Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ramsey, Alexis, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott
Subs: Opsina, Debuchy, Arteta, Gibbs, Campbell, Giroud, Chambers
—
Arsenal went home with three points after a 1-0 win over Newcastle at St James’ Park this afternoon.
With Mesut Ozil missing because of a knee injury, there was a recall for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain while Theo Walcott was preferred to Olivier Giroud up front. At the back Laurent Koscielny came in for Calum Chambers.
There were early warning for the home side about the Gunners pace when a lightning break in the 2nd minute should have created a chance for Oxlade-Chamberlain but Aaron Ramsey’s final pass was too heavy.
Theo Walcott was next to have a go, failing to make proper contact with an excellent Hector Bellerin pass, allowing Krul to block with his legs from close range. And the young Spaniard should have won Arsenal a penalty when he marauded into the box only to have his heel stood on by a Newcastle defender, but for some reason Andre Marriner refused to point to the spot.
Marriner wasn’t found wanting when Mitrovic raked his studs down the shin of Francis Coquelin, the referee showing the Serbian a 16th minute red card. That was followed by yellows for Thauvin and some other twat as Newcastle tried to kick Arsenal off the pitch.
The dismissal meant that the home side sat deep and some of the energy went out of the game. However, Walcott missed a glorious chance to put Arsenal ahead in the 31st minute. An Alexis shot from distance was saved but fumbled by Krul, and on the follow up the England international shinned the ball over the bar from close range when it looked easier to score.
The rest of the half consisted of Arsenal passing the ball around but without much forward drive or decisiveness, and with Newcastle happy to sit off and defend around their own penalty area it’s no wonder the sides were scoreless at the break.
The second period began with more yellow cards, Anita and Wijnaldum for Newcastle, while the crowd’s baying got Cazorla booked for an inoccuous foul in midfield.
But in the 51st minute the Gunners were ahead. First Alexis had a shot blocked on the edge of the area, then a Ramsey follow-up pile-driver was saved by Krul, before Oxlade-Chamberlain shot back across goal was deflected into the bottom corner off Coloccini. 0-1.
It was almost 2-0 but for a fantastic Krul save after Ramsey set up Alexis at the near post, and good overlapping by Monreal saw him pull it back for Oxlade-Chamberlain but he couldn’t get the ball on target.
It was more of the same, lots of Arsenal possession with not much penetration, but Ramsey again fashioned a chance for Cazorla whose left-footed shot was straight at the keeper. Arsene Wenger made his first change of the game shortly afterwards with Olivier Giroud replacing Walcott in the 69th minute.
The Frenchman’s first contribution was a shot from a ridiculous angle and distance which, you won’t be surprised to know, went high and wide. His second was a shot on target from a Monreal cutback but it was straight at the keeper.
Gabriel made a good defensive header from a Newcastle free kick, before Mikel Arteta replaced Oxlade-Chamberlain in the 82nd minute. The England man was involved in the goal but not at his best overall.
Then nothing else happened, except Giroud missing a great chance to score in the last 10 seconds, and the final whistle went.
A very welcome three points but not a performance to alleviate any worries.
Super slow in the build up, kept moving the ball from side to side in super slow motion. We played with an extra man for the best part of 75 minutes and at times it looked as though we didn’t have that advantage. Chamberlain was extremely frustrating and Ramsey playing as the number 10? please give me a break Wenger.
The team missed Özil’s silent influence today.
Agree with this.
Any word on his injury?
Think days like this underline Ozils importance to the team. Take him out and we look a tad ordinary, take alexis out and you’ll have done it there.
Im so glad we bought this 2 world class players + cech ofcourse 🙂
No they didn’t. He has done very little since arriving. He’s overated.
Doubt it, we were crap the 3 games of the season when Ozil was playing.
Big him up all you want but he’s not the messiah you want him to be
Nevermind Cesc has been crap all season it’s great the rabble in blue are starting to get on his back. It’s just a shame we have a few on here that still pine for him.
Ozil was poor against West Ham Granted but I thought he played very well in the other two games. We missed him today.
Almost spit out my tea when Robbie Savage said Ramsey was his MOTM, but then again it is Robbie Savage.
Because Savage is Welsh.
Playing santi as #10 would’ve been tricky as Ramsey isn’t known for wriggling ball and converting defence to attack.
We were playing like united today but with 10 men its sometimes more challenging
Referee had a good game for a change considering it was Andre marinner
Koscielny and Gabriel look like a solid pair at the back. Balls to the wall defenders both.
balls to the walls…love that position
Get yer specs off wrighty and get yer feckin boots on boy.
I thought the ref lived up to his usual dismal standards. We should have gotten the PK early on, and I thought the red to Mitrovic was too harsh.
U sure? Penalty aside, the referee’s performance should be compulsory viewing for the rest of the officials in the premiership. He got every booking spot on and the Mitrovic foul was awful. The Barcodes had clearly been told by Ferguson’s former shoe cleaner to kick the shit out of Arsenal and naturally assumed the referee would assume the usual supine position of allowing the assaults. Once the referee quite rightly put a stop to that it quickly became apparent that the wally with the brolly simply had no other plan.
The bar codes obviously decided to kick us off the pitch early on. Remember, “Arsenal don’t like it up them”. Just for once the referee did his job. Funny how the the “accidental” challenges stopped.
Too harsh? WATCH replays mate. Correct decision no question.
Koscienly was our no 10 today. His surgical pass led to the goal when all Cazorla and co were doing is making square passes in their own half.
Ramsey’s biggest strength during his breakthrough season (2013-2014) was converting defense to attack. Come on man, get it together.
We seem to have gone from the extreme of wanting to be Barcelona-lite to wanting to be Chelsea-lite. What exactly is wrong with passing the ball around accurately, especially when the opposition shows no intent to force the issue? In addition, we weren’t even badly exposed in defense, most of the time we won it back seconds after they got it and the couple of times they got into the final third, the back four was quite convincing. Of course, we still have to finish chances when we get them. Insisting on moving the ball vertically regardless of how the… Read more »
Well, 3 points is all that matters and that is why probably I shouldn’t complain. But this sort of performance against a team that played with 10 men for almost the whole game is unacceptable. We aren’t clicking at all and the build up sometimes is so slow that I almost dozed off.
This game was crying out for giroud since the sending off as they immediately dropped deep but somehow we waited until 70 minutes for his introduction.
On the positive side,3 points.
Newcastle played horribly today. They seemed determined to make arsenal win the game. The kicked, they fouled, and when that didn’t work, they scored themselves.
As an arsenal fan, that’s ok by me!
3 points. Thank you. Next.
To be honest I’m glad that game was away from home. Can you imagine the frustration at our performance if this was at home. We were strong defensively and I like the look of Gabriel. But the way we’re attacking is seriously retarded. Sanchez drifts inside. Chambo was supposed to offer width, instead he took it upon himself to play like Ramsey and drift inside. Also if he wants to dribble, then he should start dribbling and stop going a bit Gervinho.
Walcott and Giroud missed sitters as usual.
I thumbed up purely for the mention of Gervinho…
I usually hate international breaks but I’m hoping that when we come back we’ll be better more refreshed team…. or everyone else comes back shittier.
Gosh that home crowd were at a cuntish level of annoying.
cunt level – stoke
They ain’t laughing today.
The seemed to think the ref was the reason they lost, rather missing the facts that (a) we should have had a penalty and (b) their manager apparently decided the send them out to kick as many shins as possible rather than playing football.
tbh their fans were just wow, that was some of the best supporting you’d never see in emirates, hats off to Newcastle’s fans, they need to be respected for their passion.
But ridiculed for their astonishing level of one-eyed stupidity.
Agree and highbury used to be like that before the money and the tourists and now the emirates its gone from the library to the morgue.
We’re not playing well by any measure right now and no single singing is going to solve that. I can’t name one player who has performed to the required level so far this season. All this to say, things are likely to get better so I’m tempering my frustrations with that in mind.
How can you say that? Clearly what we have upfront is not good enough.
Giroud and Walcott missed easy chances. Surely there is some player whom we can bring in that’s an upgrade on these 2 half wits.
Alexis can finish.
Yeah, he’s sure been banging them in.
Short term memory loss?? It was only last season ffs.
And who was #2 scoring for the squad? Giroud.
Who gets more goals- Ronaldo, or Benzema?
Each player’s role has several parts to it. Real’s supporters could be (and some do) that Benzema is shit because he doesn’t score as much as Ronnie. But everybody knows he’s not expected to top their scoring charts. So it is with Arsenal, we are supposed to have many goal scorers.
But right now their finishing is all shit, including Alexis. But they’ll all come good.
Yeah lets hope so.
Bit harsh on Monreal, coq and bellerin
Our defence was fantastic. Really loving Coquelin’s work and Gabriel’s. On the plus side I think we only gave the ball way once foolishly. So there’s an improvement.
Walcott, Giroud and Welbeck. Our strikers to take this team to the title. Bit upset that Chambo was dribbling like Gervinho.
I agree, up to a point. It is clear that a truly strong team has scorers all over the pitch and frankly, our outfield players haven’t stepped up when the strikers have gone missing. I am in favour of signing a striker but I also think that there’s clearly a problem in terms of our whole forward line, and even our midfield in terms of playing too slowly and lacking directness. How much of a problem this is will depend on what the solution is – if it’s a question of formation and tactics we should be able to iron… Read more »
Walcott was hopeless today. So was Giroud.
No worries. Our new top scorer, “Own Goals” can do a job just fine.
Had a great season for us a few years back, hopefully can recover that form.
Good one! Who says we didn’t sign a new striker. Already got us 6 points!
Giroud would have put away at least one of the efforts that Walcott had. He must be gutted not to have started. It was 10 vs 10 until Giroud came on, so utterly absent-in-charge-of-an-Arsenal-shirt was Walcott.
giroud missed chances as well though…. chances where i really thought he should score as i rate him highly. why do you do this to me hfb
Owen Gole on a free. Classic Wenger signing.
LANS even.
Not the prettiest 3 points earned, but 3 points nontheless. This streak of not scoring is quite troubling though, our boys should stop attempting to score a perfect goal, pretty or not they all count.
When exactly did you see them try to score the perfect goal today?
Don’t gloss over the fact that we’ve not been able to score because we’ve been utter shite.
How did you read his comment as a compliment?
I am sorry. I will find the highest rooftop near me and shout “everything is shiiiiiiit”!
once again owen gole saves the day, undroppable, obviously no need for the new “goalscorer” striker anymore.
We were soooooooo unbelievably shit.
I’m so glad we have the lethal clinical striker Theo Walcott playing for us. He is worth every second it took to convince him to sign the new contract, and wholly justifies his salary.
His form always dips once he has signed (da ting, cringe) and picks up again when “his people” want more £££
Ramsey didn’t add much value in the no. 10 role today. He’d be better off sold to Swansea.
behave
Cool suspenders brah.
Why are you wearing suspenders?
Is it a sex & footy thing?
Let the thumb downs begin…
Agree. He was never as good as some thought and never as bad as some thought but he is clearly not good enough. Cash in.
Unconvincing win. Always difficult against 10 but we lack the spark we had at the end of last season. Interlull coming at a good time perhaps
Should have been 3-0
Yes we were pondering but pretty solid at the back.
When Walcott was on we created “giroud” type chances and vice versa I felt 🙂
Can someone tell me why ozil wasn’t on the bench also?
“Mesut Ozil missing because of a knee injury”. Did you want him to be spectating?
He’s injured
Happy for 3 points but performance was shite. How can they give Ramsey man of match. He was his usual overrated self. I hope wenger drops him soon though I doubt it. Won’t be winning any leagues gentleman. Let’s hope for good run in the fa cup and to win that 3 years on spin would be something I suppose.
It’s time for Ramsey to be dropped…
He didn’t play particularly well but he practically created all the chances we had. And it’s not like the other players were great.
Problem today was that we set up to pounce on the break and once mitrovic got sent off, that was never going to happen.
Yep, that’s a real problem when the other team go down to ten men. Let’s hope it don’t happen in any more games.
Three points in the bag at least. Also a shoutout to the unsung hero Monreal who was tremendous today and to Coquelin who had a great game.
Montreal has been amazing in all games. His attacking runs are getting better. Nice cutback for the ox today
His volley at the end was good too :p
I think the fact that we’ve scored 3 goals this season in 4 games, 2 of which have been own goals, speaks for itself. Worrying days ahead, I really hope we can find someone in the transfer window (note: this doesnt need to be the worlds best striker, i actually feel we need a spark in our team, much like how Ozils signing brought one)
On a positive note, Monreal and Bellerin were fantastic, as was Gabriel; I really see him becoming our next Koscielny.
I agree the attack is worrying, but I think it’s unfair to add asterisks to the own goals. In that case we should also add an asterisk to the total tally, reminding everyone of Ramsey’s goal against the mugsmashers and the clear penalty today.
Let’s just say we’ve scored 4 and leave it at that, instead or insinuating 2 were somehow undeserved.
It’s a win! Why didn’t we make use of the numerical advantage and score more??? Thought we should’ve done better. But 3 points in the bag!
6 – Newcastle yellow cards
5 – substitutions
4 – gettable game
3 – points though
2 – n army disappointed
1 – deserved Newcastle red card
0 – Newcastle fans who love Andre Marriner
Well done, that is brilliant.
Gabriel really impressing even though he didn’t have much to do today. Coquelin continues bossing the midfield and Ramsey was good today. not a great performance, but we looked very assured defensively and dangerous going forward (better finishing needed obviously).
Giroud HFB?? More like HTF..did he miss that!
He’s a bit shit. That’s why
And my mrs reckons im much more handsome, smaller nose and better hair and nearly 50.
We missed Ozil big time. He would have unlocked that defence more often.
3 points all the same. Can’t cpmplain.
Unlocked for sure. But other than owen goals, nobody will score.
Ozil’s talents are wasted on this team.
Judging by the home crowd, they should rename their club as neanderthals united
I feel like having an opposing player sent off is the worst thing that can happen to this Arsenal team.
I agree. Somebody should say to Alexis that he should stop waving his hands to get the cards out. Looks disgusting.
We were much better before the sending off. It was back to side-to-side passing as soon as that happened.
Still a bit of a blunt performance against 10 men though, especially as we created 2 or 3 really good chances aside from the goal (credit to Koscielny for the lovely pass in that move btw – it’s a shame he stopped coming forward so much once the goal went in, but it was possibly for the best).
Yeah, with Theo, Ramsey, Ox and Alexis we were fully set up for the counter. Not happening after they go to 10.
We were poor, they were lucky. And their fans are utter morons.
Great example of how a top class clinical finisher may have changed the game. But 3 points and no injuries (in-game), can’t complain in that regard.
I’m not sure about that, ox was wobbling when he was subbed don’t be surprised if he is out 2-3 weeks.
Well, I guess it is tradition after all…
I think every Gunner’s Achilles got stood on today. And one of them in the box.
Hard to believe it was all accidental.
4 games played, 3 goals scored, 2 of which the opposition can claim responsibility for.
It’s hard not to bang your head against a wall sometimes when you’re an Arsenal supporter.
Boring boring Arsenal
Awful game. Mindboggingly booring and we played our usual predictable game. Poor game, good points but I think most of us already know that we won`t have anything to do with the title this year and the reason is simple. We are not evolving as a team, we buy better players but we play the same slow, possession game as we have been for the last 5-10 years and that works against the “poor” teams but not against the good ones.
Thanks fuck that’s over, just because I’m tired of hearing people complain about the match.
Terrible to watch and very frustrating….one tempo all game slow!! But we got a clean sheet, we got 3points away from home. Next
1 goal in four games with Stoke and Chelsea after the break? Neat.
Owen Goal is on a hot streak and we’ll have some of the injured back. Neither Stoke nor Chelsea should present any problems, effectively because they’re the same team just with slightly different amounts of money
We always do well at home to Stoke 🙂
Mind you, we ‘always’ do well against West Ham 🙁
Well as Stoke are down to 9 men after half an hour I think we have an idea that they’re not going all tiki-taka this season as some predicted
Shame, means we’ll miss out on teh silky skillz of Charlie Adam, but there we go
That is the double beauty of that clogger getting called out on something he does pretty much every match..
And the Hammers have come out to prove pundits wrong so far this season- now they’ve shown Pool a thing or Two, which is lovely.
yeah, apart from Citeh, it’s all a bit interesting this season… mind you they’ll get done over even in their comparatively easy european cup group so they’ll be back in the mixer before long…
Tbf (I know I shouldn’t) the Afellay sending off was a joke – either him and Gardner should have been sent off or (if I was making the decision) neither of them.
But hey, it’s Stoke, so who cares? 🙂
Yeah worried about stoke but the chavs haha up the palace
Never thought I would say this but we were unbelievably boring. Is this the team that Arsene thinks is good enough to win the title? Thankfully, 3 points in the bag. And for all those guys who think we don’t need any signing or a new striker, we have scored 3 goals so far of which 2 have been own goals. What a mess!
It didn’t even seem like Newcastle had 10 men… And that’s a worry… But Gabriel looked fantastic yet again, but I genuinely think that’s the only Positive. Oh and Monreal is just so unbelievably underrated!
But my oh my do we look poor, it’s not even about making new signings or whatever. It’s that we have a good squad but we don’t know what’s the best combination and it looks as if we have never ever played together which personally for me is my sole biggest worry
Newcastle failed to register a single shot on target. At home. I know it was only 10 men but we looked pretty solid at the back. Gabriel looks solid and distributes well – and quickly. But man, that was slooooooooooooooow.
Not a great game but a win. Now let’s work on the team chemistry
The reason why Chamberlain struggled, in my opinion, was because of Ramsey’s at times ridiculous insistence in bombing forward at every attack. Since Ramsey was often in line with or ahead of Walcott (who can’t bring him into the game like Giroud), Chamberlain was unable to venture forward as much because he was forced to cover.
Cover for whom?
Ramsey was playing cam
Not like had a lot of defensive responsibilities and we were playing against 10 men
And for all the hate he is getting at the moment Ramsey created most of our chances today and looked most likely to make something happen
And i felt ox’s passing today was totally off especially in the second half.
Theo was poor. None of our forwards making a case for themselves at the moment
Perhaps that’s me with my Ox-tinted glasses then. I do think other players suffer from Ramsey’s desire to be the highest up the pitch – today it was Chamberlain playing with more responsibility than Ramsey – not that he was any good, that being said
Hi tendency to miscontrol the ball was just too much. Nothing to do with Ramsey. Ramsey was just Ramsey.
On a different note, Dimitry Payet is proving to be a special buy for Westham.
The positive for the match is Gabriel look good to be replaceing Mertesacker in the starting lineup. Bad news, wenger won’t do that because it mean his captain and vice is on the bench
replacing*
True, his captains are his vice.
I still can’t get over how gallas became captain over gilberto
With Gabriel our defence looks solid. Great game from Monreal and Bellerin cutting counters. Need to see Ozil behind Walcott 1 game to really make comment on him but we really need a top top quality proven striker up there. If we cant buy one, theres no point wasting the money on mediocre quality because its not like that will make the difference here. If we dont end up buying just fingers crossed Welbeck returns a beast with his England goalscoring record.
Whilst I’d agree with that (I like Gabriel) the 2 centre halves had practically nothing to do today, so of course the defence looked solid.
PS – Gabriel and David Ospina trying to play cricket is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time.
Wenger is a very classy and erudite man and we all love him but in the latter half of his career he’s lacked the ruthlessness needed to win major titles. We need a top-class striker; we’ve had the money to spend and he’s failed to get the job done.
3 points and good game by Arsenal. We were focused and forced Newcastle to chase the ball. Those yellow cards and the red card wasn’t a coincidence, and that played a big part in the way we controlled the game. And don’t forget, we also should have got a penalty! Good job to Wenger and the XI.
If thoe and OG are best AFC can come up with then thats bad.mancity made de bruyne available , why cant we make Benzema available.on this performance we can win the league.simple
Woah..we won the match 1-nil with the help of an opponent’s own goal…against the mighty New Castle!
I feel so great about my team!
We fkin don’t need a striker!Our great manager is always right!
Winning the title seems to be just a distant dream!
Three points, all said and done. This team can’t score and is too predictable. Complacent. Rotate if you’re not too soft wenger, after the ridiculous interlull
Never seen a team make such hard work of beating ten men 3 points that’s all you can really say judge them another day
There is an interesting stat doing the rounds Arsenal are unbeaten in 13 away games having won 12 of those and drawing with United. But… Arsenal have failed to score in 5 of the previous 6 home games. I guess this shows that despite branding ourselves as a Possession Team we are better off on the break. There are so many 2-1 or 1-0s away from home because we sit back, take pressure and then blitzkrieg with our counters. But with the early Red Card for Newcastle they parked the bus which is exactly what teams do at the Emirates… Read more »
To put it simply, no matter if we have pace or not we are slower attacking than I have seen us a number of years. That was just short pass, short pass, pass side ways, pass back. We had width, but no one ready to gamble in the box or anyone willing to cross it in. Alexis looks a bit like he is trying to rush things. The Ox was poor, didn’t attack or run with the ball, generally ran a bit, fumbled and fell over the ball. Walcott none existent and missed an absolute sitter, he really needs to… Read more »
Walcott is not a striker and I don’t think he will ever be..he has not convinced enough since he has been playing there…he shld be reverted back to d wings as soon as possible. with what we ve been playing this season,we wld struggle to win matches if we don’t improve and d transfer window is still open.
To be honest, he is not so effective from the wings either. For all the talk of him being one of the fastest player around, he can’t run 5 yards with the ball, let alone dribble. He is better off up front.
I think theo should go back to the wing or we should revert to 4-4-2 and see if him and OG work up top.
Other than that I doubt he will make that striker role his own . He was mega quiet today .
Even with Coq in good form and looking solid in the middle, we seem to lack penetration.
We really need a good finisher. Only one goal scored by an arsenal player so far. We could also learn a thing or two about supporting our team from Newcastle fans. Great respected to them
the referee united them not their team’s performance
Though not well tested today i think keeping two consecutive clean sheets with Gabriel on the side speak alot of volumes
A welcome 3 points, still feel tactics need a twist though, congested middle seems a familiar problem for us :/ lets see what the rest of the window brings us, looking forward to welbeck returning, more options.
We won ugly. We’re getting tougher all the time. 2 years ago we would’ve been intimidated by their fowling and lost. Progress on that front. It’s crazy to expect us to play beautifully in every game especially If the opposition is kicking the hell out of you at every opportunity. I’m fine with the way we did that especially as Özil the creative hub was missing. 3 points and move on.
Hopeless is being kind to them.they were terrible. Theo will never be a striker and as for OG what else can i say?
Owen Gole is awesome