It would be an understatement to say this season has been turbulent for Arsenal. Their Premier League title hopes have been extinguished once again by January, they suffered yet another last 16…
Tag: arsenal
THE YEAR WAS 1993. Across Britain, radio stations juggled the eclectic sounds of Meat Loaf, Haddaway, Pet Shop Boys, and UB40, cult comedy Groundhog Day arrived in cinemas, Irvine Welsh’s breakthrough novel…
Becoming a professional footballer aged 22, Ian Wright had to contend with numerous challenges before he went on to become a legend at Palace and Arsenal
After 21 years with Arsène Wenger at the helm, as the finish line for the 2016-17 Premier League race for the title comes into sight and the club remains well adrift of…
ON 23 FEBRUARY 2017, Russian side Krylya Sovetov faced Kazakh side Kairat Almaty in a behind closed doors friendly. Kairat won the game 1-0 thanks to a goal from Brazilian Isael Barbosa.…
Often forgotten about within the English game, Paul Mariner – though not first pick in a park game – was a complete goalscorer for over a decade at the top
HELD IN THE FELICITOUS WARMTH that blessed the afternoon of 15 May 2004, as Arsenal came from behind to defeat Leicester City 2-1 at Highbury, many thousands lined the stands of the…
IT WAS 15 FEBRUARY 2004 and Arsenal were trailing 1-0 at Highbury to Chelsea in the fifth round of the FA Cup. Adrian Mutu had put the visitor’s ahead in the first…
AFTER 66 MINUTES of the last game of the season, Dennis Bergkamp did what he’d always done. Receiving the ball from the wing, the masterful Dutchman threaded an inch-perfect ball into the box…
I can’t think of a specific watershed moment where the adulation of specific players changed into pleasant dispassion, but I know it happened. As I bled on paper for Fàbregas, Rosický, Nasri,…
TURN THE CLOCK BACK to 15 May 2004: Patrick Vieira latches on to an exquisite Dennis Bergkamp through-ball before rounding the goalkeeper and finishing in one sharp movement. The goal completed a…
Not many footballers simply fall into the habit of kicking a ball around a patch of grass for a living. It might not seem that way sometimes with play-acting, cynicism and the…
CHASING THE BALL DOWN THE LEFT FLANK, Kanu steals it from Chelsea right-back Albert Ferrer and finds himself confronted by Ed de Goey, the keeper having rushed out of goal to close…
There’s an old saying that everything that can be interpreted can also, by design, be misinterpreted. Which camp the oft-besieged figure of striker Nicolas Anelka falls into is a matter of opinion.…
Momentarily paralysed, the familiar looking man in his mid-30s had to rely on the help of strangers to get home. This wasn’t a one-off occurrence. In extreme instances, an ambulance had to…
This feature is part of The Tsars of Football ON 23 APRIL 2016, Andrey Arshavin celebrated his first goal in 18 months. These days, the Russian wizard is 35-year-old and he is…
This feature is part of The Masterminds AS THE SMOULDERING WRECKAGE morbidly illuminated the snow-drenched gloom, one flame threatened to go out altogether. A few survivors scrabbled through the shredded shards of…
MONEY BUYS QUALITY. Quality in football is, to a large extent, determined by the individual actions of a player that are measurable. Goals scored, passes completed, assists given, interceptions made; the list…