Arsenal v Palace: several variations of possible and impossible line ups.

By Bulldog Drummond Crystal Palace are a yellow card team – they have had 45 this season, making them the third most carded team in the league.  Arsenal are mid-table in this regard.  However they are not too bad on shots with 301 this season to Arsenal’s 393. They have kept five clean sheets this …

Arsenal v Palace. Recent games, and the very latest on the transfers

By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal’s last ten fixtures are not exactly a rallying cry to further greatness, and the team certainly needs to start pulling itself together. Of course this could be the moment when really see what Wilshere and Ramsey can do together on the pitch, which would be a good way of starting a …

Arsenal v Crystal Palace; the injuries, the transfers, the form, and player records

By Bulldog Drummond It’s all happening. Oh no it isn’t Oh yes it… well, who knows.   Here’s a collection of ramblings from people who think they know, but they can’t all be right. Alexis Sanchez arrives at Arsenal training ground as forward is made to wait for Manchester… Mirror.co.uk  . Update from Germany on Aubameyang …

Child trafficking allegations return to haunt Chelsea

By Tony Attwood According to the Guardian “Chelsea have been accused, after an initial Fifa investigation, of breaking the rules on the signing of 25 foreign players under the age of 18. The number of cases could rise, with the matter now in the hands of the governing body’s disciplinary committee, which has the power to …

Arsenal v Crystal Palace Saturday 20 January 2018 – The Match Officials

by Andrew Crawshaw Our Officials for this match are :- Referee – Chris Kavanagh  Age 42 born in Manchester Assistant Referee 1 – Peter Kirkup  from Northamptonshire Assistant Referee 2 – Adam Nunn  from Wiltshire and FIFA accredited Fourth Official – Andre Marriner  Age 46 from the West Midlands This will be Mr Kavanagh’s ninth …

Revealed: how most of the Arsenal transfer stories will conclude at the end of January.

By Tony Attwood There is a standard approach to transfers which virtually all journalists and their hangers on in the bloggettas  agree to follow runs thus: Arsenal could sign this amazing player Arsenal seriously interested in this amazing player Negotiations ongoing concerning this amazing player This amazing player is not that amazing after all Besides …

The deal is done. Oh yes it is. Oh no it isn’t. You’re making it up. Oh no I’m not.

By Sir Hardly Anyone Oh yes oh yes oh dear. Alexis Sanchez has agreed a four-and-a-half-year contract worth £14million after tax to join Manchester United.  And it must be true because it is in the Telegraph.   All the clubs are doing now is waiting for Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s agent to get out of the bath and let …

Arsenal’s transfers only confused by the needy media seeking to be at the centre

By Tony Attwood Tucked away at the foot of a long article in the Guardian about Arsenal’s transfer of Aubameyang is this notion “It remains unclear if Dortmund are willing to sell this month given the lack of time to secure a replacement.” That is quite a killer in terms of a deal, because if …

10 years of Untold: trying to deal with the fake news of football

By Tony Attwood Although when I started Untold I don’t think the phrase “Fake News” existed – fake news was certainly out there big time.  In fact I think there is an argument to say that football reporting in the media has been focused primarily on fake news all the time. Transfer reporting is of …

Arsenal: The truth is out there, but is hiding under the blanket.

By Tony Attwood More from the Fiction Department at Minitrue. So the 10th anniversary has passed and we have posted 7,800 articles over those 10 years.  This is 7,801 and time to move on, perhaps occasionally remembering one or two more things from the past as we go, but thinking more about what we can do …

Arsenal agree to sign Aubameyang and/or Malcolm and/or Martial

By Sir Hardly Anyone Is Pierre Emerick Aubameyang signing for Arsenal?  What about Malcolm?  What about Martial?   The bloggettas and the newspapers tell us that all three are, or are not signing.  And that is not just that one blog picks one, and a newspaper picks another.  They are all changing their views by the …

Changing Arsenal’s fortunes could take a lot more than is imagined.

By Tony Attwood We live in a world in which it is commonplace to see problems as simple, and thus open to one solution, rather than seeing problems as caused by multiple issues.  In short there is a problem, and there is a single cause of that problem. And yet history suggests over and over …

Bournemouth v Arsenal: the team, an honest bloggetta and a multiplicity of line ups.

By Bulldog Drummond So now we see the PGMO fighting back against VAR – undoubtedly the first assault of many.  An article has appeared in the Guardian including these lines Refereeing decisions are not the real problem here. The real problem is the ludicrously disproportionate attention devoted to discussing refereeing decisions. The number of actual …

Untold Arsenal is 10 years old today. A thank you to some special friends.

By Tony Attwood 14 January, 2018. You’ll know, if you have been paying attention, that we are celebrating Untold’s 10th anniversary.  Well, to be more precise, I’m celebrating Untold’s anniversary, I am not sure what you are doing. Now if you also occasionally take a look at the Arsenal History Society web site you’ll know …

Bournemouth v Arsenal – Arsenal’s form of late: must do better.

by Bulldog Drummond As we saw in the last piece, Arsenal are in what one might call “modest” form away from home and this really should start picking up now.  Bournemouth have been having a poor run with just one win in the last 12 games, although the last four matches that one win (against …

Bournemouth v Arsenal: the illegal activities, the fines and the form.

by Bulldog Drummond And so to the seaside, where Bournemouth have been given a £7.6m fine for breaching Football League Financial Fair Play rules after accruing losses in their season en route to Premier League promotion.  The rules were instituted specifically to stop clubs running up such debts with the idea of paying them off …

How would the table if we’d had accurate VAR all season. And Bournemouth v Arsenal 14 Jan The Match Officials

The ref preview for 14 January 2018 Bournemouth v Arsenal by Andrew Crawshaw I was asked for a table showing the effects VAR would have made on wrong decisions. I have now had time to go through Usama’s twitter thread where he has highlighted  what he considers are potentially wrong Important Decisions  I can see …

Perhaps the most horrific report I have ever read in 10 years of running Untold

By Tony Attwood We probably all know about what Graham Rix got involved in post-Arsenal, and it’s not something I’ve particularly wanted to re-visit.  Many of us watched Rix, enjoyed his work for Arsenal as a footballer, and then, well… everyone can have their own views. But at the same time I’ve tried to do …

10 years of untold: all the corruption stories and we just keep on keeping on

By Tony Attwood When I started Untold, 10 years ago this week, one of the issues that was on my mind was what appeared to be the threat of corrupt business practices swamping the game. At that time we had club after club folding and re-emerging.  We had clubs being bought by extremely dubious people, …

The real transfer story: How much space does each team have in its squad?

By Tony Attwood One of the criticisms Untold has repeatedly made of the TTT (transfer tittle tattle) that is so beloved by the newspaper websites and their bloggetta coat-tail hangers on, is that none of the rumours take any account of a simple known fact – how much space each club has in its 25 …

PGMO reported to the Committee of Public Safety and charged with crimes against football.

by our Anglo-French revolutionary team. It is part of the cleverness of PGMO that no one – mark this my friends, no one – oversees the body.  It is independent, separate, complete in itself and above all laws. Now of late there has been some debate to whom the PGMO answers.  Certainly in a sport …

Matchweek 23 – Which team gets which referee the most: and why?

by Andrew Crawshaw Firstly a brief look at the overall picture so far this year – which referees are over and under used, which teams should be sick of the sight of referees etc. The games this coming weekend form matchweek 23.  To date the PGMO have employed 18 referees, each officiating between 19 and …

Chelsea v Arsenal, the teams, the transfers, and that 100.6% accuracy from the referee.

By Bulldog Drummond If we take a look at the last 10 games between Arsenal and Chelsea this is what we find Date Game Res Score Competition 25 April 2015 Arsenal v Chelsea D 0-0 Premier League 02 Aug 2015 Arsenal v Chelsea W 1-0 FA Community Shield 19 Sep 2015 Chelsea v Arsenal L …

Chelsea v Arsenal; with one defeat in 10 Arsenal are in meltdown.

By Bulldog Drummond We’ve been reporting of late how the newspapers have stopped doing Arsenal match previews, perhaps in an attempt to suggest that Arsenal are no longer of any interest to the public at large.  But now suddenly they have a chance of some scandal there’s megaloads of coverage, with the denigration being heaped …

Chelsea v Arsenal in the League Cup. Is anyone fit and not in disgrace?

By Bulldog Drummond Although all attention will be on the referee’s assistants back in the PGMO Bunker there is also a football match on tomorrow – the first leg of the league cup semifinal. My guess is that having put the kiddies out in front of Nottingham Forest Mr Wenger will return to the mainstream. …