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 Ten years ago we knew where we were. Refs made mistakes, but it didn’t matter because it all evened out in the end. Five years ago we knew that referees made mistakes and it most certainly didn’t even out in the end – but no one would talk about it, except us. …
Read More “The world of refereeing utterly and totally shattered”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal is not a top European team. That’s the official word. And yet year on year we get into the last 16, and sometimes the last eight of the Champions League. For the three years from 2008 to 2010 we got to the quarter and semi-finals. Which is more than quite a …
Read More “Just how good is this Arsenal team compared to top clubs in Europe?”
By Tony Attwood If you are a regular reader you will know that about once every couple of weeks I point out that the reason England don’t win tournaments is nothing to do with quotas and the number of youngsters in the Premier League, but instead to do with the coaching. Then, because modesty is …
Read More “What did Arsenal do to bring about this turnaround?”
By Tony Attwood Having played in a reserve team friendly last week, they were out at it again last night, the old guard. Jack Wilshere, Mikel Arteta, Abou Diaby, and less we forget the youngsters, Serge Gnabry. All playing for the under 21s (in which the rules are that you can have three over 21s …
By Bootoomee There is nothing new about the media being negatively biased against Arsenal in their reporting of everything that the club does. If we perform well, we get reluctant praise through gritted teeth, with compulsory caveat about us slipping soon. If we fail to win, especially from a winning position, it is always reported …
Read More “The 2014/15 Season’s 4th Place ‘Trophy’ Battle & The Media Hypocrisy”
Ref for this match was Andre Marinner Well this was turning out one of the most boring referee reviews ever in the first half of this match. Marinner missed a foul from Coquelin early in the match and should have given a foul to Everton…and that was it for errors in the first half. Take …
Read More “Ref Review : Arsenal – Everton: a first half to cherish.”
By Tony Attwood Alexis Sánchez has been involved in 31 goals for us this season. 20 goals 11 assists. Mind you, the way he plays I wouldn’t be surprised if he assisted with his own goals sometimes. Still, not bad for a debut season. And Özil is showing us what he can do. He can score …
Read More “Arsenal about to sign wonderkid Maxi Romero, Cabaye, Wimmer, Khedira, Smalling…”
By Walter Broeckx This article is published on 6th April (unless you are in Australia in which case it is probably 7th April – or in the Pacific and it is still the 5th). But wherever you are we are at or coming up to or have just had the two month anniversary of the …
Read More “Why it is always important to look further than the last result”
By Tony Attwood As you may know apart from publishing Untold, I’m also responsible for the History of Arsenal website. Aside from the regular articles about past events and players, and the occasional in depth analyses (for example into Arsenal’s involvement in the changes to the transfer rules and the interesting allegations about the re-arrangement …
Read More “Another Arsenal record broken… looking back at the history of sequences”
Since I posted this article an hour back there have been a couple of comments from Liverpool fans taking issue with what is here. That of course is fine, but I would urge first time visitors to take a look at all the comments here and indeed the home page of this site first. It …
Read More “What do you think they’re smoking over there at Anfield?”
By Walter Broeckx A few changes compared to the last match against Newcastle that seems an eternity away. Per Mertesacker returns to the team and Hector Bellerin comes in at right back and Chambers joins Gabriel on the bench. More upfront Özil comes back in the team and Welbeck who was a doubt goes to …
Read More “Arsenal – Liverpool 4-1 another fine win in our run”
By Bulldog Drummond So, Arsène Wenger has been named Barclays manager of the month and Olivier Giroud player of the month. Which is normally the kiss of death. Liverpool to win 8-0 then. Actually the Arsenal History Society (housed in the same offices as Untold Arsenal) were recently doing some research into Arsenal’s biggest home league …
Read More “Arsenal v Liverpool: the award, the teams, the sequences.”
By Tony Attwood . “Liverpool is one of the superpowers of football,” said their manager this week. Is that true? . Most certainly they have a history to be envied. Between 1977 and 1990 they won the Football League nine times – having done what Arsenal wanted to do after our European and Double exploits …
Read More “Arsenal v Liverpool: “Liverpool is one of the superpowers of football””
Arsenal v Liverpool 4 April 2015 – The Match Officials by Andrew Crawshaw Here is the updated “Table of Shame” following Walter’s three recent referee reviews :- Kevin Friend Ref Review : QPR – Arsenal – another sub 70% showing with two wrong Important Decisions (second yellow, red cards, penalties and goals) where at the …
Read More “Arsenal v Liverpool: the referee preview. Be afraid, be very afraid.”
By Walter Broeckx I don’t know why but this international break in the football season seemed to take longer than ever before. I really couldn’t be bothered about the results of any team to be honest. Football organised by crooks just isn’t my thing. The only thing that I did worry about was the well …
By Tony Attwood The Whoscored website is one of those that can be a bit confusing – in that it pours out stats, puts players in different colours, and then expects you do know what it all means. I must be rather slow because I don’t quite get it all. But they do produce a …
Read More “Arsenal’s best players this season: statistics and where they go wrong”
Ref in this match was Chris Foy for 59 minutes and Anthony Taylor for the rest. Because of this interruption we have two ref reviews in one article and I will also add the final score of the two refs and call this the PGMO score for this match. CHRIS FOY What a way to …
Read More “Ref Review(s) : Arsenal – West Ham, two for the price of one”
By Tony Attwood What matters to you? A strong, exciting Premier League in which Arsenal play, or a strong England team that challenges for the World Cup? I’ve always been in the former camp, and let the FA that runs the England team just get on with their pathetically muddled way, mostly commenting only when …
Read More “If you care about the Premier League, it’s time to be very afraid”
By Tony Attwood I tried my best with a silly April Fools gag today, and then looked around at what the rest of the world was doing in terms of April Fools in football. (I should explain it is a day when one is supposed to tell stories that are really silly but are dressed …
Read More “Spotting the April Fools – sometimes it is hard to tell”
Ref for this match was Mark Clattenburg A bad start for the assistant when he ruled Özil offside when he was clearly not. Özil scored but we don’t know really if this was because of the CP defender stopping after the whistle or not. So will not take the goal decision as a wrong itself. …
The intensity of the battle between Real Madrid and Barcelona to find the very best youngsters and nurture them in their academies can never be underestimated. And for those of us who thought that the depths that Barcelona had sunk to with the importation of children from outside the EU without their parents, in violation …
Read More “Spanish clubs exposed as involved in “artificial footballers” project”
By Tony Attwood The cynics have written him off time and time again. Indeed the ever gloomy Daily Telegraph wrote on 22 January 2015: Abou Diaby looks to have played last game. And it needed some faith to think he could return after so many injuries. The Daily Mail had told us on 5 December …
Read More “Diaby returns along with Arteta, Wilshere and Debuchy”
By Tony Attwood And so back to Rangers, with my normal caveat that I am writing from a long way south of the border, and simply observing from far away. But as with all the articles before, I think the observations are worthwhile, not least as a warning to us all as to what can …
Read More “Beware men bearing gifts (and men who refuse to give you info)”
By Walter Broeckx This has to stop. Somewhere, someone, anyone but this has to come to an end. What? Those stupid, meaningless, irrelevant, international fixtures in the middle of the money time of the regular football season. What good is it that players now have to leave their natural environment and go to play far …
By Tony Attwood (and a calculator) It must have been pretty quiet at Arsenal these last few days as no less than 23 players were away on international “duty”. I’m not sure if this is an all time record but it must be close to the highest number ever. Here’s the details. 1: Chuba Akpom …
Read More “23 Arsenal players on international “duty”. Was this a record?”
