Ref Review : Manchester City – Arsenal: A master class performance!

Ref for this match was Mike Dean I know on a lot of occasions people say that our referee reviews are all about sour grapes. So how do we judge the ref in a match when for the first time in 12 centuries (more or less) we beat a top 4 club at their home …

Barcelona guilty. Now Real Mad?

By Tony Attwood Ever since Barcelona were caught out for their child trafficking activities some people have been poking around Real Madrid to ask if they have been doing the same thing. It hardly makes a news story that they have said no. But Real Mad has also recognised that Fifa has asked the Spanish …

The transfer window deadline has been pre-recorded

By Tony Attwood Maybe I blinked and missed it, or maybe its all been called off because of a dodgy medical, but the big Arsenal transfer, seems to have stopped. Instead we have… Arsenal transfer news and rumours: Real Madrid to sell Karim Benzema to Arsenal to fund Raheem Sterling move That’s the big news. …

Define ‘lackadaisical’. Define “Tottenham H”

By Tony Attwood OK I know the story has got around a bit and I am very much not the first to find it, but hacking with humour does still amuse me – although not necessarily when I have to try and clear up the mess. So the story is this Go to www.Google.co.uk In …

REF REVIEW Southampton – Arsenal

Ref for this match was Craig Pawson A ref we haven’t got many numbers on so it is always difficult to draw conclusions. What I did noticed is that he is not looking good at hidden kicks on the Achilles. Alderweireld did this a few times and each time it escaped the ref’s attention. This …

Gabriel Paulista: he has the work permit, and the medical should be done by now.

By Tony (some of this might be right but dont bank on it) Attwood Well, you know, I’m sure, but just in case not… Mr Wenger had the deal all set vis a vis the work permit and Gabriel Paulista will be granted a permit to work in the UK.   Now he just needs …

The romance of the FA cup: a day on the internet and on TV

By Walter Broeckx For most of us living outside England the first time we saw English football was in the FA cup final at Wembley. In my country we had the luck to having the leading football commentator not just being an excellent footballer in his days but also he loved England and English football. And …

FA CUP : Brighton – Arsenal 2-3 Arsenal march on in the FA cup

By Walter Broeckx So Arsène Wenger made a lot of changes to the side that beat Manchester City last Sunday. The starting line up was Szczesny, Chambers, Koscielny, Monreal, Gibbs, Flamini, Walcott, Ramsey, Ozil, Rosicky, Giroud On the beach : Martinez, Mertesacker, Bellerin, Coquelin, Cazorla, Alexis, Akpom. Szczesny came in for Ospina. Mertesacker and Bellerin …

Brighton v Arsenal, played at Falmer (near the sea)

  150 word match preview to be published with the above code; Welcome to the FA Cup fourth round clash between Arsenal and Brighton at the Amex Stadium, brought to you by Arsenal’s Official Car And Van Rental Partner Europcar. The Gunners take part in another stand-out clash in this season’s FA Cup, this time …

Arsenal: “You need more than a masters to play against them.”

By Bulldog Drummond “Oh please let us be the exception” Cup cock ups can occur anytime and bring down anyone.  Herbert Chapman knew that with the defeat to Walsall (his last ever FA Cup match incidentally), after which he immediately transferred out of the club the players he felt were responsible. Managers don’t do that …

FA to stop obesity, help children, build pitches and do sensible things. Err….

By Tony Attwood It’s FA Cup weekend in case you didn’t notice, so I had planned to run this final article before the preview of the Brighton Cup match, on the subject of the FA. And I am staying with that – but with the addition of a few results. Chelsea 2 Bradford City 4. …

How broadcasters always screw up by ignoring what football means to the fans

By Tony Attwood OK, if you are not a viewer of English TV or don’t listen to English radio you might not know who Adrian Chiles is, and this article mentions him a lot.  But stay with me, because this is not just about one TV presenter who has been sacked, but about almost all …

Why Arsenal have so many injuries: the complete analysis

By Tony Attwood. On 23 January Danny Higginbotham wrote an article in the Independent newspaper in which he said: I still can’t quite believe what I saw when Jan Vertonghen, of Tottenham Hotspur, was ruled offside for scoring against Sunderland last week, when he had received the ball five or six yards inside his own …

The PGMO v Arsenal – the half time report. How are the refs doing?

by Andrew Crawshaw In the last two articles we have looked at the  matches played so far this season by Arsenal.  In case you missed them you can see the articles here: Part 1 Part 2 Now we pull all these figures together Summary The Good – Mike Jones (Aston Villa v Arsenal) 82% overall …

The fixing of top football matches: how it works and why it is not reported

By Tony Attwood There are two prime ways in which top football matches are fixed. One is the gambling model where people bribe players or refs to fix a game in a particular way, and bet on the outcome. The other is a much more complex system and is often known as Calciopoli after the Italian …

The curious case of an ARSENAL selfie.

ARSENAL 13.   After the ManCity victory Rambo tweets a pic of himself, Giroud, Ox and Per-fect Mertesacker. This was followed by Alexis Selfie or whatever they call it, which sends Liverpool legend into a rantorgasm. He sure loves that, doesn’t he. Understandable he is annoyed seeing ARSENAL win, but this outburst wasn’t necessary. Though …

FA Youth Cup Fourth Round: the match report

FA Youth Cup Fourth Round  Arsenal v Royston Town (2 – 1) Wednesday 21 January   Match Report by Andrew Crawshaw   Royston is a small town bordering Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire population 16,000 approx.  Their Football team are known as the Crows and play non-league football in the Southern League Division One Central.  The club …

Switzerland take a greater interest in Fifa – at last

By Tony Attwood As you may have seen, I’ve taken quite an interest in the Barcelona child trafficking case since Fifa first ruled on it. In one of my comments however I suggested that although Fifa had very much done the right thing in the cases against Barcelona and the Spanish FA, we couldn’t be …

For once, an Untold prediction is right: 6.5 years of Francis Coquelin

By Tony Attwood Francis Coquelin’s agent is now negotiating a new deal for the player at Arsenal, what with his contract running out at the end of the season. Meanwhile the story of Coquelin runs in two different ways depending on whose version you read.  Either Arsenal stumbled from crisis to crisis plucking players here …

The PGMO v Arsenal: the half time report part

This continues our series of articles reviewing the way referees have affected Arsenal games.  Part one of the review is here. The PGMO v Arsenal – the Half Time Report by Andrew Crawshaw This is a series of articles that review the first 19 weeks of the season, who were the referees, were they Good, …

He’s not fit to…

NOT FIT TO……..Domhnal MacMagthamhna The subject of this article is, of course, all our useless deadwood and second rate management that, season-in,season-out, fail to achieve the lofty summits of the Invincibles and who, to boot, are lazy, overpaid and slothful regardless of actual reality. I wanted to review some of these lesser beings in the …

Coquelin comes of age, Santi comes in from the cold.

By Walter Broeckx Usually you get my match report shortly after the match. But this time I couldn’t do this. So it is about more than the match as the match details have been talked over and over again I think.  As you may know I am the president of the Arsenal Belgium supporters club …