The Euros: Is there a way of improving one’s ability to predict match results?

  By our Special Correspondent Now you may be slightly surprised but I’m going to answer the question in that headline by suggesting that yes there is.  It’s not foolproof, but it is a method that tilts the odds just a little further in the punter’s favour. The approach is to… hold back a little. …

The eight most outrageous anti-Arsenal stories since yesterday

By Sir Hardly Anyone Since the anti-Arsenal Arsenal movement (commonly known as the aaa, the contemporary equivalent of the boo-boys who lambasted Herbert Chapman and his team) emerged after the move to the Emirates Stadium, it has gradually grown more vitriolic in its outpourings. But even so, there was little in the past couple of …

Why are flares at a Euro game big news by flares used by fans of English clubs a minor matter?

by Tony Attwood You probably saw the stories: “Croatia fans threw flares onto the pitch hitting a steward amid the latest sickening scenes at Euro 2016 in France”.  The match was stopped, fans called “sports terrorists”.  And all reported in bold, and often in capital letters. Could it have anything to do with the fact …

Who is fit, who is injured, who will win, who will lose? A round up of the Arsenal players currently risking injury

By Walter Broeckx With the European chair throwing  championship entering the last line for the elimination rounds time to make a roundup of what has happened on the field so far. For me I couldn’t really give a sh*t about who will win this championship. But as I look at it from my Arsenal point of …

Balotelli to Arsenal and the 62 players listed this summer as joining him

By Tony Attwood I reported last week in the Index update how surprised I had been throughout this first ever effort to chart the transfer rumours week by week, how quickly the rumours dry up.    The first Arsenal Transfer Index was run on 20 April, ten weeks before the transfer window opened (and of …

It’s time to stop the ‘scum’ songs; it’s time to grow up; its time to stop the hatred.

By Blacksheep I know this isn’t a political blog, it’s a football one but at time like this I don’t think we can completely eschew the great political events of the day. Last Thursday I sat down with my colleagues to watch a game of football at work. Most people were supporting England, a few …

Watch David Ospina; man of the match and making an unbelievable penalty save

By Tony Attwood I don’t normally run too many video clips on Untold, but I am very happy to make an exception here. Do you remember how Ooooooooooooospina was criticised for one error? “Arsenal legend Ian Wright blasts Arsene Wenger for selecting keeper David Ospina following Champions League defeat” screamed the Mail at the time. …

France, Rio, Russia, corruption, strikes, cheating, implosion, health risks, terror. Just a coincidence really.

By Tony Attwood Huge gatherings of sports fans for international events.  Great fun.  Big TV event.  Why not? Well, if the current round of huge gatherings is anything to go by, the answer is because they can be rather troublesome. We have the Euros in France organised by Uefa, a body that is renowned for …

Henrikh Mkhitaryan: the ten facts that tell us exactly what is going on with his transfer

By Sir Hardly Anyone (whose claim for overtime is in the post) . FACT 1:  Henrikh Mkhitaryan will not extend his contract at Borussia Dortmund, the club have confirmed. This certainly does seem to be a fact, in that every report that mentions this, confirms the point.  He’s got one year left on the Dortmund contract, …

Football in the shadows. Why the great game isn’t all that it seems.

By Tony Attwood There are many people – I suspect it is a majority in England – who believe the world and what makes it work, can be understood by common sense.  “The evidence of my own eyes” as one correspondent wrote recently on Untold. In this view you can look at anything in the …

New format for EFL Trophy: inclusion of Arsenal not certain; changes to the loan system from now on

By Tony Attwood Premier League academy teams will be allowed to play in the EFL Trophy next season after plans to change what was once known as the Johnstone Paint Trophy were agreed. As part of the deal the PL has put up £1m to create a total prize fund of £1.95m, with bonuses awarded …

Revealed: next season’s line up: and it raises some question marks.

By Tony Attwood Granit Xhaka made more passes (116) and had more touches (130) than any other player in the first round of fixtures in the Euros. So what does that tell us about where he plays?  And what does it tell us about who plays around him in the Arsenal team next season. The media, …

Arsenal grateful to Leicester, the second transfer is done, Blatter claims balls are fixed

By Sir Hardly Anyone Sepp Blatter has suggested that some European draws were fixed by placing certain balls in the refrigerator before the draw, so that person pulling the balls out of the box or bag knows to pick a big name or small name club or country. A Uefa person reacted by saying, “Allegations …

Do Arsenal communicate more openly and honestly with their supporters than other clubs? And how do you know?

By Tony Attwood The Arsenal Supporters Trust (of which I am not a member but was associated with – if that is the right term – when the Fanshare scheme was running) does a survey each year, and this year on reading its results through I find I have have a few doubts about its …

Vardy’s drugs issues causes transfer concern

By Tony Attwood The alleged transfer of Jamie Vardy to Arsenal which emerged and then vanished again like a puff of cigarette smoke has taken another turn after the Daily Mail published pictures which shows Vardy carrying a supply of legal, but dubious, drugs. This comes at a time after Uefa turned its back on …

To all Arsenal fans: your club urgently needs your help. Now.

By Sir Hardly Anyone, As you will know we have discovered to our alarm that the invention of new Arsenal rumours has ground to a halt, with all the people who normally make up new rumours each day simply re-cycling old rumours. We desperately need new rumours to feed into the machine, otherwise the machine …

Are Arsenal making sustainable progress or are we standing still, or drifting back?

By Tony Attwood How do you know if a club is making progress or not? Well, in one sense the answer is probably totally obvious.  If the team came 14th one season and then third the next, we might see this as progress.  But was it real progress?  And is it sustainable? These are tough …

The season end Table of Shame & Best and Worst Referee of the Season

by Andrew Crawshaw With all of the referee reviews for the season now published (and my broadband re-connected by BT) here is the final Table of Shame Wrong Important Decisions Favouring Arsenal Favouring Opponents 2nd Yellow Cards 1 49 Red Cards 2 17 Penalties 3 33 Goals 2 11 Total 8 110 Possible Cost in …

A money machine that uses the nationalistic feelings of people to spend more and more money

By Walter Broeckx I know I can sometimes be a dreamer. I sometimes dream of all people living together in harmony. Where all people can live in peace. Not afraid of being put in prison or being killed for having another but “wrong” religion or for having no religion at all. As John Lennon used …

Arsenal transfer rumours take on a new and unexpected twist

By Tony Attwood I am not sure anyone has ever charted the ebb and flow of transfer rumours through the summer before – if they have I haven’t been able to find the analysis, which is why Untold has chosen to take this task on with the Arsenal Transfer Index. The Index aims to chart …

The English media and government are directly responsible for the violence in Marseille

By Tony Attwood …weeping children in replica shirts stumble about with their frightened parents looking for nonexistent transport, peering down side streets, plotting escape routes from the sudden spurts and burps of violence that flared again through the night. The Métro was running, but not the stop near the stadium, and without any guidance on …

Why is football on TV and radio so patronising, ignorant and irrelevant, from the fans’ point of view?

By Tony Attwood Of course if you enjoy football on Sky, the BBC, ITV or BT Sprout you’ll disagree with my headline, but I do find broadcast media’s commentary on football – be it live matches or in discussions or reviews of games – completely unrelated to my experience of football as an actual spectator …

The aftermath: England media blame the Russian media, Twitter blames Tottenham, I avoid the local police

By Tony Attwood We live in a world of blame.  And not just any old blame, but instant blame.  Blame for the last minute of the last game.  Blame for violence.  Blame for the economy.  Blame for the fact I sneezed just as I was going to start writing – it must be the fields …

Why is it that when Arsenal goes for a player something always goes wrong?

By Tony Attwood There is a lot of talk about what seems to be Vardy’s rejection of Arsenal.   “Vardy ’80 per cent’ certain he will snub Arsenal” says the Independent.   And to rub it in, “Arsenal transfer plans face disruption over Vardy delay” in another article in the same paper. Typical bloody Arsenal, …