Liverpool v Arsenal: the preview

by Bulldog Drummond At the end of last season Untold boldly predicted that this season Manchester City would win the League again, quite simply because they would spend, spend, spend and spend, and do everything they could to ensure that they would stay top. In fact we were wrong, they didn’t go on another mass …

Matchweek 20 – All the Games, All the Officials

by Andrew Crawshaw Here, courtesy of premierleague.com, are this weekend’s matches:- NB All matches start at 15:00 UK time unless otherwise noted Previews will appear shortly in https://Predictions.org.uk – links are added below as the previews are published. Saturday 29 December Brighton v Everton Referee: Andy Madley Assistants: Simon Long, Mick McDonough Fourth official: Andre Marriner …

Reality can be very boring but can be quite useful in football

by Tony Attwood Consider this headline Arsenal ‘willing to pay’ €16m to make transfer happen, decision now rests with player That seems quite straightforward, except that the player is Keylor Navas of Real Madrid.   So let’s see if the “Willing to pay” story hangs together. 1: Do we need another goalkeeper?   In their ultimate …

How is Arsenal doing compared with half way through previous seasons?

By Tony Attwood Last season the media and some fans made a lot of noise about getting rid of Mr Wenger as manager.  Within the noise there were claims that Arsenal were clearly not keeping up with the rest of the league, and demands that at the very least Arsenal should be challenging to win …

Final score and live match report Brighton H&A – Arsenal: 1-1

By Walter Broeckx Some changes in the starting line up to cover for the injury of Monreal and Lichtsteiner coming in at what looks to be a 4 at the back starting line up. Our beach showing we are rather thin now on first team players… Arsenal starting with : Leno, Lichtsteiner, Sokratis, Koscielny, Kolasinac, …

Brighton v Arsenal, the teams, the possibilities, Koscielny

By Bulldog Drummond Looking at Arsenal, as we have noted throughout this season, the away form is key to taking us up the league (not least on the grounds that it would be hard to improve on last season’s home form).   If we can beat Brighton, that will take us to five away wins – …

Brighton v Arsenal; the form guide

By Bulldog Drummond Brighton’s season has been somewhat erratic not helped by having three players sent off in seven days of playing football.  This might well be having an impact on them – the manager telling the players to reign in some of the aggro. Looking at their performances through the season we find these …

First Half of the Season – Referee Analysis – who’s been where and how often

by Andrew Crawshaw Covering the first half of the season here is a list of the games done by each referee and the top of the table for the Assistant Referees. A total of 18 different referees have been used so far but with vastly different workloads. Referee Games Assistants Games Anthony Taylor 17 Simon …

Matchweek 19 – All the Games and Officials

by Andrew Crawshaw This week marks the halfway point of the season.  Maybe we aren’t quite where we would have liked to be but, in all honesty, I don’t think that many of us could reasonably have expected us to be any higher than fifth, given our form from last year. Here, courtesy of premierleague.com …

Brighton v Arsenal: the injury crisis (part 94), kettles of fish and runs.

By Bulldog Drummond If it is Arsenal it must be an injury crisis, so let’s take a peek…. and yes this time they are right we are second in the injury league behind Watford.  Crisis, crisis, crisis.  But is anyone calling for the head of the Watford manager because of their injury crisis?  I can’t …

The great referee con, played on us poor punters over and over again

By Tony Attwood This time it is Keith Hackett who does it, but it could have been any of the commentators who tell us that refereeing is really ok and jolly good and everything is fine and there is nothing sinister about having an organisation so secretive that it makes the masonic lodges look like …

How likely are Arsenal to get into the top four by the end of the season?

By Tony Attwood The prime objective of this season for many supporters was, I think, to see Arsenal get back into the Champions League, where Mr Wenger had kept the club for so many years (a run, as I have mentioned before, which has only ever been exceeded by Real Madrid). I made the comment …

Official reactions to Dyche will show us how the authorities are thinking

by Tony Attwood Sean Dyche made a number of serious accusations against Arsenal players in particular, the  Arsenal team in general, after the match yesterday and complained about the behaviour of the referee in this match and referees in general through commenting on the fact that (he claims) Burnley do not get given penalties. The …

Final score live match report Arsenal – Burnley : 3-1

By Walter Broeckx A few changes as could be expected with the busy schedule we are looking at and some returns in the team. Özil started and also Kolasinac in the starting line up. Up front Lacazette and Aubameyang both starting. Torreira getting some rest and on the bench with Elneny taking his place. A back …

Arsenal v Burnley: the teams now and the last time we lost to Burnley

By Bulldog Drummond The last time we did lose to a bottom three club at home was with a 1-0 loss to West Ham way way way back in April 2007.  And to make this sound even better we have won the last 27 home league matches against sides in the drop zone since a …

Arsenal v Burnley recent games, and the holiday season run in

by Bulldog Drummond. We have beaten Burnley 51 times throughout history, and lost 33 times, with 21 games being draws, and the last ten give no cause for concern.  But that problem of recovering from the first defeat in a while is always lurking around. Here are the recent Burnlian results… Date Game Res Score …

Arsenal v Burnley: injuries, Burnley recently, the problem of the end of a run

By Bulldog Drummond Physioroom now has us on six injuries – equal with Man City, Tottenham and Southampton and two behind West Ham.  Burnley are on five. The latest news is Bellerin: a major doubt for now but probably back by Boxing Day Mkhitaryan: ankle injury – no return date set Kolasinac: a doubt for …

New referee research is valuable but is still fundamentally flawed

By Tony Attwood Research appears to show that match officials in England are maybe seven times more likely to suffer verbal abuse than those in France and the Netherlands. I say “appears” and “maybe” because although some who are quoting this research are giving that figure as a fact, the research in England has been conducted …

Matchweek 18 – All the Games, All the Officials; and the predictions

by Andrew Crawshaw Here are the PL Fixtures and the appointed officials courtesy of premierleague.com :- Kick-offs are 15:00 GMT unless stated otherwise. Friday 21 December 20:00 Wolves v Liverpool Referee: Craig Pawson Assistants: Lee Betts, Richard West Fourth official: Michael Oliver Wolverhampton v Liverpool: the predictions Saturday 22 December 12:30 Arsenal v Burnley Referee: Kevin Friend Assistants: Matthew Wilkes, Derek Eaton …

There might be a clue here as to why we shouldn’t trust the media

By Tony Attwood You might recall that I have often passed comment on the way that Football.London – the Daily Mirror’s website, churns out an Arsenal story every 10 minutes.  I meant that as a warning, but sadly some have now taken it as a blueprint.   This is the log this morning from the bloggetta …

League cup Arsenal – Tottenham : 0-2

By Walter Broeckx Arsenal: Cech, Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Xhaka, Monreal, Torreira, Guendouzi, Ramsey, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi, Aubameyang On the beach :  Martinez, Lichtsteiner, Koscielny, Elneny, Willock, Lacazette, Nketiah A first corner for Arsenal and Mkhiaryan flicks it on but Monreal can’t get on the end of the ball as he was pulled back but Moss didn’t see …

On not going to Arsenal v Tottenham, and do we really need journalists at matches?

By Tony Attwood The rules are quite simple: anyone with a season ticket at Arsenal can apply for and get a ticket for League Cup games.  The price is £10 to sit downstairs, £20 to sit upstairs, with a 50% discount for the over 65s. But despite the low price and the fact it is …

Arsenal get Blackpool (again) but first here’s the team against Tottenham

By Bulldog Drummond At the time of the third round draw for the FA Cup, there were still a couple second round ties unresolved – including of course the one to resolve who Arsenal would play.   Now we know, as Blackpool have finally beaten Solihull Moors, and so we will play Blackpool for the second …

Arsenal v Tottenham: the problem with selfies and the injury news

By Bulldog Drummond Apparentlhy some of Arsenal’s squad posted selfies after their 4-2 extermination of Tottenham and the Tiny Totts manager said such activity as this should be saved for winning trophies. That must mean that they have only have two occasions for doing that in the past 25 years, although of course camera phones haven’t …

What’s £400m between friends? How some clubs have upped the game.

By Tony Attwood José Mourinho became manager of Manchester United in May 2016.  In five transfer windows he spent around £400m on 11 players.  The media men on the inside say that in each case the choice of player was his. The Guardian is saying that not only are the results poor from the first team but that …