Arsenal v Manchester City: the head to heads and historical comparisons

by Bulldog Drummond Despite Manchester City’s near invulnerability since they gained the sponsorship of middle eastern oil money, took on the Premier League into an eternally rambling on court case about finances (which it seems will simply end by the court ruling that the League is out of time), took on Uefa who lost because …

Arsenal v Manchester City: are injuries related to the level of tackling?

by Bulldog Drummond The injury list of players that we have been running, ahead of each Arsenal game for years and years has never previously been like this, including both on-pitch injuries and cases of the pandemic.  Nor can I recall when we last recorded a player being missing from a squad because he was …

Arsenal v Manchester City: the prognostications

By Bulldog Drummond At the moment of writing this match is still on, with Arsenal’s touchline made up of skeletons (or to quote the Telegraph “Arsenal could host Man City with a skeleton coaching staff”) but with the way things are going, who knows what will happen.  However on the basis that we are going …

Are football journalists biased, lazy or just ignorant?

By Tony Attwood If you are a regular reader you will know that whereas when crowds were present, the home teams in the Premier League were likely to win games more often than the away team.   Since games have been played without crowds present the reverse has been true. The explanation for this (as I’ve …

Clubs that get most yellow cards are NOT clubs committing the most fouls.

By Tony Attwood Why West Ham can commit twice as many fouls as Newcastle, before getting a single yellow card. Yes it is true.  The number of yellow cards received by a club, is not directly related to the number of fouls committed.   Indeed the number of fouls clubs need to commit before seeing a …

Exactly why we are predicting Arsenal to finish ahead of Tottenham in fourth.

by Tony Attwood A little while back we looked at Arsenal’s chances of securing a top four position.  But on 20 December the Telegraph ran the piece Premier League top-four odds: Arsenal overtake local rivals so I thought it time to look again. In fact that article in the Telegraph doesn’t actually say Arsenal are …

How a manager’s comments are not always what they seem

By Tony Attwood Thomas Tuchel has been strong in his criticism of the Premier League for sticking with its schedule and its Christmas / New Year scheduling of games; a tradition that goes back to the expansion of the league in 1919. And ok, maybe we can agree that occasionally the game needs a voice …

Why having a scoring centre forward is not always essential.

By Tony Attwood Just because people make a lot of noise about an issue, that doesn’t mean that the issue is important. Take for example the issue of Aubameyang and goal scoring.  We know Mr Arteta seems to want to emphasise authority, and seemingly he is doing it again here.  Very different from the public …

Transfer system is in chaos – but Arsenal are getting away comparatively lightly

By Tony Attwood Way back in August the Daily Mirror announced that “Arsenal’s fanbase has been riddled with arguments and in-fighting in recent years.”   What they didn’t add were two key points.  One was that a lot of the stoking of the discontent was the doing of the media, and the other is “and by …

How many spare places do we have in the squad for purchases in January?

According to Sky, Arsenal were the top spending team last year… Arsenal:  £156.8m Man Utd: £133.7m Man City: £100.0m Chelsea: £97.5m Aston Villa: £93.0m West Ham: £63.3m Tottenham: £57.1m Leicester: £55.0m Leeds: £43.0m Liverpool: £36.0m Each squad contains no more than 17 players who do not fulfil the “HGP Player” category The rest of the …

How free thinking and alternative visions for football are constantly suppressed.

By Tony Attwood If it is anything, Football Commentary in England is unidirectional.  It is not that all commentators agree on everything – clearly they don’t.  But they agree on what are the key topics that are worthy of debate.   Now of course Untold Arsenal does this too – we define the topics we are …

What the 5-0 Feast in the East means to Arsenal’s chase for the top four

By Tony Attwood The results of course tells us all about where Arsenal are… five straight wins scoring 19 goals and conceding two.  Which is actually rather fine.  OK we have not been playing the top four of last season, but a lot of pundits were talking up West Ham for this season  And so …

Norwich v Arsenal: it’s 5-0 to the Arsenal

The team: Ramsdale; White, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney; Partey, Xhaka; Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli; Lacazette   On the beach… Leno, Tavares, Mari, Elneny, Patino, Lokonga, Pepe, Smith Rowe, Nketiah The current table before the game.  And one thing is certain, we will be in fourth after the game, no matter what happens.  Before the start it was …

Norwich v Arsenal: the Arsenal team and the prognostications

By Bulldog Drummond This game comes two years to the day since Mr Arteta’s first game as Arsenal manager.  As we have noted before he has the third best win percentage of all long term Arsenal managers, behind Arsene Wenger and Unai Emery.  The BBC tell us that “The Gunners have lost just two of …

Arsenal v Norwich: head to head, recent games and tactics

By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal have played Norwich 61 times in competitive games, winning 30, drawing 20, and losing just 11. Taking in the last 21 of these games we find that the results have been: Norwich wins: 1 Drawn games: 8 Arsenal wins: 12 Here are the details… Date Match Res Score Competition 03 Mar …

Norwich v Arsenal: the referee and how the PGMO handle the two clubs

By Bulldog Drummond Before the details, there was a notice before on Christmas Eve on the Norwich website proclaiming that tickets were available in the away end – the most expensive costing over £90, which is considerably more than Arsenal charge visiting fans.   That seems an outrageous price to me, unless they really are nice …

Norwich v Arsenal: a huge upturn in injuries and the gap between the leagues.

by Bulldog Drummond So as we have seen Arsenal are in a much stronger position now than when we played Norwich for the first time this season, after the three home defeats in the league. The cause of those early defeats of course was the import of a completely new defence and the fact that …

Norwich v Arsenal: the Boxing Day preview part 1

By Bulldog Drummond So here we go again with an away match to Norwich on Boxing Day at 3pm and little public transport to get there.  It is a game which is not being shown on TV at all, which by and large is not very helpful to everyone not a member of the away …

Football is in the grip of the biggest ever takeover, while Arsenal’s debts are growing

A word of warning: stop massacring soccer! And so it goes on: Le Matin in Switzerland has launched a wholehearted attack on Fifa.  Not the sort of thing you read in England, but it is big in Europe. But because you may have missed it, here is what Le Matin and the media in much …

Are Arsenal on track for the top four at the end of the season?

By Tony Attwood (and a calculator) Is it possible to judge, after 18 games (which is to say 47% of the season) whether it is likely that Arsenal will end up back in the top four?  I’ve played with this little exercise before, and quite enjoyed it.  So here we go again… The league table …

“I never have any problems with referees – except with you”.

By Tony Attwood Something is changing in terms of referees and PGMO.  It’s not a seismic shift, but given the long absolute and complete silence among journalists and broadcasters in England on the possibility that referees could be less than the best in the world, it could be that the vice-like grip that PGMO has …

Why England is the odd one out when it comes to player vaccinations?

By Tony Attwood In the Bundesliga: 94 per cent of players have been fully vaccinated against Covid.   In Serie A the figure is higher: 98 per cent.   For La Liga it is 93 per cent. For Ligue 1 in France it is 95 per cent.   In the Premier League it is 77 per cent. The …

Uefa plans to torpedo Fifa expansionst programme: and how!

By Tony Attwood Europe and South America are planning a “new world championship”.   It is, of course, not an issue being widely discussed in the Fifa supporting English newspapers, although the Daily Mail did break ranks and cover it recently, but the story is out in Europe and all over their media… Here is what …

So it’s another where I can say “I was there”; but some memories are not so good

by Tony Attwood My best “I was there” moment is undoubtedly, “I was there for the final game of the unbeaten season”.    Last night doesn’t replace that moment, but it’s another one for the little collection: “I was there when Charlie Patino scored on his debut.” And although I am sure this won’t go …

Arsenal v Sunderland: the Arsenal team

By Bulldog Drummond Picking a team for tonight’s game does involve making a few choices but much of the line up is replicated among the various media that offer predictions.  The one outlier however is the Mirror that tells us “Arsenal youngster Charlie Patino, who has previously been compared with Manchester City star Phil Foden, could make his debut appearance for …