Untold Arsenal: Supporting the club, the manager and the team
"I believe the target of anything in life should be to do it so well that it becomes an art." A Wenger
By Walter Broeckx Arsenal starting with Leno, Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Luiz, Monreal, Guendouzi, Willock, Ceballos, Aubameyang, Lacazette and Nelson. On the beach : Martinez, Chambers, Kolasinac, Pepe, Torreira, Mkhitaryan, Martinelli. So a starting place for Ceballos and Luiz two of our new players. Arsenal having a good start and pushing Burnley back in their half. Ceballos …
by Bulldog Drummond Carrying on from our thoughts yesterday afternoon, with our very positive home form, this should be a home banker. But although Burnley were poor last season there was an excuse for Burnley last year – they started in the Europa League very early as the team placed 7th in the league the …
Read More “Arsenal v Burnley. The form and team predictions”
by Bulldog Drummond As you most likely will have heard ahead of this game, Ozil and Kolasinac are both available to play in this match, but the general feeling is that they might not be starters. Meanwhile at the other end of the salary scale the Arsenal Youth website say that “Arsenal have confirmed that …
Read More “Arsenal v Burnley: It is over 40 years since they beat us in the league”
By Sir Hardly Anyone What with the window cleaning season being over it is now time for me to take a peek at what our fellow commentators have been saying in the last couple of days. These come in no order but surely… 1: Motherwell pub boss backs grounded Kieran Tierney to shine at Arsenal …
Read More “The craziest, funniest and most bizarre Arsenal headlines of the week”
by Tony Attwood Nine years ago I sat at my desk one dull, non-football weekend pondering why some countries do so well in international football competitions, and others do so badly. The FA were telling us then, as then tell us now (with the help of a compliant newspaper industry) that the answer is that …
Read More “How to fake football data: Telegraph and FA give the perfect example”
By Tony Attwood The transfer window is far from over in Europe, but with the exception of taking on out-of-contract players, the Premier League is done and dusted. So I thought I might put together a state of play index showing all the Premier League’s clubs along with a few of the major European clubs …
Read More “Arsenal had 2nd largest transfer spend in England, but how does this rank in Europe?”
By Tony Attwood According to Football London, that laugh a minute, 45 articles a day drainpipe (sorry outlet) owned by the Daily Mirror, the four players most likely to depart in the remaining days of the transfer window are Shkodran Mustafi, Mohamed Elneny, Emile Smith Rowe and Nacho Monreal. It is of course possible that Arsenal …
Read More “Who can Arsenal sell in order to buy further players?”
by Tony Attwood According to Teamtalk there is a strong chance of Arsenal signing another player this transfer window. Now yes, I know the window has “slammed shut” but the rule is that players who are without a club can still transfer into PL teams until the end of the month (or at least that …
Read More “Why Arsenal can’t sign any free contract players from overseas despite rumours”
By Tony Attwood The reports doing the rounds suggest that Emile Smith-Rowe will play for Arsenal under 23s tonight against Blackburn and that Rob Holding has travelled with the squad. Others in the squad whose names have sneaked out are Coyle, Olayinka, Hillson and Clarke. The news of Holding’s inclusion is particularly good, as it …
Read More “Blackburn Rovers v Arsenal tonight: under 23 team news”
by Tony Attwood Although some further transfers can be allowed during the rest of the time that other countries have their windows open (it is obviously sunnier where they are), the bulk of our transfer dealings have been done – perhaps all of them. As ever the next step is to see where we stand …
Read More “How Arsenal are handling this season’s “25 player” rule? We’re two short!”
By Tony Attwood To say that the line up on Sunday was not what we had initially expected was an undertstatement. Maybe half this team would be expected to be in the side if all were fit. And so to get a win away from home and equal last season’s record of the number of …
By Bulldog Drummond The news that arose at the start of the weekend was that Mesut Özil and Sead Kolasinac had been withdrawn from the squad over fears for their security. With Hector Bellerin not back for a while yet many commentators are suggesting Ainsley Maitland-Niles will be at right-back. David Luiz is thought …
By Tony Attwood We spent £138m according to the Guardian’s calculator of such things, while receiving £44.6m excluding the undisclosed amounts for Daley Campbell, Amaechi and Jenkinson. The Iwobi figure they give is £28m – others are quoting quite a lot more, but I’ll stay with this so that I have taken all the …
Read More “Arsenal the biggest nett spenders of the top six, second highest in the league”
by Bulldog Drummond Looking forward to the game against Newcastle we can see that they finished 13th in the league last season, after seeming to be one of the key relegation prospects at the start of November. Indeed they went through their first nine league games last season without getting a victory, having started with …
Read More “Newcastle v Arsenal: Newcastle’s form and transfers, manager’s hits, Arsenal yoof”
By Tony Attwood So as we get ready to have another bash at winning a silver pot, I thought I’d cast my mind back to recent openers, just to get ready for the big day. Last season 2018 This was of course Mr Emery’s opener, and what a tough one to have, with Manchester City …
Read More “Arsenal’s opening five games: the results predicted.”
by Bulldog Drummond First off, as ever, the injuries and here is the chart from Physioroom… Player Injury Return? Chance v Newcastle Hector Bellerin Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury – ACL Injury 30/09/2019 None Alexandre Lacazette Ankle Injury 11/08/2019 50% (see below) Dani Ceballos Knock 11/08/2019 75% Nicolas Pepe Lacking Match Fitness 11/08/2019 50% Rob Holding …
by Tony Attwood Most of the time it is the sloppy writing that annoys me. And most particularly when a journalist writes a piece about Arsenal which is fair enough and a reasonably decent piece but then throws in some gratuitous rubbish along the way. Just to remind us that this is Arsenal we are …
Read More “The sloppiness of journalists in these excitable times. 3rd is easily within reach.”
By Tony Attwood The change in the attitude of the newspapers, TV stations and the blogs was nothing short of sensational. From the “We care do you” moan moan moan approach publicised so widely by Arsenal Supporters’ Trust, Arseblog, Black Scarf, The Gooner, Le Grove, Redaction, 7am Kickoff and the rest, which was in essence …
Read More “Round and Round they fight each other. Arsenal’s negative fan base in action”
By Bulldog Drummond When looking to improve a team that is losing too many games, it is generally thought that the best approach is to tighten up the defence. Get the defence working as a solid unit, and then at least play for a 0-0 draw. The old George Graham approach. The alternative is …
Read More “How Arsenal are planning to rise to third this coming season: and it’s a surprise!”
By Tony Attwood I liked Laurent Koscielny as an Arsenal player and whatever it is that has happened in the last few weeks that has ended with his move back to France, I still like him and will always remember him positively. And indeed I have sympathy for him, for he missed out on a …
Read More “Laurent Koscielny, a personal farewell. It has been such a great pleasure to watch you”
by Sir Hardly Anyone So far 84 players have been tipped to be coming to Arsenal this summer, and with the window nearly over it looks like being a very disappointing fantasy festival from the media, who in past years have managed to get the number past the 100 mark. Probably it was the fixation …
Read More “All the players tipped to be coming to Arsenal as the window creaks to its closure”
By Sir Hardly Anyone. There is a very fanciful story in the Telegraph from Robin van Persie who is about to become a BT Sport pundit. In the piece he talks about how he preferred being in Manchester with Utd to being in London. He says how nice the people were in Manchester, how …
Read More “Robin van Persie fantasy; another reason to avoid BT Sport; Rugani yes/no etc.”
By Tony Attwood Of course you’ll know the major tales of comings and goings, and you’ll know that our transfer budget was supposed to be so small we could hardly afford anyone at all. But strangely that appears to have been an invention by an over eager accountant. So just in a case you …
Read More “Who we’ve got and who we’ve lost – the 19 Arsenal players coming and going thus far”
By Tony Attwood. At least we know what will happen this season if the super whizzo super duper computer knows what’s what. For here is their prediction for the table at the end of the season that will shortly be under way. I have added at the end of each row the position the club …
Read More “There is no need to watch next season, we already know what will happen”
By Walter Broeckx Arsenal starting XI: Leno; Maitland-Niles, Chambers, Sokratis, Monreal; Willock, Xhaka; Mkhitaryan, Ozil, Nelson; Aubameyang. On the beach: Martinez, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Thompson, Ceballos, Guendouzi, Torreira, Martinelli, Saka, Nketiah. A big test for Chambers, Willock and Nelson against Barcelona this evening and it might tell us a bit more about their position in the …
Read More “Friendly match: Barcelona – Arsenal : 2-1 Final score”
