How the French could have stopped the problem in Paris

By Tony Attwood One of the great benefits that the French football authorities have in putting forward their notion that 70% of the tickets presented at the Champions League final was fake, is the awareness that English journalists are well, to put it bluntly, not very clever and mostly mathematically illiterate. If 70 percent of …

An amazing day: newspaper journalist launches attack on media football coverage

By Tony Attwood OK I have already written one article about football and the media today, and this is another.  And I am running it because this one is about a rarity indeed. Normally, the media generally don’t attack any other aspect of the media, because to do so opens up a debate that they …

How the anti-Arsenal stories roll on and on

Does the media really have an effect on Arsenal results? By Tony Attwood There is a very interesting little snippet on the Mirror website “Arsenal should learn from their mistakes and allow Mikel Arteta to make summer signing” which proclaims, “Mikel Arteta must push Arsenal to sign Houssem Aouar after failing to land their midfield …

One English newspaper is openly critical of PL referees, and it offers a dire warning

By Tony Attwood There is an article by Keith Hackett in the Telegraph today that opens, “I do not think I am alone in expressing happiness that Sunday saw Jonathan Moss’s last game as a referee. It is not before time.” With that I would agree.   And indeed with the follow-up statement that “I now …

In football the view from Europe is quite different from the view from England

By Tony Attwood When football authorities order the media to delete the video, we really have problems One of my main complaints about the English media’s coverage of football is that it is not only anglophile, but also highly selective, ignoring the notion that there is a different focus elsewhere both on what issues are …

When football authorities order the media to delete the video, we really have problems

By Tony Attwood Does the media really have an effect on Arsenal results The headline this morning on the Liverpool.com website reads  Liverpool still have three trophies to parade as serious Real Madrid question is for another day Which may come as a little bit of a surprise.  We know that for the fifth time …

What impact did big spending have on results this past season?

Does the media really have an effect on Arsenal results Marquinhos to Arsenal. Is it really true that Arsenal could face a transfer ban? By Sir Hardly Anyone. One of the things we have shown many times over the years is that there is often no direct link between the amount of money spent by …

Does the media really have an effect on Arsenal results

By Tony Attwood My own view, based on two strands of clear evidence and then extrapolating the likely effect it that yes, the media does have an effect on Arsenal’s results.  I’ll try and explain how. First, we know that different referees have different levels of bias toward the home teams and against  away teams.  …

Marquinhos to Arsenal. Is it really true that Arsenal could face a transfer ban?

By Tony Attwood 81 players arriving, 27 leaving: the media’s wild take on Arsenal’s transfers this summer Out of contract players: are Arsenal just being sloppy in retaining players? UK government increases its active involvement in football, but is that good? In one sense the tale of Arsenal facing a transfer ban is of course …

81 players arriving, 27 leaving: the media’s wild take on Arsenal’s transfers this summer

Out of contract players: are Arsenal just being sloppy in retaining players? By Sir Hardly Anyone The case of Adam Hlozek shows us exactly how the media work these days.   Before the last couple of days, there has been no mention anywhere of the forward wanting to come to Arsenal, or of Arsenal being interested …

Out of contract players: are Arsenal just being sloppy in retaining players?

By Sir Hardly Anyone UK government increases its active involvement in football, but is that good? Saka and the world cup: a worrying scenario In the media, there is always a lot of debate about how Arsenal regularly lets players’ contracts run down, and how stupid this is.   (And it is interesting that it is …

UK government increases its active involvement in football, but is that good?

By Tony Attwood According to an article in the Guardian, the UK government did indeed encourage Premier League to approve Newcastle even though the Prime Minister has said repeatedly that the government had no role in the affair at any point.  Presumably, this was done to increase investment in the UK and to smooth the …

Saka and the world cup: a worrying scenario

A ten point penalty for each club whose fans invade the pitch? Arsenal Women 2021/22 Review Part 4: Player of the Season and where do we go from here In the Premier League 2021/2, 50% of refs showed signs of persistent bias By Sir Hardly Anyone A report in the Telegraph newspaper tells us that …

A ten point penalty for each club whose fans invade the pitch?

By Sir Hardly Anyone https://youtu.be/WN3KkC5E2nY For many years employers (including of course football clubs) have been responsible for ensuring the health and safety of players at work (ie for football that means in training and in playing in matches).  Health and safety is widely accepted as meaning being free from threats of abuse as well …

Arsenal Women 2021/22 Review Part 4: Player of the Season and where do we go from here

Arsenal Women 2021-22 Season review – Part 1 Arsenal Women 2021-22 Season Review: Part 2 WSL Match by Match highs and lows Arsenal Women 2021/2 Review, Part 3 – 21 Players to keep; 9 players to let go by Andrew Crawshaw In my Player reviews, I identified four contenders for Player of the Season, Leah …

In the Premier League 2021/2, 50% of refs showed signs of persistent bias

By Sir Hardly Anyone Mike Dean, Jonathan Moss and Martin Atkinson all retire after the last round of games in the Premier League this season.   But are they biased referees, or the ones who can ignore the crowd and referee the game without crowd interference? That has become the prime question but not a new …

What does Europe think of the Premier League? Less and less it seems

By Tony Attwood Of course most of the time – indeed we might say almost all of the time – most football fans in England don’t spare a moment to think about how the rest of the world sees us.  We are told by our own media that the Premier League is the best in …

Arsenal Women 2021/2 Review, Part 3 – 21 Players to keep; 9 players to let go

by Andrew Crawshaw Arsenal Women 2021-22 Season review – Part 1 Arsenal Women 2021-22 Season Review: Part 2 WSL Match by Match highs and lows No Plays Comments Apps Goals All games Keep or Pass 1 GK Manuella Zinsberger Undisputed No 1 goalkeeper, has performed excellently 13 clean sheets in the WSL 33 K 18 …

So did Arsenal make progress this season? And what of the rest.

By Sir Hardly Anyone and a slide rule Arsenal Women 2021-22 Season Review: Part 2 WSL Match by Match highs and lows The ten things we really learned from the 2021/2 season When people talk about teams making progress they tend to talk in generalisations without giving any statistics to justify what are often preposterous …

Arsenal Women 2021-22 Season Review: Part 2 WSL Match by Match highs and lows

Arsenal Women 2021-22 Season review – Part 1 by Andrew Crawshaw In this article, I have used red to show the matches I consider to be season highlights and blue for the lows. Our League Season started with a daunting series of games with home ties against Chelsea and Manchester City in the first three …

The ten things we really learned from the 2021/2 season

The worry for those who attend games is what will happen in the summer 1: We have by far the best song in football, ever. The choreography was perfect – which is not something you often hear in relation to Arsenal.  But it was.  At the final moment just before kickoff when we thought the …

Arsenal v Everton: looking back at the videos from earlier years…

By Tony Attwood As a final look at the Arsenal v Everton game today, we take a quick look back at the past through historic videos. On the Arsenal History Society website we have collected together videos of Arsenal games, sorted by the teams played against as well as by date.  Below are the details …

Arsenal v Everton: the big worries about the referee, and the team

Today we celebrate the short life of one of Arsenal’s greatest ever goalscorers. By Bulldog Drummond So here we are with the last team preview of the season… The referee is Andre Marriner.  And that is not good news for Arsenal for while the vast majority of the referees have reverted since the pandemic to …

Arsenal v Everton: A game with a grand tradition, plus a tradition of accuracy lost

By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal have beaten Everton 98 times in the 1st Division and Premier League – a record for one club against the same opponent. Everton have the most seasons in the top level of English football in part because they joined the football league when it was just a northern and west midlands …

Arsenal injuries and suspensions, Evertonian violence, lunatic predictions

By Bulldog Drummond Without those opening 3 defeats, Arsenal would be fine. AFC v Everton preview Rob Holding has served his suspension and so will be available for the final game of the season. Kieran Tierney has undergone surgery and so is obviously out as is Thomas Partey. Takehiro Tomiyasu suffered from a muscular strain …