The four dangers that could stop Arsenal’s rise: Part 3; returning to the tackle

By Tony Attwood Arsenal face four huge dangers as they stand again on the edge of greatness The four dangers that could stop Arsenal’s rise next season. 2: The journalists Point three, don’t disrupt the style There have been some complaints about the way the team has been managed – and yes I’ve had a …

The four dangers that could stop Arsenal’s rise next season. 2: The journalists

by Tony Attwood   In my last article Arsenal face four huge dangers as they stand again on the edge of greatness  I pointed out the problem and challenge the newly regenerated Arsenal face from the Arsenal Supporters Trust with their ceaseless demands for involvement in the club, coming after their endless attacks on the …

Arsenal face four huge dangers as they stand again on the edge of greatness

By Tony Attwood Arsenal have had an utterly brilliant last two-thirds of this season.  Put another way, since Christmas Day the club has created a superb, and for many unexpected, return to the form that Arsene Wenger regularly created until 2015/6, when we came second.  (It’s not exactly two-thirds, I know it is 61%, but …

Arsenal stay 3rd in the league across the last 10 games. But oh poor Tottenham!

By Tony Attwood There was a most amusing incident in the BT Sport commentary on the Palace v Arsenal game as the commentator began to talk about how nice it was to have a crowd in the ground.  For the crowd, he said, could really give the home team a boost, and give them more …

Palace v Arsenal: the teams as predicted by the media

By Bulldog Drummond Sports Mole have as ever obliged with a clearly laid out lineup, published early on.  No Lacazette for them, although he normally does rather well in scoring against the Palace. Leno; Chambers, Holding, Mari, Tierney; Partey, Elneny; Saka, Odegaard, Smith Rowe; Aubameyang   The Standard predicts that Palace will win 3-2 and …

Palace v Arsenal: the portents are good but don’t tell the media.

By Bulldog Drummond We are told by the BBC that Crystal Palace have never lost their final home league game in their previous 11 Premier League campaigns (W8, D3). Their last such defeat was in 1980-81. But as so often happens such statistics hide a bit of fun – as with last season for example: …

Palace v Arsenal: the injuries and their recent years in the PL

Arsenal v Crystal Palace: a history in videos By Bulldog Drummund The games against Crystal Palace go back to 1934 – an FA Cup match, while league games started in 1969.  Arsenal have won 28, Palace have won five and 15 have been drawn. However since the end of the 2016/17 season they have become …

Palace lose their manager, and how Arsenal and Palace have done since Xmas,

By Bulldog Drummond Videos of some of our games against Crystal Palace can now been found on Arsenal v Crystal Palace, a history in videos.   Now here are the stories of Arsenal and Crystal Palace since Christmas Day.  I’m including this because of all the investigations recently into just how Arsenal turned themselves around, and …

How Arsenal became the cleanest club in Europe but still got the points.

By Bulldog Drummond We’ve been talking about Arsenal, referees and fouls for years, and in the past two seasons we have added some new statistics to the analysis. Among these we have shown that Arsenal get penalised far more per foul than any other club in the League.  We suggested that the only way out …

Crystal Palace away: the stats no other site will give you.

By Bulldog Drummond As ever we’ll take a peek at the very simple comparison table that has been shown to give one of the better forms of prediction for forthcoming matches – the recent games taking into account where they were played and what competition they were in. Of late Arsenal’s away form has been …

Starting to prepare for next season’s squad while retaining freedom of speech

by Tony Attwood TransferMarkt web site has done one of its estimations on how the price tag of various players has changed this season – and as you would expect Saka is high up on the list with a new valuation of £56m. Of course all such valuations are totally speculative, but I would certainly …

Two PL clubs are fouled much more than all the rest. Can you guess which?

By Tony Attwood Way back in August 2010 Untold published an article by Walter Broeckx, a referee in Belgium who over the years has been a good friend to this site. The article was headed “Football reduced to the survival of the fittest” and it analysed the refereeing for the third game of that season. …

Why the media is always so negative about Arsenal

By Tony Attwood “Can you do an article on how the media benefits from being Anti Arsenal, as opposed to any other club? Is there an anti-Arsenal secret society embedded in the media?” asked Dublin Gooner.  So I will try and answer this in one article. But please note, this is a very quick summary.  There’s …

Are we unique in doing so well after Christmas, and why 8 goals would sort it

By Tony Attwood Nitram posed the question: “is this imbalance between the 1st and 2nd halves of seasons unusual, or do all clubs by and large experience similar imbalances?” It’s a good question, and one that I had never thought about before.   So in this little piece I set out to discover the answer, and …

The four reasons why are the media so very much against Arsenal

by Tony Attwood The four reasons why the media are so much against Arsenal are, in my opinion, not at all hard to find.   It runs like this… History Arsenal were mistrusted from the start by the press barons because they started out as a club owned and run by the workers, a club that …

Have Arsenal always been a team of two halves?

By Tony Attwood We’ve been making the point as strongly as we can, that the ceaseless attacks on Arsenal by the Daily Mirror, the Mail and other “outlets” (or drainpipes as I prefer to call them), deliberately misuses data. And in response to that the point has been made – maybe Arsenal are often a …

Why and how Infantino is still happy to promote the Super League.

By Tony Attwood A remarkable report just published suggests that far from being against the SuperLeague, Fifa is actually in favour of the idea as it gives Fifa a chance to grab more power in its battle with Uefa.  Also it allows Fifa to open discussions on another front, to distract from its on going …

And so the anti-Arsenal tales continue, but here is the truth…

By Sir Hardly Anyone The headline in the Daily Mail today says Arsenal ‘looking to sign at least FIVE players this summer including Max Aarons and Yves Bissouma’ in bid to resurrect club’s fortunes following torrid season… with Mikel Arteta ‘set to prioritise finding midfield partner for Thomas Partey’ Now you’ll notice the use of …

How the media is trying to destroy Arsenal: the perfect example

By Sir Hardly Anyone This is a piece about how the media is working 10 to the dozen to keep the tale  that Arsenal is a club that is run badly, and is never going to revive itself, in the news, no matter what. The example comes from the Daily Mirror, the most extreme of …

Arsenal are back to being a top four club – so why change the defence?

By Sir Hardly Anyone So the news is out and spreading.  Since Christmas Day Arsenal has been performing as a top four club.  That’s a fair amount of time to cover (not a matter of six or seven games that the pundits like). And now we’ve looked at exactly where we would be if the …

Arsenal are once again a top four club, and the figures since Xmas prove it

By Tony Attwood It was our commentator Seismic who pointed out just how much the club has improved since Christmas Day this season, and I thought it was most certainly worth looking at this interesting observation, in a lot more detail.   This first table shows the table on Christmas Day, Team P W D L …

If this is an explosive rant from Arteta I’m a Martian

By Tony Attwood The Daily Mirror is running the headline Mikel Arteta’s explosive rant explained as he insists ‘nothing is broken’ at Arsenal Below is a 52 second video in which Arteta answers in a straightforward and moderate tone the question “What is your response to those who are doubting you this season?” The reply …

Untold called the Chelsea v Arsenal game right. But how did we do it?

By Tony Attwood (in crowing mood). If you are a regular reader you will know that through this very odd season we have been focusing in our match previews on two areas that few, if any, of the other blogs, the newspapers and the broadcast media ever look at, at all. One is the year-long …

Chelsea v Arsenal, the Arsenal team and the prognostications

By Bulldog Drummond Now here is a thought and three quarters.  We are rubbish right?  We know that.  We need to kill off the defence because no one will buy them and send Mikel Arteta to a remote Spanish island for ten years.  (Editor’s note: are there any remote Spanish Islands?) Bulldog: La Gomera.  I …

Leno to leave Arsenal because he’s far too good: the pre-game stats

By Bulldog Drummond As we approach the Chelsea game we are told that Arsenal are trying to get rid of our goalkeeper Leno.  This is because, according to the Daily Star, “Despite being a regular starter after joining the club from Bayer Leverkusen, the 29-year-old has conceded more goals that he would’ve hoped across his …