Five of the top 20 players in the Premier League play for Arsenal

By Tony Attwood The other day we asked, Why are the rest of the league fouling Arsenal so much? One possible answer comes from the table of top players provided by WhoScored.  This table is adapted from their data, and the final rating column includes various other factors such as shots per game not listed …

If only English refs could be as open and honest as those in Germany

The team that commits the most tackles get the easiest ride by Tony Attwood “Referee tactics” is what it is called in refereeing circles across Europe.   Except in England, wherein one gets the impression that nothing to do with refereeing is ever called anything because no one will ever talk about anything for fear of …

Why are the rest of the league fouling Arsenal so much?

Important prelim: if you are having difficulties posting comments to Untold Arsenal, or indeed difficulties accessing the site, we’d be very grateful if you could write about the situation to help us resolve it.  Please write directly to Tony@schools.co.uk and mark the subject line UA problems. thanks By Tony Attwood How the media got their …

Arsenal v Liverpool: the Arsenal team, Arsenal player tipped for USA squad, different sized goals

      Liverpool in flux Arsenal in recalibration. How the match might play out… by Bulldog Drummond We recently reported that one of the goals in the Arsenal women’s match against Ajax was found by Arsenal to be of the wrong size, and that issue was resolved. Now we have a similar story in …

Arsenal v Liverpool: the stats suggest a narrow Arsenal win.

Arsenal v Liverpool: the unexpected statistics by Bulldog Drummond There is a story doing the rounds that after seven years at a club Jurgen Klopp feels he has had enough, or that even if he doesn’t feel like moving on, his results drop off and so he quits and finds himself another club. It hasn’t …

A symbolic moment as Arsenal are elevated to a new height

The headline says it all. Arsenal are the only team who can stop Manchester City’s title procession The strength of the headline in the Telegraph is somewhat undermined by the sentence that opens the article, which asks the question, “Are Arsenal already the only team who can stop Manchester City from winning a fifth Premier …

Liverpool in flux Arsenal in recalibration. How the match might play out…

8 October: Arsenal’s first trophy winning captain makes final appearance By Bulldog Drummond Liverpool find themselves in flux, according to the Guardian, and that is what their results of late show.  Of the last ten games this season (three in the Champions’ League, seven in the Premier League) Liverpool have won just four, drawn four …

Arsenal v Liverpool: the unexpected statistics

    How the media got their predictions so wrong, but no one apologised. Day by Day the videos – An Arsenal video for (almost) every day of the year in order.  By Bulldog Drummond Before each game we generally have a look at the merits of each team in terms of the relevant home …

A stroll in the park; National Rail lunacy at the station. Arsenal v Bodø/Glimt

by Tony Attwood Is the team that passes the most, the team that gets the best results? 7 October: Arsenal purchase a musical hall star! We were lucky.  National Rail were lucky.  There ought to be a thorough investigation. There won’t be.  And even if there were no one will be found to have acted …

Arsenal v the team that will present a giant toothbrush to our captain

    By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal squad for Europa League game Anniversary video index: an Arsenal video for (almost) each day of the year To begin with the headline and the toothbrush, we have mentioned this before, but if you want a good bit of background then you can find it all here.  The long …

Arsenal squad for Europa League game

  Anniversary video index: an Arsenal video for (almost) each day of the year By Bulldog Drummond For the last Europa League game the team Arsenal put out was… Turner Tomiyasu  Holding Gabriel Tierney Vieira Lokonga Xhaka Marquinhos Nketiah  Martinelli On the bench we had Ramsdale, Hein, White, Saka, Odegaard, Jesus, Saliba, Zinchenko, Cirjan, Smith, …

The abuse of female footballers is appalling, but there is a wider context

By Tony Attwood There is no point me covering in any detail the recent reports on the sexual abuse of female footballers.   Others with more knowledge of the issue and access to those who suffered can do this far better than I can – and they are doing exactly that.  If you want to read …

Why Arsenal v Glimt might be tougher than the game against Tottenham

Is the team that passes the most, the team that gets the best results? By Bulldog Drummond Before we get too carried away with thinking that this is going to be a walkover match against Bodo/Glimt, (“Glimt” means “Flash”) on the grounds that they are Norwegian and have a funny name, we might remember that …

Is the team that passes the most, the team that gets the best results?

By Tony Attwood The CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post this week analyses InStat data on passes for 1,226 teams worldwide. And in this analysis, Manchester City leads the table with 754 passes attempted per domestic league game and 90.8% of them are successful.  So one immediately leaps to the conclusion that passing is indeed good …

Arsenal Women – Champions League last 16 draw – We get the toughest opponents

      Day by Day the videos – An Arsenal video for (almost) every day of the year in order.  by Andrew Crawshaw The draw for the group stage let 16 on the Women’s Champions League was held on Monday. The 16 teams had been split into 4 groups.  The holders and the league …

Why sacking the manager is a problem: it hardly ever works.

    How the media got their predictions so wrong, but no one apologised. By Tony Attwood It seems that football loves simple solutions.  Take the notion of the long ball game.  The theory that clubs that played the long ball did well, was developed by an amateur statistician Charles Reep who took the simple …

Arsenal played against the media, the ref and Tottenham, and still won

  Death by 300,000 passes: how the Arsenal transformation started 2 seasons ago. By Tony Attwood Arsenal v Tottenham was a truly wonderful experience inside the stadium.   The club has done more than ever before to bring supporters together and get a belief in the side going.   The singing of “North London Forever” immediately before …

Arsenal v Tottenham update, team news and appalling, flagrant media bias

by Bulldog Drummond So we have injury doubts about Thomas Partey, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Takehiro Tomiyasu while Kieran Tierney may be available, Martin Odegaard is expected back and Reiss Nelson either is or is not recovered from his long-term injury – the media finds it difficult to agree. Emile Smith Rowe is now, like Mohamed …