One weight, two measures: double standards on the field.

by Don McMahon The above expression is a direct translation from a local French expression (I bet Walter knows it and maybe has a similar one in Flemish as well) and it basically means that a double-standard is being applied to some decision or judgement or use of tools that need to be encouraged. In …

Arsenal’s tactical revolution slowly comes to fruition

by Tony Attwood Last season Aaron Ramsey scored 16 goals in all competitions.  Which is a fairly decent total – until you remember that he only played 35 games, when it suddenly becomes a very good total.  It is almost one in two.  In the league it was 10 goals in 23 – again approaching …

Untold Ref Review: Everton/Arsenal. What is an advantage, and what’s wrong with assistant Garratt?

By Walter Broeckx Referee : Kevin Friend Date 23/08/2014 At the start of this match it seemed that the ref got an easy game. No real fouls. I think he fell asleep after some 10 minutes and then when he had to act he lost his touch somehow. There was hardly a foul being committed …

Oh football: from England’s emails to Russia’s occupation, it’s in a mess

By Tony Attwood Sometimes I say naughty things, like calling a player sold by Liverpool to Barcelona a vampire.  Its terrible.  People write in and complain. Never mind this is the “greatest league in the world,” so it will survive, and quite probably so will Untold. And yes, Mr Mackay said awful things, but you know …

Everton in August; what a thought! Bulldog’s match preview

By Bulldog Drummond. I was taking a stroll to my club yesterday when a fella-me-lad comes up and says hey ain’t you that Bulldog Drummond what writes review for the Times Literary Supplement and I said well young urchin yes that’s right.  And he hit me.  I picked myself up and asked him why and …

Why we don’t sign every player some think we need

By Tony Attwood Of course, whether we need more players or not is a matter for debate.  I look at Giroud’s 40 goals for Arsenal and think that signing up a new player to replace him would be silly, given that it takes players a year or so to bed in – especially if they …

Why newspapers follow TV in not reporting time wasting

By Tony Attwood Ever since the opening match of the season in which I pointed out that, what to me seemed the biggest problem with the game, (the persistent time wasting) was not picked up either by TV or by the press, I have been wondering why. I can see why the TV directors don’t …

Everton v Arsenal 23 August 2014 – The Match Officials

Everton v Arsenal 23 August 2014 – The Match Officials By Andrew Crawshaw   Referee – Kevin Friend Assistants – A Garratt & M McDonough Fourth Official – M Oliver Kevin Friend was born in 1971.  His home county FA is Leicester and Rutland.  He started refereeing as a 14 year old in local football …

Forget home advantage, the world of football is changing.

By Tony Attwood Football matches are a matter of tactics, psychology and ability.  In the novel by Robert Rankin, “Knees up mother earth” Brentford Utd beat Arsenal in the FA Cup by playing a bunch of circus performers instead of trained footballers in their team.  That’s psychology – although not of this world. In effect …

Arsenal and Turkey: the aftermath news

By Bulldog Drummond There are, surrounding Arsenal today, quite a number of civilians who acknowledge only three concepts – one they are (by their own claims at least) Arsenal supporters, two that Arsenal are rubbish and three if only they were allowed to manage the club, by the appliance of common sense and quite possibly …

Warning: get to the life boats, woman and children first

By Walter Broeckx Yes it’s over. What is over? The season. Why do I know this? Ah because the experts told me so. Which experts? Ah the self declared experts on twitter and facebook and even on Untold they can be seen. This is where we stand today. And tomorrow. The season is over because …

Avoiding Those Big Embarrassing (Away) Losses

Avoiding Those Big Embarrassing (Away) Losses By Bootoomee   Arsenal’s losses in the premier league for 2013/14 season: Arsenal 1 – 3 Aston Villa Manchster City 6 – 3 Arsenal Liverpool 5 – 1 Arsenal Chelsea 6 – 0 Arsenal Everton 3 – 0 Arsenal Manchester United 1 – 0 Arsenal Stoke City 1 – …

Besiktas – Arsenal an entertaining 0-0

By Walter Broeckx If we compare this match with the one on Saturday it is almost unbelievable that the final score was 0-0. From the first second and you can take this literally: it was an open match. Ba trying to shoot directly at goal from the kick off and if it wasn’t for an …

Beşiktaş JK preview: the media’s universal desire to moan and the issue of accents

By Bulldog Drummond Success and achievement are boring – at least if you are a journalist.  If you have to write about success then personalise it, and make the person you write about be eccentric, self-centred, opinionated and if possible abusive. But most of all follow failure – especially if it involves someone who is …

Why don’t the refs call “obvious” penalties?

WHY DON’T THE REFS CALL ¨OBVIOUS¨ PENALTIES?   By Don McMahon While watching the Arsenal struggle to dominate Crystal Palace on Saturday, there were at least 2-3 incidents against Arsenal players where many supporters claimed we should have had a penalty awarded.  Having officiated for many years and been the target of such complaints from both …