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 Walter Broeckx So we have a match coming up this week that was looked upon with great anticipation from our supporters club in Belgium when it was announced: Anderlecht. So here is our Untold take on all and everything involved in this match. Let us start with some geography. Anderlecht is one of the …
Getting very fed (Irish style) on the Holloway Road by Blacksheep This article is adapted from the Goosebarnacles report on The Quays pub, Holloway Road. This week Drew and I didn’t have a particular venue in mind for our pre-match luncheon, so we strolled down Holloway Road from Archway underground station looking hither and …
Read More “Untold: the catering report. The Quays Holloway Road”
By Tony Attwood First off, I know of course that this is the third FOOTBALL BETRAYED article in a row. I think the issue of how lazy journalists restrict analysis is important – and having decided to write about it, I’m amazed at how each day there is example after example. I don’t even have …
By Tony Attwood The piece I published this morning (Incompetence or Collusion: football betrayed) resulted in a lot of comments to Untold that have been refused or deleted or edited, mostly because they were off topic. This was frustrating because the essence of that article was that journalists, through their laziness, talk about the same …
Read More “Football betrayed: it’s a numbers game – unless you cheat”
By Tony Attwood There is quite a difference between football journalism and (for example) political or financial journalism, for football journalism rarely asks “why?” And even less rarely does it do any sort of analysis of the “why”? There is little questioning of why something happened, why something else is an issue, and if another …
By Walter Broeckx Arsenal started really well in the opening 10 minutes. It was one way stuff from the start. Attack after attack went in the direction of the Hull goal. As my stream was very blurry in the opening minutes I couldn’t see them all but I did think I saw some pretty good …
Read More “Referee cost us again. Well Mike how long till you do something about it?”
By Bulldog Drummond At last at last my jolly chums – a match to go and watch. Do we want to hear again that Mathieu Debuchy has an ankle and Olivier Giroud has a tibia? I say no! We have a squad, and a squad that is strong and shall see us through. Mesut Özil like …
Read More “Arsenal v Hull. Everyone is injured; there’s no point turning up.”
Arsenal v Hull 18 October 2014 – The Match Officials by Andrew Crawshaw Before I start on the referee preview here is the table of Wrong Important Decisions, updated to include both the Spurs and Chelsea games. Wrong Important Decisions Favouring Arsenal Favouring Opponents 2nd Yellow Cards 0 4 Red Cards 3 4 Penalties …
Read More “Arsenal v Hull 18 October 2014 – The Match Officials”
Welcome to the Premier League clash between Arsenal and Hull City at the Emirates Stadium, brought to you by Arsenal’s official car and van rental partner Europcar. The Gunners had remained unbeaten at the beginning of this campaign before their 2-0 loss to Chelsea in their last outing and will be hoping to bounce back …
By Walter Broeckx This article is based on an article that you can find when you click on the link a bit further. “We need to replace the quality and to do so we may need to look elsewhere,” says Keith Hackett. That was the header of an article that you could find if you …
Read More “Does Keith Hackett read Untold? How many refs, refs and Wenger, the after-match…”
By Tony Attwood It is bad enough having one set of internationals that you can lose your players to, but now there are two. The FA – the organisation so inept that it can’t even hold onto money give to it by Sports England – has decided that it is a perfectly good idea …
By Walter Broeckx “We need to replace the quality and to do so we may need to look elsewhere,” says Keith Hackett. That is the header of an article that you can find if you click on this link. Sorry for leading you to an outside website if you want to click on the link. …
Read More “Does Keith Hackett read Untold? The scandal of PL refereeing Part 1”
By Tony Attwood In recent years I’ve been at the AGM of Arsenal, but this year other commitments made it impossible – so I’ve been picking up the news feeds as we go. But please do note this is not a first hand record, and in the past I have found that what actually happened …
Referee : Martin Atkinson Match : Chelsea – Arsenal This surely is one of the most bizarre performances I have seen from a ref. It brings back memories of the days when Riley was doing matches at Old Trafford and one game in particular. And I don’t know if I have to follow …
Read More “Untold’s Unacceptable Referee Review: Chelsea – Arsenal”
By Tony Attwood The football pages of the press are full of it. It being the cost of watching Arsenal. I suggested just how false part of the Guardian reporting of season ticket prices was, in my last article. Now let’s consider the Telegraph, who say… “Arsenal are charging almost 10 times more for their …
Read More “So why can’t Arsenal be like Barcelona or Bayern?”
By Tony Attwood Even by its own uneven standards the Guardian today has exceeded itself. Under the headline “Cheapest tickets in the English game have risen by 13% since 2011” the daily paper then has a picture of the Emirates Stadium under which is the statement “Arsenal charge £97 for their top-priced match day …
By Tony Attwood The essence of refereeing in England is secrecy. Occasional statistics are given out which suggest that referees get almost every decision right all the time, but there’s nothing to back these claims up, and not much else made available. There’s no web site about the work of premier league refs, there’s no …
Read More “Every reason why referees and their associations should not be secretive”
By Walter Broeckx I remember when we talked about the book Animal Farm from George Orwell there was this great quote: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. I was wondering if this also applied to players in the PL. Are all players in the PL treated equally by the …
By Tony Attwood Arsène Wenger has apparently said that Olivier Giroud could return to the squad ahead of schedule, following his injury in the match with Everton. But supposing he does… Do we use Danny Welbeck in the number 9 slot, or Giroud, or have them alternating, or use both at once. In fact Mr …
Read More “How many centre forwards can you play in the team at once?”
By Walter Broeckx So far it hasn’t really been a good international break for Arsenal. With the news coming out of the German training camp about the injury that Özil has suffered in the match against Chelsea being the worst of course. Of course this is not an injury he got from playing for Germany, …
By Tony Attwood We all know who we signed this summer.,, Mathieu Debuchy Alexis Sanchez David Ospina Calum Chambers Danny Welbeck Not a bad haul. Some were raved over from the off, like Alexis, some had a load of manufactured abuse from make-believe supporters egged on by Sky, such as Danny Welbeck. But all turned …
Read More “Arsenal’s two old-timers who look like new transfers”
By Tony Attwood Last night I watched the TV movie Castles in the Sky. It tells the story of how radar was invented and what a huge impact it had on the ultimate victory of the allies in the second world war. It also contained a lesson for the FA and journalists alike for at …
Read More “Reforming English football: ideas, plans and theories”
By Tony Attwood In 2010 I wrote a piece that I have subsequently referred to several times, since I am rather pleased with it. It was a piece about why England do so badly at international football. The article looked at the number of players, the number of players playing in their homeland, the …
By Tony Attwood Who would you trust the most out of this group when it comes to providing facilities for children’s football and for the amateur adult game? The Football Association Local Councils Private contractors who are paid by local councils to run sports provision. The rest of us (because we are all in the …
Read More “Reforming English football: Greg Dyke wants your money”
By Tony Attwood When Robert Pirès speaks I do pay attention, just as I do when Thierry Henry says something, or indeed Dennis Bergkamp. They have played elsewhere and indeed two continue to play elsewhere, but their hearts are always at Arsenal. Wonderful players with extraordinary insights into the game, in my view, and always …
