Pub talk: Stoke imitate Arsenal, the summer window shuts, Petit lashes out.

By Sir Hardly Anyone As a rule, the football journalist doesn’t do anything which might be considered by the general population to be related to the concept widely known as “thinking” during the hours of daylight. Upon waking he or she will stroll to his or her favourite public house, order up a few short …

Is Manchester City’s Suarez contract is hindering the player’s development?

By Tony Attwood The Daily Mirror is today publishing a story about Denis Suarez which makes particularly interesting reading.  I am most grateful to my pal Steve who sits next to me at Arsenal Stadium for picking up on this story and alerting me to it today. The story attempts to get to grips with …

We get every statistic imaginable about players, but why no stats about referees?

By Tony Attwood There is an interesting paragraph in a report on the Tottenham v Arsenal match in the Daily Telegraph website that says “There were a number of contentious incidents with replays showing Harry Kane was offside in the moments before Skhodran Mustafi barged him over for Spurs’ second half penalty. The referee Taylor …

Final score and live match report Tottenham – Arsenal : 1-1 Poor PGMO… poor PGMO

By Walter Broeckx A few changes compared to our last midweek match. No Özil but in his place Ramsey at the start. Mustafi starting at right back with Monreal at his normal left back position. One could say we still have a few options on the bench if things wouldn’t go according to plan. Arsenal …

Tottenham v Arsenal; the injuries, the media picks the team and recent runs.

By Bulldog Drummond On 8 February Arsenal were ten points behind Tottenham.  A win in this game would leave us just one point behind them. In terms of injuries both Koscielny and Lichsteiner are thought to have a chance of being available for selection for the Tottenham match.  Otherwise it is just our three long …

Tottenham Nomads v Arsenal; what the statistics tell us.

By Bulldog Drummond The key issue we have been debating of late, of course, is the home / away difference, and it is particularly interesting in relation to this game.   Here’s the home league table… Home games only Team P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Manchester City 15 14 0 1 50 …

Matchweek 29 – the games, officials, and the ref who never books a Spurs player

by Andrew Crawshaw Here, Courtesy of premierleague.com are this weekend’s matches and officials.  NB kickoff times 15:00 unless stated. Saturday 2 March 12:30 Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal Referee: Anthony Taylor Assistants: Gary Beswick, Adam Nunn Fourth official: Jonathan Moss AFC Bournemouth v Man City Referee: Kevin Friend Assistants: Matthew Wilkes, Adrian Holmes Fourth official: David Coote Brighton v Huddersfield …

The dramatic decline in Arsenal’s away form and what we can do about it

By Tony Attwood The fact that there is nothing wrong with Arsenal as a team is not something that you will read in many publications.  What you will see over and over again is that there is something wrong with Arsenal as the main theme, and things need to be changed. But, let me take …

Another serious misuse of football statistics by those who should know better

By Tony Attwood In the affterglow of last night’s lovely victory for Arsenal, I want to turn to something different, not because I didn’t enjoy last night, but because this is Untold, and we like to cover stories no one else will cover. And what we consider here is a perfect example of the creation …

Final score and live match report Arsenal – Bournemouth : 5-1

By Walter Broeckx A big surprise at right back with Jenkinson making his first start in the PL in a long, long time. Welcome back you Gunner/Gooner. A few absentees like Xhaka and Maitland-Niles who were more or les expected to be involved. I don’t know if this is down to an injury or illness. …

Arsenal v Bournemouth: team selections from around the media and the form guide

By Bulldog Drummond The key thinking ahead of this game as far as the media is concerned – or at least the media that bother to look at such things – is that Bournemouth have a host of injuries and Arsenal don’t.  There’s not too much on exactly how this is going to help Arsenal, …

Arsenal v Bournemouth: the home and away form, and the injuries

by Bulldog Drummond The good news is that this is a home game – not just so that we can go and see it, but also because we can go into the game with a really good track record at home… Home games only Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts 1 …

How are Arsenal doing this season compared to previous years?

By Tony Attwood The central question is a simple one: are we doing any better this under Mr Emery than previously under Mr Wenger? The reason for asking is that the campaign to oust Mr Wenger was also very simple, consisting just of the message, “Wenger Out”.   It didn’t talk about how much money might …

Matchweek 28 – All the game, Officials and the return of rotational fouling

by Andrew Crawshaw In the weekend games that between United and Liverpool stands out in terms of the number of fouls called – 15 against United and 17 against Liverpool – one every 3 minutes overall.  Three United players were substituted with muscular injuries.  One United player got a yellow card whilst three Liverpool players …

Final score and live match report Arsenal – Southampton : 2-0

By Walter Broeckx A few changes mostly down to give some rest to players with a busy week ahead and the midweek match. Özil and Aubameyang drop on the bench and Ramsey and Lacazette come in their place. Sokratis starts in the playce of Koscielny and Kolasinac starts in the place of Monreal in a …

Arsenal v Southampton: three versions of the teams and what’s happened lately

By Bulldog Drummond As we all remember, I am sure, it was a defeat away to Southampton that started Arsenal on the downward turn earlier in the season after the unbeaten run. Here is what has happened from the last Southampton match onwards Date Game (all PL except as marked) Res Score 16 Dec 2018 …

Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo to Arsenal. What will it mean, and will it work

By Tony Attwood So the word is that Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo known to us ordinary folk on Monchi, is going to be our new technical director.   He is Spanish, so can talk to our manager, is 50 years old, and played in goal being one of those goal keepers who spent most of his time playing …

Chelsea banned, FA fined, Coventry on the edge…

By Tony Attwood We’ve been here before, and before and before: the issue of the transfers of young players, and the way English clubs treat them.   There have been warnings and fines for several clubs over time – Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City – I won’t go through it all again, as we have covered …

Matchweek 27 – all the games and officials, and some predictions.

by Andrew Crawshaw In the last round of matches the following stands out Watford were called for 21 fouls in their game against Everton but only had two yellow cards awarded against them.  Here is a table showing who committed the fouls and when.  Andre Gray should consider himself lucky not to have picked up …

Final score and live match report Uefa League Arsenal – Bate Borisov : 3-0

By Walter Broeckx Arsenal with a few changes compared to last match. Özil in the starting line up and also Lichtsteiner starting the match. Remember Arsenal must win with a 2 goal advantage. Be it 2-0, 3-1, 4-2, 17-15, whatever. Arsenal team: Cech, Lichtsteiner, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Xhaka, Guendouzi, Özil, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi, Aubameyang. On the …

Arsenal v BATE: three possible outcomes – and the reactions that will follow

By Bulldog Drummond OK – three possible outcomes tonight… 1: We win easily and go through without any worries This implies a couple of early goals and then a third which means that even if an away goal emerged, it would be of no immediate significance. The reaction from the media would be Arsenal scrape …

Will Arsenal fans turn on Emery if next season starts badly?

By Tony Attwood There is an article in the Daily Star which basically says that if Arsenal do not get off to a good start next season, supporters will be calling for the manager to be sacked. I don’t know if that is true at any level.   A terrific run this season, after the …

Arsenal a selling club, Freddie backs Eddie, next season’s team, Tottenham’s nickname

Sir Hardly Anyone takes a look at the latest gibberings from the media. Steve Sidwell says he is shocked at how events have unfolded at Arsenal since he left the club, with the expected progress having never materialised.  That is interesting since after he left the club, Arsenal had an unbeaten season while winning the …

Arsenal v BATE. What can we expect

by Bulldog Drummond Since the run of unbeaten games ended at Southampton on 16 December Arsenal have played 14 games.  Seven have been lost, six have been won and just one has been a draw. Date Game Res Score Competition 16 Dec 2018 Southampton v Arsenal L 3-2 Premier League 19 Dec 2018 Arsenal v …

Why won’t the media ever investigate the cause of referee errors?

by Tony Attwood We have a national curriculum in schools in England which sets out the subjects all students have to study up to the age of 16.  In that list of subjects is “science.” Now if you were taught science reasonably well, you might recall that included in that subject is something called “the …