2022/23 PL Season – Matchweek 3 – Refereeing matters

by Andrew Crawshaw What did we learn from Matchweek 2 From our match Darren England struggled at times, possibly why he is only on VAR duty this weekend Min 21 no yellow card for Leicester Min 34 no yellow card when Saka was taken out ref played advantage Mike Dean correctly advised Mr England to …

AFC Bournemouth v Arsenal: the final thoughts and the teams

By Tony Attwood Confirmed team:  Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Odegaard, Partey, Xhaka, Saka, Jesus, Martinelli Subs: Turner, Tierney, Tomiyasu, Holding, Elneny, Lokonga, Vieira, Smith Rowe, Nketiah But beware the kick off is shown on the Evening Standard Website as 5.30pm GMT, Sky Sports.  That is quite wrong.  It is 5.30pm BST.  The UK is NOT …

Bournemouth v Arsenal: Arsenal in the first 3 competitive games each season

Anniversary video index: an Arsenal video for (almost) each day of the year Arsenal Day by Day: the stories Arsenal in August: All the anniversaries day by day  100 Years: 100 Years in the First Division By Bulldog Drummond Referee Craig Pawson: his bias does Arsenal no favours against Bournemouth Clubs are being encouraged to tackle more and more …

Referee Craig Pawson: his bias does Arsenal no favours against Bournemouth

Suddenly a key set of referee statistics does not appear. Why is that??? Bournemouth v Arsenal: a visit to the smallest ground in the league By Bulldog Drummond Just a week or so ago we looked at the issue of referees and the question of home and away bias.  You can read the whole article …

Club are being encouraged to tackle more and more by referees’ approach

By Tony Attwood So we have finally got some of our data back – although not on all sites, and not everyone is sorted out yet.   For example type “fouls” into the search box of Whoscored.com and at the moment of writing (1155 BST, Friday) one sees this… Results for ‘fouls’ from over 500 tournaments, 10,000 …

Suddenly a key set of referee statistics does not appear. Why is that???

Anniversary video index: an Arsenal video for (almost) each day of the year Arsenal Day by Day: the stories Arsenal in August: All the anniversaries day by day  100 Years: 100 Years in the First Division The data vanishes By Tony Attwood This is the moment where we would normally start putting in the fouls per game per club …

Bournemouth v Arsenal: a visit to the smallest ground in the league

Winning the opening two league games is not that common for Arsenal Anniversary video index: an Arsenal video for (almost) each day of the year Arsenal Day by Day: the stories Arsenal in August: All the anniversaries day by day  100 Years: 100 Years in the First Division By Sir Hardly Anyone On 9 February this year Bournemouth played …

Do Arsenal need to get better or different or both?

Last season the table after 3 games was headline news. But it won’t be this season by Sir Hardly Anyone Well obviously yes, and as we pointed out before they have indeed been getting better.  The only problem is that the story keeps going around that they have been getting worse. The three most successful …

Last season the table after 3 games was headline news. But probably not this season

By Tony Attwood Last season after three games the media predicted Arsenal’s total decline.  In fact we ended up fifth.  Which suggests that predictions made from a selected number of matches can be interesting, but need to be dealt with cautiously.   Winning the opening two league games is not that common for Arsenal as we …

117 players tipped as coming to Arsenal before the window closes

by Sir Hardly Anyone We are still lagging behind in the number of players tipped to be coming to Arsenal last summer, which reached 134 players.  If you are interested you can see what happened to them in our article from last summer. Meanwhile here are the 117 players coming to Arsenal this summer – …

Why Arsenal recruited a new defence first, then a new attack

Anniversary video index: an Arsenal video for (almost) each day of the year Arsenal Day by Day: the stories Arsenal in August: All the anniversaries day by day  100 Years: 100 Years in the First Division By Tony Attwood The more clubs tackle, the more they get away with it. The stats. Journalists may, by and large, choose to …

After two games we can start to make one or two judgements

By Tony Attwood What does the league table tell us after two games – and come to that just how far is it possible for a club to rise or fall from the second game of the season to the end of the season? A year ago, after two games West Ham United were top …

Winning the opening two league games is not that common for Arsenal

Arsenal flying, and everyone else makes the headlines! by Tony Attwood 2022/23 is only the sixth time this century that Arsenal have won their first two league matches in a season.  Put another way, only in about a quarter of the seasons Arsenal have played since 2000 have they opened with two wins. The last …

Arsenal? Nothing to see here. It’s only news when they’re losing.

Why is the media so certain Arsenal will fail in 2022/23? By Sir Hardly Anyone Each monday, the Guardian runs a column on 10 talking points from the weekend’s action, which this monday manages to include nothing at all about Arsenal.  There was, it seems no talking point.  At least none concerning the club that …

Arsenal flying, and everyone else makes the headlines!

Anniversary video index: an Arsenal video for (almost) each day of the year Arsenal Day by Day: the stories Arsenal in August: All the anniversaries day by day  100 Years: 100 Years in the First Division By Tony Attwood Having several hobbies makes for a full life, but means I sometimes miss all the fun.   And thus it was …

Just how much debt is football in; and what happens next for SuperLeague?

By Sir Hardly Anyone, Curiously, for such huge questions as those posed in the headline, these are not questions that are being posed in the football media.  Maybe that’s because media editors think that football is too big an industry to fail, or that supporters aren’t really interested, or that the story has been around …

Two Arsenal players in top six scorers and a very upbeat stadium.

Anniversary video index: an Arsenal video for (almost) each day of the year Arsenal Day by Day: the stories Arsenal in August: All the anniversaries day by day  100 Years: 100 Years in the First Division By Tony Attwood It was noisy, upbeat, vibrant and as far as I could see, full – exactly what you want for a …

Arsenal v Leicester footnote: bad runs and past games

By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal v Leicester: comparing the form, and the goalscorers As we await kickoff, here’s a little extra reading on the match… Last season Arsenal had several bad runs in the league. Everyone knows about the opening three league games, because for months the media focussed on little else when Arsenal were mentioned.  …

Arsenal v Leicester; the injuries, the team, recent games, ludicrous predictions

Anniversary video index: an Arsenal video for (almost) each day of the year Arsenal Day by Day: the stories Arsenal in August: All the anniversaries day by day  100 Years: 100 Years in the First Division By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal v Leicester: comparing the form, and the goalscorers Arsenal v Leicester: how will the ref handle Leicester’s multiple tackling? …

Arsenal v Leicester: comparing the form, and the goalscorers

Arsenal v Leicester: how will the ref handle Leicester’s mulitple tackling? By Bulldog Drummond It is quite interesting that as with previous articles that analyse Leicester’s tackling figures we do get a number of comments from apparent Leicester supporters telling us we are wrong, but not saying where the figures are wrong.   Even more interesting, …

Arsenal v Leicester: how will the ref handle Leicester’s multiple tackling?

What sort of referee is Darren England? The statistics reveal some odd facts. By Bulldog Drummond So far this summer Leicester have bought no one and got rid of or loaned eight players, the only one of whom has brought in any money is Kasper Schmeichel who was sold for £1m to Nice. Arsenal however …

What sort of referee is Darren England? The statistics reveal some odd facts.

Arsenal desperate for more players (according to reports) By Tony Attwood For this weekend’s game we have as referee Darren England, and this season we are going to try and look at each referee in turn to see what we might expect him to do. You may have seen the full list of officials in …

Premier League 2022/23 – Matchweek 2 Refereeing matters

Anniversary video index: an Arsenal video for (almost) each day of the year Arsenal Day by Day: the stories Arsenal in August: All the anniversaries day by day  100 Years: 100 Years in the First Division by Andrew Crawshaw What did we learn from Matchweek 1? 1: Granit Xhaka is still being dealt with in a different manner from …

Are we all really sure that no other club behaves like Barcelona?

By Tony Attwood The players Arsenal do not want hanging around (allegedly) The behaviour of Barcelona over the Frenkie de Jong affair is generally portrayed as being a one-off by a club desperate to dig itself out of the hole it has got itself into.  But the lack of serious media investigation into the affair …

Arsenal’s new tactics explored in detail and what it means for the season ahead

The new Arsenal tactic: revealed against Palace in all its glory by Tony Attwood The opening day’s tackles, fouls and yellow cards table has thrown up some unexpected numbers. For a start, and as we have mentioned before, Arsenal have reversed their previous policy and gone for multiple tackling.  And so as we have entered …