Twenty-five years ago, before transfer windows were invented, Alan Smith signed for Arsenal from Leicester then was immediately loaned back to them to try and save them from relegation. As it happened we then had to play them, and this piece from the Easter Monday programme on April 20, 1987, has Smudger telling us how…

There’s something slightly odd about Roberto Di Matteo’s head. His eyes are too far up. They should be more in the middle. Like this: Though there is a slightly unfortunate resemblance to Graham Norton.

“Arsenal are the club I supported as a lad and I have many happy memories,” said Harry Redknapp as he visited Highbury on October27, 1987, for a Littlewoods Cup tie as manager of Bournemouth. “You always have a feeling you can beat the Tottenhams and the West Hams but Arsenal have a little bit more…

As we all know, Chelsea are now the biggest club in London, as evidenced by their long and glorious history, stretching back almost a full decade, and their list of titles that is as long as Sheffield Wednesday’s and nearly half as long as Everton’s. And their position as England’s first franchise club, formed to…

Alisher Umanov, the world’s 28th richest man according to Forbes, richer than anyone else in either Britain or Russia, has a few Arsenal shares – but how many? According to Arsenal’s website, as at 13 April, the answer is 18,455, or 29.66% of those issued. And according to the Plus Markets website, no Arsenal shares…

I’ve never liked Mark Hughes. He’s annoying because he doesn’t seem to realise what an unpleasant character he is. This is what I wrote about him in my new (at the time) Anger Management column in The Gooner, back in 2007, when he was attempting to manage Blackburn: Mark Hughes, Bad News Others may comment…

Most of the people who have commented on my recent statistics blog post, both here and on Twitter, seemed to agree with it, though there were a few dissenters. Some have pointed out that Arsène Wenger himself is a big fan of stats, so how dare I criticise them, and by implication him. Others say…

If Man City win their next home league match (v Sunderland on 31/3) they will equal the English top flight record of 21 successive home wins, set in 1972 by Liverpool. (Liverpool didn’t win the league in ’72, but they did in ’73. Maybe next year, eh City?) This to me is a good stat,…

The movie version of Spurs’ season: @AngryOfN5

Hæ! Icelanders, according to my site stats, you are consistently the third most avid readers of this blog, behind only the UK and US, and a long way in front of everyone else. The population of Iceland is very small, so maybe the stats are rubbish and WordPress lies like a rug. But if you’re…