On the Arsenal web page https://www.arsenal.com/fixture/academy/2020-Dec-18/leicester-u23#!match-news there appeared on the afternoon of Friday 18 December information concerning the Arsenal under 23 game against Leicester City under 23 along with the notice Audio available on Arsenal.com However this was totally untrue. There was no audio. Which may not mean much to fans who are not interested …
By Bulldog Drummond Just in case you have missed it, we are playing tonight – details of the game and how to follow it below. But first… There is news that we are about to sign Omar Rekik from Hertha Berlin – although he has never played for them, and is expected to be loaned …
By Tony Attwood Even by the daily excesses of the London newspaper industry the current non-stop attack on Arsenal and everything it does that is currently raging in the Daily Mail, is a bit over the top. And as we have a look at what they are doing it is worth remembering that all this …
By Tony Attwood Read a newspaper, read the blogs, watch TV, listen to the radio, and as long as you are in England and it’s football news you want, you’ll get the same news. True there might be the occasional feature concerning something slightly out of the ordinary – an interview with an ex-player perhaps, …
By Tony Attwood And so the doom that was hinted at in 95,000 ““their worst start to a top-flight season since 1974” articles didn’t happen. And the funniest thing was that the no one quite knew what Arsenal’s worst run in the top division or indeed their worst start actually was. Now, with a spot …
By Bulldog Drummond There is a story kicking around that 13 points from 12 matches is the worst start to represents their worst start to a top-flight season since 1974. Now I read that and thought that was a rather weird statement because since 1919 all we have had is top-flight seasons, and it would …
By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal as we all know, won their section of the Europa League group stage, winning every game against weaker opposition. Southampton on the other hand had no such games to play. They have of course played in the League Cup, (going out in the first match) and the Football League Trophy (one …
by Bulldog Drummond In more normal times this would be a home win banker, but now… what with Southampton being near the top and Arsenal near the bottom, and with away wins being more common than home wins this seems less and less likely. A look at the statistics chart shows us what sort of …
Below is the new table of tackles, fouls, yellow and penalties. They show once again that while Arsenal commits on average 6.5 fouls in order to get a yellow card, Chelsea, Southampton, Liverpool and Tottenham are allowed to commit many more fouls before each yellow card is issued. We haven’t included red cards on the …
By Tony Attwood There was a headline in the Guardian this morning saying, “Mikel Arteta says Xhaka red card ‘worse’ than Pépé’s as Arsenal crisis deepens”. It struck me as interesting, in that Arsene Wenger was constantly laughed at and derided in the media for saying that he didn’t see a particular incident, and using …
By Tony Attwood Normally in issues relating to group situations, it is impossible to be definitive as to why things go wrong. But not with football it seems, for here it appears that the obvious has to be said. This is perhaps because taking in the information available and drawing conclusions has never been the …
0By Sir Hardly Anyone Journalists are well known for liking the occasional tipple, their favourite haunt being The Toppled Bollard in London dockside. Or put it another way journalists are famous for being heavy drinkers, and football journalists the heaviest of them all. But the content gatherers are supposed to make some effort to get …
By Bulldog Drummond Looking at the various stats being thrown around the most commonly mentioned is that Arsenal have lost each of their last three League home games and the last time it was four consecutive home league defeats was in 1959, when Burnley also turned up on the list. In fact the run started …
By Bulldog Drummond Burnley’s record in their last 10 games is indeed poor: one win three draws, six defeats. If Arsenal fail to win this game we most certainly are in difficulty. Date Game Res Score Competition 26 Sep 2020 Burnley v Southampton L 0-1 Premier League 30 Sep 2020 Burnley v Manchester City L …
By Bulldog Drummond It’s become quite clear what Arsenal need to do, and it doesn’t have anything to do with mucking about with agents and money laundering (see How the media provides a cover for money laundering in football.) It has to do with tactics. At the time of writing this here’s the foot of …
by Tony Attwood It has for many years been rumoured that the transfer market is in the hands not of the clubs but of a small number of people who euphemistically are known as agents. It is a topic we have covered before, noting reports that suggest that these agents not only present their players …
By Tony Attwood Remember Everton? They got Carlo Ancelotti on 21 December 2019 on a four and a half year deal. One day after Arsenal got Arteta. Ancelotti had managed Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, PSG, Chelsea, Milan and Juventus. Arteta had managed no one. This season Ancelotti made a flying start: Date Match Result Score Competition …
By Tony Attwood It doesn’t matter how many times the UK media is told about a Fifa scandal, they won’t cover it. Whether it is the fact that Qatar’s stadia have been built by slave labour, or the fact that Fifa President Gianni Infantino is being taken before the courts on yet another scandal, …
By Bulldog Drummond Since we beat Dunalk in the Europa League they’ve had these results… Date Competition Home team Score Away Team Res 01/11/20 League St Patrick’s Athletic 1 – 1 Dundalk D 05/11/20 Europa Rapid Wien 4 – 3 Dundalk L 09/11/20 League Dundalk 0 – 2 Sligo Rovers L 20/11/20 Cup Bohemians 1 …
By Tony Attwood In essence there are two approaches that clubs can make when they find themselves in the sort of situation Arsenal currently are in. One approach is to do what they have done before. For example in Arsenal’s situation this means getting rid of the manager, bringing in a completely new support team, …
By Tony Attwood Here is the new data after last weekend’s games. Figures in black are particularly low for that parameter, figures in red a particularly high. Club Tackles Fouls Tackles per foul Yellow cards Fouls per yellow Penalties for Penalties against Lge pos Arsenal 132 112 1.18 16 7.00 1 0 15 Aston Villa …
By Andrew Crawshaw Last Thursday I had an e-mail from Arsenal Women asking me to register my membership number with them as a preliminary to being able to apply for a ticket for the WSL game on Sunday between Arsenal and Birmingham. I clicked onto the link provided and entered a few details and got …
By Tony Attwood Did someone put pressure on the Observer to publish its misleading story about away results this season? As you may have noticed, last weekend the UK Sunday newspaper “The Observer” published an article purporting to tell readers that the enhanced away advantage they may have heard about which arose during the period …
By Tony Attwood The AAA – the Anti-Arsenal Arsenal – is a movement made up of numerous sub-groups who are brought together by the thought that constant criticism of the club, its players and its manager, is a way to make things better. They are directly supported by much of the media and many independent …
by Tony Attwood The Observer newspaper yesterday published one of the most atrociously misleading pieces of PGMO propaganda yet seen. The article published on 6 December 2020 is headlined: Sing when you’re winning? Home support doesn’t really help football teams The evidence offered in the article shows nothing of the kind, and it is obviously …
