Norwich v Arsenal 29 November 2015 – The Match Officials

Norwich v Arsenal 29 November 2015 – The Match Officials by Andrew Crawshaw One new referee reviews to add in to the Table of Shame which now looks like this :- Wrong Important Decisions Favouring Arsenal Favouring Opponents 2nd Yellow Cards 0 14 Red Cards 0 7 Penalties 1 11 Goals 0 4 Total 1 …

When opinion is formed without evidence it can get screamingly side-splittingly funny

By Tony Attwood On Thursday 26 November the sports editor of the Guardian ordered his staff out of the pub and told them to write articles under the heading Premier League: the race for the title (and Europe) A thrillingly open Premier League season has left more than half the teams chasing big prizes. We …

A big stick to beat our dead horse with

……….Don McMahon “The big sticks they carry are in reality tiny twigs and the dead horse they try and beat is, in actual fact, a magnificent stallion that is beginning to kick their collective arses and will rise above them all come May.”   Arsenal are now in a crisis of sorts, having lost to …

Who would you chose to be in your team? Irrespective of the fact that they are not available

. MY  EXTREME   FANTASY  FOOTBALL TEAM . . From  The Brickfields Gunners  Blog . . Do you remember that  great old  football  ad from Nike where the devil ‘s team took on the stars of world football? No?   Here quickly watch it and get up to speed.  ‘After Chelsea’s poor start to the …

REF REVIEW BAYERN MUNICH – ARSENAL

By Usama & Walter BAYERN MUNICH vs. ARSENAL COMPETITION: UEFA Champions League MATCH NO. 4 DATE: 4th November 2015 VENUE: Allianz-Arena (Munich, Germany) MATCH OFFICIALS: REFEREE: Gianluca Rocchi (Italy) 1st LINESMAN: Elenito Di Liberatore (Italy) 2nd LINESMAN: Mauro Tonolini (Italy) 4th OFFICIAL: Andrea Padovan (Italy) First Half Fouls, Advantages, Cards, and Penalties Time Foul by …

Northampton and Leeds in a mess; using taxpayers money, the role of the local MP; the hopelessness of the League.

by Tony Attwood Why is it that football clubs make such easy pickings for criminals?  We’ve often noted clubs from Portsmouth to Rangers and the way they have been destroyed from within and you might wonder if the Football League and Scottish League shouldn’t by now be alert to the tricks that crooks play within …

Which is the dirtiest team in the Premier League, who are the dirtiest players?

By Tony Attwood Following my occasional jaunts around statistics in terms of how well expensive players do when they are brought into a team, and how many players are injured, I thought it might be interesting to look at the team committing the most fouls in the Premier League. I’m interested in this because my …

Ref Review : WBA – Arsenal

By Usama & Walter WEST BROMWICH ALBION vs. ARSENAL COMPETITION: English Premier League MATCH NO. 13 DATE: 21st November 2015 VENUE: The Hawthorns (West Bromwich, England) MATCH OFFICIALS: REFEREE: Mark Clattenburg 1st LINESMAN: Simon Beck 2nd LINESMAN: Jake Collin 4th OFFICIAL: Stuart Attwell First Half Fouls, Advantages, Cards, and Penalties Time Foul by Foul For …

The strange story of how “Wenger confirms Arsenal have found emergency replacement for Coquelin”

By Sir Hardly Anyone. This is a story from the Daily Football Blog, which is identical in style, design, format and attitude, to the Football Columnist blog which is identical in style, design, format and attitude to Gooners Den, which is … (ok you get the idea) The headline as they present the story is… …

Looking back at some individual players’ performances

By Walter Broeckx When looking back at the Zagreb match the only thing I can say is that it sure had a few moments of utter brilliance in it. And even a few of those moments  not even resulted in a goal in fact.  And we had a few top class performers all over the …

I’m afraid it is an injury crisis now

Tim Charlesworth   In the last few weeks, I have been desperately trying to persuade myself that we are not in an injury crisis.  A genuine injury crisis is the sort of thing that destroys title challenges.  A few minor muscular injuries are not a disaster.  Over a season, you are bound to get a …

Arsenal v Zagreb, the world turned upside down.

By Tony Attwood Arsenal have a mega injury crisis.  We know that because it is in all the papers.   But the Daily Mail today publishes a piece bemoaning the fate of poor Joel Campbell who, Adam Shergold writes, “produced one of his best performances in the red shirt as the Gunners won handsomely by …

Match report: Arsenal – Dinamo Zagreb 3-0

By Walter Broeckx Arsenal has made a few changes for this match. In the place of the injured Coquelin came Flamini. And Joel Campbell started in the place of Gibbs. On the bench for the first time in a month we find Aaron Ramsey who was back in full training since this week. Also on …

Arsenal play a team whose player failed a drug test. So what is Uefa’s reaction?

By Tony Attwood Arsène Wenger has revealed that the response of Uefa to his criticism of the way they handle doping has been to send 10 anti-doping officers to Arsenal’s training ground last Friday to carry out random checks on his players. And who would expect otherwise?  Target Zagreb?  Ask why Olympiacos F.C. are still …

Arsenal v Dinamo Zagreb; there are matters lurking beneath

This preview is respectfully dedicated to the memory of Adam Brogden by Joe Let’s start with a rather bizarre story about continuity. Or lack of it. You see, nobody knows for sure how old GNK (“GNK” stands for “Građanski nogometni klub” or “Bourgeois football club“) Dinamo Zagreb actually is. If you take the current official story …

A typical week in the life of an Arsenal scout

By Danny Karbassiyoon Danny Karbassiyoon is an ex-Arsenal player who went on to become Arsenal’s scout in North and Central America.   Danny’s autobiography, Danny Karbassiyoon – what’s it like? will be published by Untold Arsenal in the next couple of months. Before receiving a phone call from Arsenal’s Chief Scout with an offer to join …

There has to be some good news somewhere. Ah, here it is

By Tony Attwood Of course defeats get me down.  They always have, ever since I was a child supporting a very weak Arsenal team indeed. But I learned, as I moved out of childhood, that you can’t let these things get at you.   I can’t do anything about Arsenal’s performance; indeed I’m not sure …

WBA – Arsenal 2-1, an unfortunate slip

By Walter Broeckx Arsenal made a few changes both in personal and in line up for this match. Bellerin came back in at right back in the place of Debuchy and also Kieran Gibbs came in but not in the place of Monreal but in the place of Campbell. Gibbs played at the left flank …

Oh no, it’s Pulis away. Push-knock-kick-shove-foul-push-kick-shove.

By Bulldog Drummond. . So we go into this game with quite a record.   Top of the ratings according to WhoScored.com R Team Shots pg Discipline Possession% PassSuccess% Rating 1 Arsenal 16.1 682 55.7 83.8 7.15 2 Manchester City 17.6 772 57.0 84.6 7.07 3 Chelsea 14.8 734 54.1 83.2 7.06 4 Manchester United …

WBA v Arsenal 21 November 2015 – The Match Officials. Beware the assistant refs!

West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal Saturday 21 November 2015 – The Match Officials by Andrew Crawshaw   First here is the updated Table of Shame following the referee reviews of the Everton and Swansea games Referee Review: Arsenal – Everton : the dead sparrow review Lee Mason in charge for this one.  58% overall weighted …

Ah finally back to football: not everyone is back but there is some good news.

By Walter Broeckx After the boring interlul matches we finally can have something to look forward too.  Arsenal players have flown in from all over the world and we have a match to play on Saturday. Alas, what I had hoped for hasn’t materialised. I had hoped for a return of Ramsey and The Ox …

The governance of Arsenal. How hard can it be?

by Tony Attwood Remember Portsmouth FC?  Won the FA Cup in 2008, and were runners up in 2010.   Went through a lot of owners with their own unique brand of governance.  Now playing in the fourth division, after a seemingly endless series of owners did the dirty on the club.  Oh and there was …