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 Bulldog Drummond As we approach tonight’s game against Chelsea there are many correspondents talking as if the whole of Arsenal is a disaster, and suggesting that the management should be changed along with most of the players. It is interesting that this is primarily the result of three games – which is exactly what …
Read More “Have Arsenal improved or declined in relation to last season?”
By Bulldog Drummond We had quite a debate recently after a reader tried to convince us all that the analysis of tackles, fouls and yellow cards was pointless when “everybody knows cards are a product of quality and not quantity of fouls.” Actually, not everyone knew this, simply because it is completely untrue, as the …
Read More “Chelsea v Arsenal: Tackles, fouls and yellow cards”
By Bulldog Drummond The home and away figures of Arsenal and Chelsea return us to a sense of reality after the wild assertions that Refs give yellow cards because of the quality of the fouls committed which according to our correspondent “everyone knows” but which the figures show is completely untrue. Pos Team P W …
Read More “Chelsea v Arsenal: a ray of hope in the recent home and away figures”
By Tony Attwood La Liga president Javier Tebas, president of La Liga, got rather annoyed with the Super League clubs accusing them of “lying more than Putin.” This was just about the time Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli told an audience at the Financial Times’ “Business of Football Summit” in London last month. “Twelve clubs signed …
Read More “The Super League is still alive and kicking and here’s why”
By Tony Attwood The correspondent known as “Ukp” recently wrote to Untold, commenting on our use of the “tackle/foul/card stats” noting that this is “where you analyse numbers of fouls Vs number of cards and deduce ref bias, when everybody knows cards are a product of quality and not quantity of fouls.” I am not …
Read More “Do refs give yellow cards because of the quality or quantity of the fouls committed?”
What happened to the 134 players said to be coming to Arsenal last summer? Last summer the journalists’ failure rate in predicting transfers was 96%. And what made this even more staggering than the size of that number is that this was their most successful window since we started tracking transfer rumours around ten years …
Read More “The 58 players Arsenal tipped to sign this summer with over 130 days to go”
By Tony Attwood They are pretty much pariahs around the world – Russian athletes and teams are banned from participating in any form of world sport, as a protest against the invasion of Ukraine. Except in football, where Russian officials are still welcomed with open arms. So when the Fifa Congress opened in Qatar, there …
Read More “If Fifa won’t ban Russian officials from its gatherings, we should get out of Fifa”
By Tony Attwood Reading the game: why do journalists always know more than managers? Obviously, we all want Arsenal to improve. Probably the only time no one talked about improvement was after the Unbeaten Season. But the rest of the time we want each season to be better. And the media tells us day after …
Read More “For some Arsenal fans improvement isn’t enough; but this is not the time to change again”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal: another defeat. What has gone so wrong after last year’s triumph? Arsenal are of course not the only team that has had an upset of late. Bayern Munich were knocked out of the Champions League by Villareal managed by… well since you ask, Unai Emery, so recently removed from Arsenal. Now …
Read More “Reading the game: why do journalists always know more than managers?”
By Tony Attwood Nitram’s comments after the game yesterday told us a lot of what has gone wrong. He quoted the average statistics from our last 3 matches: Arsenal Possession = 70% Opponent Possession = 30% Arsenal Shots = 55 Opponent Shots = 23 Arsenal Shots On Target = 13 Opponent Shots On Target = …
Read More “Arsenal: another defeat. What has gone so wrong after last year’s triumph?”
By Bulldog Drummond Update: Tottenham lost at home to Brighton. Top of the table now reads… Team P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Manchester City 31 23 5 3 72 20 52 74 2 Liverpool 31 22 7 2 79 22 57 73 3 Chelsea 30 18 8 4 64 23 41 …
Read More “Southampton v Arsenal: the sequences and the Arsenal team”
By Bulldog Drummond Arsenal’s salvation: After 30 games we always improve The Guardian has come out with one of its famous statements: “if Arsenal show up and play with an ounce of positivity then Ralph Hasenhüttl’s usual forward-thinking approach should allow for plenty of chances. Chances have so often gone unfinished this season, however.” So …
Read More “Arsenal and the “big chances” myth ahead of the Southampton game”
By Bulldog Drummond Southampton v Arsenal: how the refs treat each team, how the managers have done Arsenal’s salvation: After 30 games we always improve The continuing strange tale of how PL referees punish tackles There has been some commentary concerning the injury list and how we are being decimated by injuries. We are in …
By Bulldog Drummond As we saw yesterday there are huge variations in the ways that referees treat different teams in the Premier League when it comes to tackles, fouls and yellow cards. Now it is time to focus just on this weekend’s opponents, Southampton, and their differences from Arsenal. Those differences are modest but are …
Read More “Southampton v Arsenal: how the refs treat each team, how the managers have done”
By Bulldog Drummond The continuing strange tale of how PL referees punish tackles Why do rich men want to buy football clubs? It has taken us four years of mucking about with managers to get us back to the position where we were in 2017 – the penultimate season of the Wenger years. 30 games …
Read More “Arsenal’s salvation: After 30 games we always improve”
By Bulldog Drummond We have often noted the great change that came over Arsenal last season as the club worked to eliminate tackles from their playing style. And in fact this has worked as Arsenal are now 19th in the tackles league for the Premier League this season; only Manchester City undertake fewer tackles. …
Read More “The continuing strange tale of how PL referees punish tackles”
By Tony Attwood Corruption in football; the story spreads: Juve boss threatened with prison Changes to the financial controls of clubs in Europe looked doomed to failure In one sense it seems a crazy thing to do – to buy a big football club where the fans have expectations of success. After all most clubs …
PREVIOUSLY: Changes to the financial controls of clubs in Europe looked doomed to failure By Tony Attwood The argument that I am trying to make is that there is a huge amount going on in football which is beneath the surface and is not being covered by the English media because journalists are afraid that …
Read More “Corruption in football; the story spreads: Juve boss threatened with prison”
8 more players coming to Arsenal making total of 52 incoming players this summer By Tony Attwood It is always interesting to see the treatment that clubs and their managers are given by the media. Unai Emery, while at Arsenal was portrayed as inept, and lacking in insight but now he is seen as …
Read More “Changes to the financial controls of clubs in Europe looked doomed to failure”
By Tony Attwood Football journalists can be called many things including lazy and bonkers, but little of their daily activity is quite so bizarre as the range of players that they cite each season as coming to Arsenal in the summer. Normally the number reaches over 100, and generally about two of those tipped actually …
Read More “8 more players coming to Arsenal making total of 52 incoming players this summer”
By Tony Attwood One of the great problems of football and the way it is covered by the media is that the notion that underneath it all there is wholesale rule-breaking, not to say corruption, is either not considered at all, or is considered just in passing, and not with any serious thought. (One of …
Read More “Further allegations of Manchester City corruption emerge in Europe”
By Tony Attwood There is no end to the knocking of Arsenal that the media will do and certainly no end to the abuse and misuse of statistics (including simply making them up) that they will indulge in. Consider for a moment, if you have the time, the headline from the Mirror which reads “Arsenal …
Read More “There is no end to the way the media will manipulate Arsenal’s position”
Fifa considers changing football rules again: as ever it is to enhance its income Are Arsenal in a Position to Hold onto Saka, Or Should They Sell to Improve the Squad? By Tony Attwood We have in the past looked at how Arsenal are doing this season compared with the same point (in terms of …
Read More “How well are Arsenal doing in Arteta’s second season, compared with previous managers?”
By Tony Attwood Recently, the notion of a biennial World Cup, supported by Fifa under the guidance of its Supreme Leader, Gianni Infantino, aroused what one might call a certain wave of opposition. Faced with this, the Italian-Swiss overseer now resident with his family in Qatar for legal reasons, said last week, “Let me be …
Read More “Fifa considers changing football rules again: as ever it is to enhance its income”
We’re breaking down Saka’s position in Arsenal and what the consequences of trading him out could be. Arsenal is currently licking its wounds from an embarrassing defeat on Monday, made worse by the fact that the game should have been a slam dunk, to mix metaphors. The game was supposed to be an easy one …
Read More “Are Arsenal in a Position to Hold onto Saka, Or Should They Sell to Improve the Squad?”
