A tight race is on, good home form will be required

By Walter Broeckx If there is one good thing about this midweek fixtures then it is the fact that they are the ideal way to get rid of the disappointing result from the weekend. We had a bad day and several key players were below par. It can happen but it was rather painful to …

When absolute tragedy overwhelms what do the press say?

by Tony Attwood Yesterday around 50 people died attempting to enter a football match in Egypt.   But you’ll be hard pressed to find much detail in the media this morning – even on the endlessly updated websites of the mainsteam press. With football, it seems, in England at least, we have shut off our …

Right, transfer window over, lets start the Arsenal bashing

By Tony Attwood “I totally respect the Premier League as a successful business that generates an enormous amount of income and brings some of the best players in the world to these shores,” said the shadow sports minister in the UK, Clive Efford, recently. “But the way the finances are sucked in perpetuates a culture …

Yet more money is about to pour into football. So what will happen?

By Tony Attwood On Friday last week the bids for the future rights for football on TV were opened.  And yet result and announcement was there none. Partly this is because the old days of Lord Sugar are over.  The story is that at the time of the first entry of Sky he telephoned Sky …

Match report : Totts v Arsenal

By Walter Broeckx So time for the North London derby. And Arsenal starting this match with the following players : Ospina, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Ramsey, Welbeck, Cazorla, Ozil, Giroud. And on the beach we had : Szczesny, Gibbs, Gabriel, Flamini, Rosicky, Walcott, Akpom. To be honest a surprise that Welbeck came in the …

The Tiny Totts v Royal Arsenal

By Bulldog Drummond The north London game at 748 High Road is always a welcome step away from the hurlyburly of playing those funny fellas from the north. ‘tup norf as they say, they parade drone air machines carrying sarcastic banners and pretend they are sophisticates playing a match of significance – egged on always …

World football in a bit of a tizz; Mr Usmanov steps in.

Its a funny old game. Mr Usmanov, the richest man in Russia and the second biggest shareholder in Arsenal has just loaned the Russian FA nearly £4m so that they can pay that old art collector Fabio Capello (whose collection is said to be worth £10m+) his back wages. Mr U said, “I think the situation …

Alexis demands a transfer as the window isn’t completely slammed shut

By Walter Broeckx The official transfer window was closed last Monday. But to my surprise the constant stream of transfer rumours didn’t stop at all. The levels of insanity in the media have risen to new heights.  The one that made me laugh out loud was that Alexis was going away this summer because…. Cazorla won the last …

Tottenham v Royal Arsenal: the match officials

Spurs v Arsenal 07 February 2015 – The Match Officials by Andrew Crawshaw Firstly following Walter’s reviews of Mssrs. Moss (Arsenal v Stoke) and Dean (City v Arsenal) here is the updated Table of Shame Wrong Important Decisions Favouring Arsenal Favouring Opponents 2nd Yellow Cards 0 14 Red Cards 3 13 Penalties 3 14 Goals …

Ref Review : Arsenal – Aston Villa. Arsenal commit two fouls in 45 minutes.

Ref for this match: Anthony Taylor First remark I want to make is that apart from a few minor incidents it seemed that Aston Villa wanted to play a fair match of football. This resulted in the fact that the first time the ref had to make a real decision…it was to approve a goal …

Few people who criticise Zonal Marking actually understand what it means

EXPLANATION OF ZONAL MARKING SYSTEM. By Bob Macdonald I am  qualified Uefa grade ‘A’ coach, and have vast experience both coaching and managing at a fairly high level. My observations are in fact no more than  that, and I would be the last person to suggest I know more than the next person. However I …

Chelsea complain, Man U complain. But hush, don’t talk about refs.

On the anniversary of one of the most bizarre referee performances of all time, I thought I’d look at whether the media has changed its stance of late. . By Tony Attwood . A lot of the problem about the debate concerning referees is the very curious way the media follow it up. . For …

Arsenal – Aston Villa, the match report: Outside of the boot, cutting inside and other language of the street

By Walter Broeckx So Arsenal starting with the following players in this match against Aston Taylor:  Ospina, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Ramsey, Cazorla, Özil, Walcott, Giroud.  On the cold beach we had Szczesny, Gibbs, Gabriel, Rosicky, Flamini, Chambers and Akpom. In the stands we had my wife, myself and the rest of a 30 man …

The value of each squad, the transfer fee oddities and multiple loans.

By Tony Attwood To some people all Arsenal did in the transfer window was bought Krystian Bielik and Gabriel Paulista.  Maybe – but what is the result? According to TransferMarket.co.uk it means we have a squad that is worth £343.02m. Some players have increased in value since we bought them (Ospina is now worth £6.16m …

All the dodgy doings you might have missed on deadline day

By Tony Attwood I’ll come to the dodgy and indeed the very very dodgy in a moment, but first, a headline from the Daily Telegraph.  “Arsene Wenger failed to land a single player before the window shut – despite links to a host of stars across Europe.” Yes, well, considering that Mr Wenger had already …

Booing your own players and management is dumb

By Tony Attwood Every day we get comments on Untold which criticise either one or more Arsenal players, or our manager, or the management team. As I have said many, many times before, we will publish such commentaries, but only when backed up by some logic, stats or reasoned argument.  Just calling someone at Arsenal …

Villa’s problem, Arsenal’s six injuries and the cost of January transfers

By Tony Attwood It struck me as Blacksheep and I walked back from the game to Archway underground station, what a warped vision of football is created by the arrant nonsense that is pumped out by so many blogs and the newspapers each day, with their endless story that the only thing that matters is the …

Arsenal vs Aston Villa live brought to you by Europcar

Afternoon one and all and welcome to Sunday’s Premier League early KO at the Emirates. It’s Arsenal vs Aston Villa brought to by the lovely folk at Europcar – Arsenal’s Official Car and Van Rental Partner. It’s four wins on the bounce now for Arsene Wenger’s men who return to Premier League action for the …

The difficult task of fitting in all the players: Arsenal v Villa

By Bulldog Drummond Quite a big day for the Untold Collective: Andrew, Walter, Blacksheep and Tony all at the game together.  Untold doesn’t manage that very often. And glory be, what a difference a few weeks makes.  From the December doom gloom and doom and gloom and we are finished, to this, in the Guardian: …