What is happening to our players? Part 1: The facts and the questions

What is happening to our players? By Tim Charlesworth Walter has recently written a couple of interesting articles about Nacho and Coquelin, and the extraordinary improvement that they have shown over the last twelve months. These are the two most noteworthy examples, but actually they are not the only players to improve in the last …

Ref Review : Arsenal – Man Utd, more of the same

By Usama & Walter ARSENAL vs. MANCHESTER UNITED COMPETITION: English Premier League MATCH NO. 8 DATE: 4th October 2015 VENUE: Emirates Stadium (London, England) MATCH OFFICIALS: REFEREE: Anthony Taylor 1st LINESMAN: John Brooks 2nd LINESMAN: Lee Betts 4th OFFICIAL: Roger East   First Half Fouls, Advantages, Cards, and Penalties Time Foul by Foul For Description …

It’s not that we don’t need THIS Fifa, we don’t need ANY Fifa.

The wheel’s still in spin… By Tony Attwood Very, very slowly there is a movement away from the reform of Fifa to a total revolutionary overthrow of the old regime. It is of course something that is not at all welcomed by the entrenched powers – Fifa and Uefa, the FA and all the other …

Deal Agreed with Brazilian Striker, and perfect DM replacement found

By Sir Hardly Anyone It is a curious fact of life that you can wait all summer long for a defensive midfielder without one appearing and then two appear all at once.   Even more curious is that Arsenal don’t need one since we currently have one of the very best DM’s in Europe. But …

Oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes. Yes!

By Tony Attwood The other day, having torn what remains of my hair out and eaten half the furniture in my humble abode I finally got to express my frustration and anger over the way the press continue to talk up international football while talking down Arsenal. In particular my annoyance was raised to unbearable …

Why didn’t Wenger stop Alexis travelling? And who did the worst transfer business in the summer?

By Tony Attwood It has, both for those people who play fantasy football and for the journalists who base their regular commentaries around fantasy football, while nicking their news stories without checking from wholly unreliable news stories, been a bit of a topsy turvy season so far. One minute Arsenal is in total meltdown and …

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

By Tony Attwood If you are a regular reader of Untold you must be sick to death of me referring back to the article I wrote five years ago about why England is so rubbish as an international football team. I refer back to it because it is evidence based, it shows in clear stats …

Arsenal since New year. Time to stop the moaning and start the supporting!

  By Walter Broeckx With the boredom of the interlul upon us time to check the internet and see if there are interesting things to find. And yes there are. Not just Untold is writing interesting things. I found a few interesting tables that have been put together by some people. And I wanted to check …

Messi will stand trial for fraud. Oh no he won’t, oh yes he will, oh… could the press have been taken for a ride?

By Tony Attwood Lionel Messi tax charges dropped in Spain shouted the Daily Telegraph, always keen to lend a hand to the very rich and famous – although you can always tell when they know they haven’t checked the facts properly because the article was attributed to “Telegraph Sport”. Lionel Messi tax fraud case: Barcelona …

The “last 38 match” table – Arsenal and Man C neck and neck to take control.

By Tony Attwood You may have seen on a number of other sites an analysis of the last 38 league games played by Premier League clubs.  It has turned up without attribution on a number of sites but I think it originated with @goonerdesi.   If I’ve got that wrong my apologies. Anyway, it was …

Triumph and Adversity: a review of progress since the last interlull

Triumph and Adversity: a review of progress since the last interlull By Tim Charlesworth The second interlull is upon us, and it’s another chance to step away from the hurly-burly and review how our season is going.  Just after the first interlull, I had a look at a series of tricky fixtures ahead, and suggested …

PGMO ready to recommend that all league referees should be armed during matches.

By Dr Billy “the dog” McGraw (senior weaponry advisor to Professional Game Match Officials Ltd) The secretive organisation, PGMO, which is believed to control football refereeing at the professional level in England, have long been rumoured to be closely associated with the Italian Mafia, and it seems that the influence of their patrons is spreading. …

Nacho Monreal from weaker link to top left back

By Walter Broeckx As I talked about Francis Coquelin the other day a few of our readers said that for them Monreal was one of the absolute revelations of the last year too. I urge you to not do this, as in a way it takes away the surprise about the new articles I already …

The masters of failure and ineptitude; but why are supporters having to pay for their errors?

By Tony Attwood. One of the great consquences that there might be if Fifa falls is that the FA, a big supporter of Fifa, of Jack Warner and of Platini, might fall down into the hole with them. It doesn’t matter whether it has been the FA’s inability to deal with Richard Scuadmore’s sexist commentary …

Ref Review: Arsenal – Olympiacos : a match of two halves

By Usama and Walter ARSENAL vs. OLYMPIACOS COMPETITION: UEFA Champions League MATCH NO. 2 DATE: 29th September 2015 VENUE: Emirates Stadium (London, England) MATCH OFFICIALS: REFEREE: Bas Nijhuis (Netherlands) 1st LINESMAN: Rob van de Ven (Netherlands) 2nd LINESMAN: Charles Schaap (Netherlands)   4th OFFICIAL: Mario Diks (Netherlands) First Half Fouls, Advantages, Cards, and Penalties Time Foul by Foul …

Just how well are Arsenal doing on a player by player basis?

By Tony Attwood Just how good are Arsenal players in relation to those of other clubs?  Obviously one answer is to look at the league table, and I will come to that in a moment, but there is another source of such information: the analyses of the type put out by WhoScored.com One of the …

Arsenal’s hidden star among the stellar performers, celebrated on the birthday of his most illustrious predecessor

By Walter Broeckx Of course the headlines were about Alexis and Özil and they were well earned and deserved. Alexis with two amazing goals and Özil with a goal and an assist and some amazing touches and vision. Yes they were the main stars of the show, at the end-point of some great attacks from Arsenal. …

Why big clubs are no longer being bought and sold: re-interpreting the evidence

. By Tony Attwood. . How to be a millionaire – 1.   Be a billionaire and start an airline. How to be a millionaire – 2.   Be a billionaire and buy a football club. . Same old same old.   You’ve almost certainly heard one or probably both of those before.  But such …

The sad rise of the Fantasy Football Manager

By Kev The sad rise of the Fantasy Football Manager So Brendan Rogers is the latest casualty. After failed attempts to destabilise Arsenal and manoeuvre Wenger closer to the exit door, the FFM get their other man.  But who is the FFM? Saturated TV coverage, Dream Team Competitions and computer games consoles have created a …

Where does Liverpool sit in relation to evidence based football analysis?

By Tony Attwood This week I heard someone interviewing two guests on TV.  They disagreed over some point or other and the interviewer said, “That’s what we like about football – everyone can have an opinion.” And yes of course in a moderately open democratic society everyone can have an opinion.  That opinion might be …

Ref Review: Leicester – Arsenal, good performance from the ref

By Usama and Walter LEICESTER CITY vs. ARSENAL COMPETITION: English Premier League MATCH NO. 7 DATE: 26th September 2015 VENUE: King Power Stadium (Leicester, England) MATCH OFFICIALS: REFEREE: Craig Pawson 1st LINESMAN: Michael Salisbury 2nd LINESMAN: Gary Beswick 4th OFFICIAL: Robert Madley First Half Fouls, Advantages, Cards, and Penalties Time Foul by Foul For Description …

What are they smoking at Anfield? (And Fleet Street)

By Tony Attwood You know the world has gone even madder than it was yesterday when you wake up and see the Daily Telegraph (that most sneering, jibing anti-Arsenal of papers) has done a double somersault and turns itsself on its head (if you see what I mean). Of Arsenal against Olympiakos they said, “little …

Arsenal – MU 3-0, early Arsenal blitzkrieg pays off

By Walter Broeckx Arsenal made four changes to the side that started against Olympiacos in the Champions League. Cech came in goal in the place of Ospina.  Per Mertesacker played in the place of the injured Koscielny. And Ramsey and Monreal started again. The Arsenal team that started was  Cech, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Gabriel, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ozil, Ramsey, …

Arsenal v Man U: the evidence based preview of the game

By Bulldog Drummond I rather like the new phrase on Untold Arsenal: “Evidence based football reporting”, and as anticipated a survey of the media this morning shows very little of it. Endless opinion of course, but very very few stats.   Indeed the few that I have found seem to involve journalists knocking Arsene Wenger …