Untold Arsenal: Supporting the club, the manager and the team
"I believe the target of anything in life should be to do it so well that it becomes an art." A Wenger
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 …
Read More “Exactly why we are predicting Arsenal to finish ahead of Tottenham in fourth.”
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 …
Read More “How a manager’s comments are not always what they seem”
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 …
Read More “Why having a scoring centre forward is not always essential.”
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 …
Read More “Transfer system is in chaos – but Arsenal are getting away comparatively lightly”
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 …
Read More “How many spare places do we have in the squad for purchases in January?”
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 …
Read More “How free thinking and alternative visions for football are constantly suppressed.”
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 …
Read More “What the 5-0 Feast in the East means to Arsenal’s chase for the top four”
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 …
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 …
Read More “Norwich v Arsenal: the Arsenal team and the prognostications”
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 …
Read More “Arsenal v Norwich: head to head, recent games and tactics”
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 …
Read More “Norwich v Arsenal: the referee and how the PGMO handle the two clubs”
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 …
Read More “Norwich v Arsenal: a huge upturn in injuries and the gap between the leagues.”
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 …
Read More “Norwich v Arsenal: the Boxing Day preview part 1”
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 …
Read More “Football is in the grip of the biggest ever takeover, while Arsenal’s debts are growing”
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 …
Read More “Are Arsenal on track for the top four at the end of the season?”
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 …
Read More “Why England is the odd one out when it comes to player vaccinations?”
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 …
Read More “Uefa plans to torpedo Fifa expansionst programme: and how!”
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 …
Read More “So it’s another where I can say “I was there”; but some memories are not so good”
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 …
by Bulldog Drummond The last six league matches chart is obviously less relevant than normal when we are playing a tier-three team, but it does give an indication of the feeling around the club… The last six games of each club Team P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Manchester City 6 6 …
Read More “The last six games, how we fit the games in, and what happens if we can’t”
By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal v Sunderland: a contrast in statues Arsenal v Sunderland: difficult years for the opposition on and off the pitch Three of the four quarter finals in the League Cup this season are being played in London. Brentford are playing at home to Chelsea, and Tottenham are playing West Ham while the …
Read More “Sunderland are given over twice as many yellow cards as Arsenal per game”
By Bulldog Drummond The picture to the left, in case you are wondering, is of Sunderland manager Bob Stokoe, who won the cup for Sunderland in 1973 and famously galloped onto the Wembley pitch at the end to celebrate what was a famous win for the underdogs. I find that statue interesting, because as Tony …
By Bulldog Drummond Next up we have third tier Sunderland in the League Cup quarter-final at 7.45 on Tuesday. The match, although not part of the season ticket package, is sold out – which aside from the enthusiasm of Sunderland supporters to see their team, reflects well on the ongoing Arsenal policy of very low …
Read More “Arsenal v Sunderland: difficult years for the opposition on and off the pitch”
By Tony Attwood It goes on day by day, week by week. Sometimes it is ignorant, sometimes deliberately attempting to be disruptive, sometimes misleading, and just occasionally with a hint of a possible development. But it is always there. Take this one: Emile Smith Rowe warned he ‘doesn’t deserve’ to be in Arsenal team despite Leeds …
Read More “How to speak nonsense: a guide to being an anti-Arsenal journalist”
By Tony Attwood This is a completely new analysis – not just for Untold but I think for anyone. It compares the statistics of two matches: Everton away, which we lost and Leeds away which we won. The question is, do the stats tell us how this change came about? Before the Leeds match the …
Read More “How Arsenal changed their tactics against Leeds and thus secured the win.”
