By Tony Attwood Last season after three games the media predicted Arsenal’s total decline. In fact we ended up fifth. Which suggests that predictions made from a selected number of matches can be interesting, but need to be dealt with cautiously. Winning the opening two league games is not that common for Arsenal as we …
Read More “Last season the table after 3 games was headline news. But probably not this season”
by Sir Hardly Anyone We are still lagging behind in the number of players tipped to be coming to Arsenal last summer, which reached 134 players. If you are interested you can see what happened to them in our article from last summer. Meanwhile here are the 117 players coming to Arsenal this summer – …
Read More “117 players tipped as coming to Arsenal before the window closes”
Anniversary video index: an Arsenal video for (almost) each day of the year Arsenal Day by Day: the stories Arsenal in August: All the anniversaries day by day 100 Years: 100 Years in the First Division By Tony Attwood The more clubs tackle, the more they get away with it. The stats. Journalists may, by and large, choose to …
Read More “Why Arsenal recruited a new defence first, then a new attack”
By Tony Attwood What does the league table tell us after two games – and come to that just how far is it possible for a club to rise or fall from the second game of the season to the end of the season? A year ago, after two games West Ham United were top …
Read More “After two games we can start to make one or two judgements”
Arsenal flying, and everyone else makes the headlines! by Tony Attwood 2022/23 is only the sixth time this century that Arsenal have won their first two league matches in a season. Put another way, only in about a quarter of the seasons Arsenal have played since 2000 have they opened with two wins. The last …
Read More “Winning the opening two league games is not that common for Arsenal”
Why is the media so certain Arsenal will fail in 2022/23? By Sir Hardly Anyone Each monday, the Guardian runs a column on 10 talking points from the weekend’s action, which this monday manages to include nothing at all about Arsenal. There was, it seems no talking point. At least none concerning the club that …
Read More “Arsenal? Nothing to see here. It’s only news when they’re losing.”
Anniversary video index: an Arsenal video for (almost) each day of the year Arsenal Day by Day: the stories Arsenal in August: All the anniversaries day by day 100 Years: 100 Years in the First Division By Tony Attwood Having several hobbies makes for a full life, but means I sometimes miss all the fun. And thus it was …
Read More “Arsenal flying, and everyone else makes the headlines!”
By Sir Hardly Anyone, Curiously, for such huge questions as those posed in the headline, these are not questions that are being posed in the football media. Maybe that’s because media editors think that football is too big an industry to fail, or that supporters aren’t really interested, or that the story has been around …
Read More “Just how much debt is football in; and what happens next for SuperLeague?”
Anniversary video index: an Arsenal video for (almost) each day of the year Arsenal Day by Day: the stories Arsenal in August: All the anniversaries day by day 100 Years: 100 Years in the First Division By Tony Attwood It was noisy, upbeat, vibrant and as far as I could see, full – exactly what you want for a …
Read More “Two Arsenal players in top six scorers and a very upbeat stadium.”
By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal v Leicester: comparing the form, and the goalscorers As we await kickoff, here’s a little extra reading on the match… Last season Arsenal had several bad runs in the league. Everyone knows about the opening three league games, because for months the media focussed on little else when Arsenal were mentioned. …
Read More “Arsenal v Leicester footnote: bad runs and past games”
Anniversary video index: an Arsenal video for (almost) each day of the year Arsenal Day by Day: the stories Arsenal in August: All the anniversaries day by day 100 Years: 100 Years in the First Division By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal v Leicester: comparing the form, and the goalscorers Arsenal v Leicester: how will the ref handle Leicester’s multiple tackling? …
Read More “Arsenal v Leicester; the injuries, the team, recent games, ludicrous predictions”
Arsenal v Leicester: how will the ref handle Leicester’s mulitple tackling? By Bulldog Drummond It is quite interesting that as with previous articles that analyse Leicester’s tackling figures we do get a number of comments from apparent Leicester supporters telling us we are wrong, but not saying where the figures are wrong. Even more interesting, …
Read More “Arsenal v Leicester: comparing the form, and the goalscorers”
What sort of referee is Darren England? The statistics reveal some odd facts. By Bulldog Drummond So far this summer Leicester have bought no one and got rid of or loaned eight players, the only one of whom has brought in any money is Kasper Schmeichel who was sold for £1m to Nice. Arsenal however …
Read More “Arsenal v Leicester: how will the ref handle Leicester’s multiple tackling?”
Arsenal desperate for more players (according to reports) By Tony Attwood For this weekend’s game we have as referee Darren England, and this season we are going to try and look at each referee in turn to see what we might expect him to do. You may have seen the full list of officials in …
Read More “What sort of referee is Darren England? The statistics reveal some odd facts.”
Anniversary video index: an Arsenal video for (almost) each day of the year Arsenal Day by Day: the stories Arsenal in August: All the anniversaries day by day 100 Years: 100 Years in the First Division by Andrew Crawshaw What did we learn from Matchweek 1? 1: Granit Xhaka is still being dealt with in a different manner from …
Read More “Premier League 2022/23 – Matchweek 2 Refereeing matters”
By Tony Attwood The players Arsenal do not want hanging around (allegedly) The behaviour of Barcelona over the Frenkie de Jong affair is generally portrayed as being a one-off by a club desperate to dig itself out of the hole it has got itself into. But the lack of serious media investigation into the affair …
Read More “Are we all really sure that no other club behaves like Barcelona?”
The new Arsenal tactic: revealed against Palace in all its glory by Tony Attwood The opening day’s tackles, fouls and yellow cards table has thrown up some unexpected numbers. For a start, and as we have mentioned before, Arsenal have reversed their previous policy and gone for multiple tackling. And so as we have entered …
Read More “Arsenal’s new tactics explored in detail and what it means for the season ahead”
How the media created the myth of the gap between Arsenal and the top four By Tony Attwood There is no doubt that if you are playing at home in the premier league there are certain referees you welcome with open arms and others you think, we might as well pack up now. The home …
Read More “How the Premier League referees are biased: an analysis”
Transfers: the six sources of information feeding the media By Tony Attwood If you follow any football outside of England, you are likely to know that Barcelona are in a financial mess the likes of which football has never seen before. To keep it short, according to the European press, they have been forced to …
Read More “Barcelona’s attempt to fool the financial regulator unravels”
Anniversary video index: an Arsenal video for (almost) each day of the year Arsenal Day by Day: the stories Arsenal in August: All the anniversaries day by day 100 Years: 100 Years in the First Division After our Selhurst disaster last season, what happened, and what does this tell us? by Sir Hardly Anyone Suggesting that the victory over …
Read More “Arsenal desperate for more players (according to reports)”
By Tony Attwood 100,000 words? A million words? No one knows how many words the media has used analysing the Premier League’s opening weekend. And nowhere, at least as far as I can find, did anyone write or say anything about Arsenal’s total change of tactics on the pitch. Maybe it is because they have …
Read More “Media completely misses Arsenal’s astounding tactical change”
It’s time to clear out the deadwood: and I don’t mean the players By Tony Attwood The last time we won away from home in the opening game was 11 August 2019. That season we went through the opening 11 games with just one defeat, although three of the games were cup games. The opening …
Read More “Winning away on the opening day. What next?”
by Tony Attwood This article continues from “Arsenal open the season with a remarkable new tactic” The argument put forward in the last piece is that we are now seeing the culmination of a tactical revolution at Arsenal that began when Arteta arrived, and which in essence centres on the reduction of tackling. The point …
Read More “The new Arsenal tactic: revealed against Palace in all its glory”
by Tony Attwood Why do Crystal Palace players get fouled so often? The game against Palace yesterday evening was a staggering success for Arsenal tactically. It hasn’t been mentioned by the media, because, well, they don’t like to give plaudits to Arsenal, being far happier knocking Arsenal, although to be fair in May this year …
Read More “Arsenal open the season with a remarkable new and successful tactic”
Palace v Arsenal. How will the referee handle matters if Arsenal tackle? Here’s a quick reminder of the Arsenal first-team preparations for the new campaign. Date Opponent Location Competition Result July 2 Ipswich Town London Colney Closed-Door Friendly 5-1 July 8 FC Nurnberg Max-Morlock-Stadion Club Friendly 5-3 July 16 Everton M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, …
Read More “Palace v Arsenal: the build up, the Arsenal team. the result”
