Stoke v Arsenal: the preface to the violence and the line up

By Bulldog Drummond By and large when a manager says, “We are looking to dent Arsenal’s top-four hopes” one can take “dent” as a metaphor, but when Stoke City manager Mark Hughes says it you know he means “dent” literally.  It will be all out war, with very little to do with football.  And with …

With Chelsea winning the league where does that leave the rush for the other CL places?

By Bulldog Drummond Although it was largely missed due to the mass hysteria of Chelsea winning the league, there was another match last night: Everton beat Watford 1-0.  Rather amusingly Statto has made a mistake in its calculations and have Everton above Arsenal in the league, but just in case that is where you started …

Stoke v Arsenal: players miss training and the scoring omens look awful.

By Bulldog Drummond. . “Arsenal injury blow as key duo missing from training ahead of Stoke clash” screams the Excess.   And yes they must have a story because they go on with “ARSENAL are likely to be without two key stars for their clash with Stoke City at the bet365 Stadium on Saturday.”But who …

Stoke v Arsenal. Mike Dean is the referee. A note about what that means.

By Tony Attwood Unfortunately Andrew is away on holiday and can’t do his normal referee preview, and I certainly don’t feel qualified to stand in his shoes. So all I can do is pick a highlight or two from the fact that the referee is Mike Dean. As you will probably know the Untold team …

Stoke v Arsenal: Injury news, recent form and the clue to what’s happening.

By Bulldog Drummond. As one or two people began to realise just around the time of the Southampton match, Arsenal have gone across to wing backs, and started winning.  OK, all the media attention was on Tottenham finishing above us for the first time since the Norman Conquest of Britain in 1066 but rather the …

I know Wenger has been criticised this season but would you really have preferred Mourinho?

By Tony Attwood The league table according to goals scored is a funny little thing especially as it shows Bournemouth above Man U Pos P W D L F A GD Pt 1 Chelsea 35 27 3 5 75 29 +46 84 2 Liverpool 36 20 10 6 71 42 +29 70 3 Tottenham Hotspur …

Every game on TV; Arsenal have three players scoring 10+; and the fight against football journalism

By Tony Attwood Way, way back, before the dawn of time (well, March 2015 actually) Untold published its article Football for the fans: the visions of three Arsenal supporters   Within days the Guardian rushed out its article  Reclaiming football for all: presenting the manifesto for a better game by David Goldblatt.   From the length of the recommendations, …

Who needs ethics? Fifa kicks out the reformers while the FA and UK media smile at the antics of funny foreigners.

By Tony Attwood Have you heard the one about Fifa reforming itself?  It’s a story that is much liked in the English media as it encourages the thought that the world cup in Russia is going to be a jolly good thing, with no violence, no corruption, and beautiful football throughout. Which makes it rather …

Southampton – Arsenal : 0-2

By Walter Broeckx Koscielny didn’t make it in the end and so we had one change as Mustafi took his place. Arsenal starting line up: Cech, Holding, Mustafi, Monreal, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Xhaka, Gibbs, Ozil, Alexis, Welbeck On the beach: : Ospina, Bellerin, Gabriel, Coquelin, Iwobi, Walcott, Giroud. Southampton with the brightest start in the match …

Southampton v Arsenal the teams and a comparison with this moment last season

By Bulldog Drummond It has proven interesting in recent weeks to consider the league table as it was last season and as it is now.  Last year at this moment, with 33 played, here it is.  Last since in the last six at this point we had won 2, drawn 3, lost 1. 9 points. …

Southampton v Arsenal: the tactics, the statistics and past results

By Bulldog Drummond . And so as we approach the game lets have a quick look at a few stats that tend to get lost amidst the generalised chit chat and three line bloggettas.  These first sets of figures are derived from stats on WhoScored.com . These figures are for Arsenal away games, with p/g …

Southampton v Arsenal: 10 May. The Match Officials – from not very good to diabolically bad.

by Andrew Crawshaw Firstly an apology – I am on holiday for a week from the 10th to the 17th inclusive and so won’t be able to prepare a referee preview for either the Stoke or Sunderland games.  I’ll be in Switzerland sightseeing by railway – should be glorious if the sun comes out. Anyway …

Southampton v Arsenal: the early injury news, plus the home v away record

By Bulldog Drummond Arsene Wenger has revealed that Laurent Koscielny and Granit Xhaka could miss the game with Southampton on Wednesday night.  But even so, and even with the newspapers now in desperation to hold onto their fantasies by printing claims that Arsenal have had the most men injured in the last 10 years (they …

Ref Review: Arsenal – Man City: a decent display from Andre Marriner

There are clips included in the report for every wrong decision and every major decision in red bold text ARSENAL vs. MANCHESTER CITY COMPETITION: English Premier League MATCH NO. 28 DATE: 2nd April 2017 VENUE: Emirates Stadium (London, England) MATCH OFFICIALS: REFEREE: Andre Marriner 1st LINESMAN: Simon Beck 2nd LINESMAN: Richard West 4th OFFICIAL: Craig …

Details of Arsenal’s new manager and new Director of Football emerge along with wildest transfer story ever

By Sir Hardly Anyone. The Director of Football story is back on the agenda after at least a week without it coming up.  And so are the stories about the new manager. This time it is Borussia Dortmund man Michael Zorc who has been approached about taking a job in London – and the usual …

Fifa accused of breaking its own rules by dropping a vital debate from its agenda, as compliant English media remain silent

By Tony Attwood It is interesting that when the level of corruption within Fifa became clear at the highest all the English newspapers rush in to condemn the Association, all claiming to have been keeping a close eye on the situation.  But the rest of time, when Fifa just becomes embroiled in normal run of …

Ref review: Arsenal – West Ham United. There was a certain level of bias by the referee. But how much and against which team?

There are clips included in the report for every wrong decision and every major decision in red bold text ARSENAL vs. WEST HAM UNITED COMPETITION: English Premier League MATCH NO. 28 DATE: 5th April 2017 VENUE: Emirates Stadium (London, England) MATCH OFFICIALS: REFEREE: Martin Atkinson 1st LINESMAN: Stephen Child 2nd LINESMAN: Adam Nunn 4th OFFICIAL: …

The current league table as it appears in the eyes of football journalists

By Tony Attwood One of the most bizarre comment lines I have read during this season said “Doubts over Arsene Wenger’s future are prompting emotional displays among both his supporters and his critics”. The notion that people were getting emotional at football matches because Mr Wenger had not said whether he was staying or going …

Arsenal – Manchester United : 2-0

By Walter Broeckx A bit different this match report as I was away on a family party but I could still watch the match but was not able to write things down during the match. Arsenal team: Cech, Holding, Koscielny, Monreal, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gibbs, Xhaka, Ramsey, Özil, Alexis, Welbeck On the beach: Ospina, Bellerin, Gabriel, Coquelin, …

Arsenal v Man U: the teams, the runs, the bias, and the player records thus far this season

By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal, as we know, have not done well against Manchester United of late, and no result (not even a gigantic win) is going to gain positives in the media at the moment.  The rule is “knock Wenger knock Wenger knock Wenger” just as in almost every newspaper in England the standard approach …

Arsenal v Man U. Arsenal injury news cannot possibly be true, Man U player shortage, Merson speaks!

By Bulldog Drummond Following on from the last article Man U’s fine run of away form, and Totts lose on a big pitch here are some more details of what Man U have done away from home… Manchester United are unbeaten since 23 October, a run of 28 games. but what is hidden in these figures is …

Arsenal v Manchester Utd. Man U’s fine run of away form, and Totts lose on a big pitch.

By Bulldog Drummond Who would have thought it?  Tottenham, it seems really don’t like big pitches, and so lost to West Ham, where we won 5-1.   Our victory of course doesn’t count for it was one of those in which the referee managed to give us a goal we shouldn’t have and so cannot …

The Transfer Index part 5: the 33 players tipped to be joining Arsenal this year (and those going as well)

By Sir Hardly Anyone Taking all the rumours we have seen so far, here is the list of players that Arsenal are most certainly going to sign this summer according to the English newspapers.   They got 3 right out of 110 tries last year.  Can they improve their rating this time around???     …

Does West Ham’s experience at the Tax Payers Stadium offer a lesson to Tottenham?

By Tony Attwood For West Ham, it was a dream deal.  A stadium built by the tax payer, given to the club on a tiny rent, in which the club didn’t have to pay most of the match day activities.   And as a bonus, if the club’s status in the league declined so would …

Arsenal v Manchester United Sun 7 May – The Match Officials. A certain bias is detected.

by Andrew Crawshaw Our game against United on Sunday will be the second of three games between our clubs this week after the U18s met on Wednesday afternoon with Arsenal winning 3 – 0.  The U23s play at the Emirates on Monday night with tickets currently on general sale.  Lets hope that the U18 result …