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 You might know that aside from publishing Untold Arsenal I also publish the website of the AISA Arsenal History Society. That site began in 2009, and it has over time worked to correct some of the errors and omissions that appear in various books and websites that deal with Arsenal’s history. Indeed …
Read More “Perhaps this a moment to pause and contemplate where we have come from”
By Tony Attwood Every few months the media does its thing about which is the most expensive team to support. Arsenal usually come out on top and then for a few months we have readers writing in claiming that Arsenal has the most expensive entrance prices in world football. It’s a favourite filler of the …
Read More “Football is built on a feudal state and we need to be aware of what that means”
by Tony Attwood There is a headline that I saw on Yahoo! Sport today which reads, “Arsenal 3-3 Liverpool: Both sides showcase obvious flaws in a classic” which intrigued me. If, as the writer says, the flaws in each side were “obvious”, the question arises: why don’t the two managers correct these obvious flaws? That …
Read More “Revealed: the secretive group who could build a perfect team, but refuse to do so”
By Tony Attwood Just having a quick scout around the interblogwebnet thing this morning I found this little gem on a Liverpolo site “The shot that led to Granit Xhaka’s goal had a xG of 0.02. Which means that it had a one in 50 chance of going in. One. In. Fifty. And instead of …
Read More “Why being at a football match makes it all so very different”
By Walter Broeckx Arsenal team at the start: Cech, Bellerin, Koscielny, Monreal, Maitland-Niles, Xhaka, Wilshere, Özil, Alexis, Iwobi, Lacazette. On the beach: Ospina, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Walcott, Coquelin, Elneny, Welbeck Arsenal having most of the ball in the opening minutes but no real goal chances following. Then Henderson went down injured and he had to come …
By Bulldog Drummond I’ve just been told that my new glasses are available at the opticians, which means if I leave for the match in good time (like 2pm) I can pick them up before driving through the undoubtedly solid motorway system to London for tonight’s game. What a totally stupid night for a football …
Read More “Ox in the box. Arsenal v Liverpool, Arsenal never change except when they change”
By Bulldog Drummond To begin with the Dennis news, as you may have heard, Ajax have sacked Dennis Bergkamp as assistant to Marcel Keizer (who has also been given the shove) after a cup defeat to FC Twente. Dennis had been a coach at Ajax since August 2011. Ajax are second in the Eredivisie and were …
by Andrew Crawshaw Well the PGMO have been saving him for a special occasion this season and this match is it! Referee – Martin Atkinson Age 46 and still FIFA accredited (but that is to lapse in January I believe due to his age). Assistant Referee 1 – Stephen Child From Kent and FIFA accredited …
Read More “Arsenal v Liverpool Friday 22 December – The Match Officials. Arghhhhhh!!!”
TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING byDon McMahon What is a referee’s authority and what are his or her checks and balances that ensure he/she will do the job with integrity, firmness and fairness? Law 5 provides the framework for the referee’s limits of authority and gives the restraints concerning the application of the laws …
Read More “Too much of a good thing? Why referees need the final say in any decision, even with VAR”
By Bulldog Drummond. When I speak of “fortune telling” I mean of course my regular attempts to predict what will happen in each Arsenal game as it comes along. And aside from just wanting to win, I think the system we’ve been looking at this season is doing quite well. By this I mean something …
Read More “Arsenal v Liverpool! The fortune telling programme that predicts results quite well.”
By Tony Attwood What would you do if you were running an organisation that was wholly and utterly corrupt at every level, but which was very much in the public gaze? Of course you might have a few clever plans up your sleeve, but I suspect one of your main activities would be the replacement …
by Tony Attwood It was about nine months that the headlines rang out with the news “Premier League and PGMO split over referees’ final say in video rulings” The Telegraph told us “The Premier League and its referees’ organisation are still undecided over whether the introduction of video assistant referees (VARs) will involve the on-field …
Read More “Whatever happened to the idea of having a video referee system in the Premier League?”
By Tony Attwood 7,000 West Ham supporters filled up their allocated places along two thirds of the Clock End and the south east corner – an excellent show of away commitment to their club. Some Arsenal fans, however, seem to have had more than enough of late – or at least until Friday – for …
Read More “What matters most, the crowd or the result? And not being selected match after match”
By Walter Broeckx The Arsenal team at the start: Ospina, Debuchy, Chambers, Holding, Kolasinac, Coquelin, Elneny, Willok, Walcott, Giroud, Welbeck. On the beach: lots of youngsters. Arsenal with most of the ball in the opening minutes but no real goal chances created. Giroud running a bit too deep a few times and caught offside. Arsenal …
by Bulldog Drummond Almost time to set off in the car, but before I go, here’s the final instalment of news about the game tonight. In terms of injuries Physioroom shows us this Pos Club Total men down Last man down What happened 1 Watford 8 K Femenia Hamstring Injury 2 Liverpool 6 D Sturridge …
Read More “Arsenal v West Ham. The possible Arsenal line up”
By Bulldog Drummond Our reviews of the possibilities in this match have reached the conclusion that both teams will put out their second XI, although in West Ham’s case, because they don’t have the strength in depth that Arsenal have they will include a modest number of first team players. Looking at the results of …
Read More “It should be Arsenal II v West Ham II. And Arsenal should win, but…”
By Bulldog Drummond Let’s look at West Ham’s under 23 side and its results, as the members of this squad will, I suspect, make up some of the team against Arsenal, although of course there is always the chance that WHAM will simply put their first team out, knowing we will play the Arsenal II …
Read More “Arsenal and WHU could use some of their U23 teams tomorrow. So how have they been doing?”
By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal have of course played just two League Cup games so far this season, beating Doncaster and Norwich. But our second team, the team we have been calling Arsenal II this season has played six other games – in the Europa League. So I thought it might be interesting to put all …
Read More “Arsenal II: how have they done so far – and how we compare with WHU II.”
By Sir Hardly Anyone According to interviews doing the rounds at the moment Arsene Wenger believes Mesut Özil is currently playing his best ever football for Arsenal. Which gives us something to look forward to on Friday night for the game against Liverpool, although I can’t imagine he will even be on the beach for the game tomorrow against West …
By Tony Attwood If it had not been for Satruday’s game against Newcastle, we’d have been expecting Maitland-Niles to play in the match against West Ham in the League Cup quarter final. But AMN did play, and Kolasinac was dropped. So what do we make of that? There are several possibilities. Kolasinac had a slight …
Read More “Arsenal v West Ham United. Do we continue to use the reserves for this game?”
by Tony Attwood I have often made the point that there are two fundamental flaws with the mass media’s coverage of football in England: the first is that they choose what is news and what isn’t, and the second is that they then choose how to interpret that news. Of course that is what newspapers …
Read More “Is the media catching up with the notion something is wrong in football?”
by Bulldog Drummond Continuing on from yesterday’s rummage around the news relating to today’s game, we might note that in the early part of the 20th century Newcastle twice had runs against us where they were not defeated in seven games against Arsenal, but nothing really prepared anyone for the two runs this century. Here’s …
Read More “Arsenal v Newcastle: an amazing run of results, and the teams”
By Bulldog Drummond Just before we go any further perhaps I could mention the best headline I saw as I looked around for any real news ahead of the match tomorrow It comes from a website called “Devonlive.com” and reads thus “Super 6 predictions: Arsenal and Chelsea to win, draws for Newcastle, West Ham and …
Read More “Arsenal v Newcastle, updates, wild speculation and the best headline of the day”
by Andrew Crawshaw For the second match in a row we have a referee doing his first Arsenal match of the season. Referee – Stuart Attwell age 34 from Warwickshire Assistant Referee 1 – Simon Long from Suffolk Assistant Referee 2 – Matthew Wilkes from the West Midlands Fourth Official – Mike Dean age 49 …
Read More “Arsenal v Newcastle 16 Dec 2017 – The Match Officials. Expect 2 wrong major decisions.”
By Bulldog Drummond Now here’s a quaint idea: a match at Arsenal on a saturday at 3pm. How weird. But us supporters like to take advantage of the new so we’ve got a little get together of the London, Northants and Antwerp branches of Untold for the game which will be rather nice. But what …
Read More “Arsenal v Newcastle: the data predicts 2-1 or maybe 3-1 home win.”
