx In their haste to blame Wenger for: 1. Welbeck missing a first chance (AWshould have bought Falcao instead of Welbeck 2. Welbeck missing another header seconds later (see it’s AW his fault should have bought…. 3. Welbeck shooting to weak (see AW should have….) 4. Jack Wilshere missing the easiest of chances …
Read More “Dean Did It Again. We present the proof of his “errors””
By Walter Broeckx Let me start by saying that I would love it if the ticket prices at Arsenal would drop. I would be very happy with that. As for most people it is expensive. And as most of Europe is in not the best economical conditions (certainly my country is doing badly we are …
Read More “It’s cheaper at the Emirates. Arsenal ticket prices and the hidden facts”
On Saturday I eschewed nearly all of my pre-match rituals and we lost to the worst United team since the dawn of time (or sometime in the 1970s I think). Why did I stop? Well because for most of the season they haven’t worked and frankly I’d reached the point (it was Anderlecht at home …
Read More “A confession: when we lose it is all my fault. Football rituals and me”
By Tony Attwood An Arsenal match is, for journalists, a moment for making stuff up… or if not that then a moment for exaggerating and giving undue emphasis to some events while ignoring others. I’m wondering what we can do to stop it. For example the David Hytner Guardian piece today says: “An Arsenal supporter …
Read More “Football Betrayed: would public flogging be a fair punishment for football journalists?”
By Tony Attwood Last season there was mass wild ravings from the AAA and their backers in the mass media, to the effect that Olivier Giroud was no good, useless, a waste of space, tedious, pointless and various other things that I’m too busy to mention. I replied once or twice with an analysis which …
By Walter Broeckx As I had other obligations this evening to which I had committed myself I had to stop watching the match at half time. We had booked tickets for a stand up comedian who not just was telling jokes but who also talked about some not so happy things in her life. And …
By Bulldog Drummond In the old days Manchester was the major city of the county of Cornwall, situated in the north of the County, but attracting tin miners and the makers of charming hand painted post cards from all across the fabled land of magic. Retsehcnam Unys (to give it its fullest title) became the …
Read More “Arsenal v South Cornwall: everyone is injured, so business as usual”
By Bootoomee I have not written any article for a while now because I have had no issue that I feel strongly about enough to spur me into writing one….well, until I received this from a friend in London. This is attention-seeking stunt from a group of individuals about some nefarious act that a PRIVATE …
Read More “Maybe AST Should Be Running Arsenal Football Club”
By Tony Attwood, Quite often it seems that football moves at an extraordinarily slow pace. Or at least that is how it seemed to me on returning to England from Australia to find a bit of a broohaha exploding about the fact that a group of the worst musicians in England played (I use the …
Read More “Being ahead of the game, behind the time and raging against the dying of the light.”
By Andrew Crawshaw Before I go into this weeks officials, here is the table of wrong Important Decisions extracted from Walter’s referee reviews. Three wrong Important decisions from the Swansea game, matching not given penalties and a not given red card to Ashley Williams at the start of the second half, a game changer if …
By Walter Broeckx On the website arsenal.com on Thursday we could find some good news. The first good news wasn’t mentioned at all and that I think is good news. Some have said that Welbeck got a knock against Scotland in the international match and hobbled before coming off. Hodgson said afterwards that there shouldn’t …
Read More “Giroud and Walcott back, a whole backup attack available”
by Don McMahon Inspired by an article that Tony recently penned and as a follow-on to my recent articles dealing with the ins and outs of refereeing, I felt it was apropos to present a brief overview of more of the tricky and difficult path an aspiring referee has to travel to get to the …
By Walter Broeckx In an article in the Daily Telegraph yesterday under the header: “Jack Wilshere: I want to play in holding role for Arsenal like I do for England, but Arsène Wenger will not let me”. Now that is what I call an interesting question. Could he? Would he? Can he? Will he? Playing …
By Bob MacDonald Van Gaal has followed on from Fergie and Moyes in playing quite a strict 4-4-2 formation, though he has changed slightly to a diamond midfield, not that you can actually notice. The basis in their system is that the wide MF actually play as wingers (here come the Dinasoars) attacking and defending …
Read More “The Untold tactical preview: UNITED – AND HOW THEY WILL PROBABLY PLAY”
