We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won! We won!
Second half goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Nicolas Pepe, Mesut Ozil and Alex Lacazette gave us a 4-0 victory over Newcastle. The goal scorers were helped by a solid supporting cast, particularly Dani Ceballos and Bukayo Saka, and Pepe provided two assists.
This feeling of having three points is very nice. More please!
Read the Arsenal 4-0 Newcastle report and see the goals here
Here’s how the players rated this evening.
Ratings
The ratings are now hidden by default until you vote, but if you just want to view the ratings and the comments, flick the switch at the top above Bernd Leno. Also, please give the ratings a few seconds to load.
10/10 for the way the team celebrated Lacas goal. Great to see
9 for Pepe? Really?
Do you think it should have been a 10?
9 is proper generous
One goal, two assists, key pass in the buildup to the other goal, and nearly had a 3rd assist when Nketiah hit the bar. Plus he tracked back really well. I think 9 is right on.
I think 9 is generous much. But I think a goal and 2 assist is good his overall game was not a 9 rating level but good. I wouldve given him an 8/8.5
Well, you can…
Bellend
9
Torn between that an Saka’s nutmeggy assist. Guess today’s so good they both get to tie for the bonus rating for me.
Love how he wasn’t on long enough to rate but still managed to bag a goal and an assist 🙂
To be fair Newcastle did sort of give up in the last 10 mins. But toooooo bad for them. He needed that.
Eddie Nketiah is a bit undercooked. I think Arteta was wrong to start Nketiah in CF over Auba. You don’t put your most exprnsive striker and best forward on the wings to accommodate an inexperienced 20yr old. Wenger would’ve never done that. Wenger would’ve played him on the wings like he played Bendtner and tell him it’s because he’s young and needs to develop his game as a Wenger first before you become a striker. The same way Henry started same way Even Auba started. When you’re a young striker you learn from the wings and end up in the… Read more »
I’m sorry you’re disappointed. I thoroughly enjoyed a 4-0 home performance in which all 4 of our key attacking players, including Auba shunted to the wing, scored a goal and made key plays throughout the match.
Amazing how some people find a reason to be negative about the players and complain about the manager in a 4-0 win.
If you can’t enjoy this and recognise excellent performances you should just stop watching supporting Arsenal.
What a fantastic result, thanks Dubai!!
I respected Emery the end. But the next time he starts ranting about how he improved Arsenal, someone should put a sock in.
Who’d have taught a combo of Mustafi and Luiz will actually produce clean sheets!
Mikel Arteta isn’t just a coach, he is a proper old school leader and it is going to serve him well. Look at the team celebrating with Laca, and even the members of staff after the game… there’s a special team bonding fostering and it’s going to produce amazing results!
And oh, Bukayo fucking Saka! What a player.
He’s got a bit of the Wenger about him in the way he maintains faith in his players to get the job done. It’s taken awhile, but it got done today.
Exactly! Hopefully, this is the beginning of great things to come.
He also gave Laca the drop and started Ozil, and got good results out of both of them.
Genius man management for the way that worked out! Knew who to keep faith in.
Saka!!! All of 18 years old. Need to see that birth certificate!!!
Feels like we needed someone like Ceballos in midfield, he was crucial today in moving the ball quickly to the front. Great to see a strong bench for the first time in a long time. Just pray for champions league football soon.
Yeah. MA definitely knew that. It’s the reason we are targeting a “6”.
I think that’s going to put him in a quandary, though. Because he can’t drop Xhaka and that’s mean no Torreira.
Why can´t he drop Xhaka ? As far as I see it he can drop anyone as far as he believes it is the right thing to do.
I don’t know what it is but without xhaka the team doesn’t play as well.
I agree, it seems Xhaka is vital to the system by dropping back to that left side central defence position to provide cover for Saka’s bursts forward. We all know he has an excellent passing range but this change in position hides his mobile deficiencies.
The way Arteta plays his team, at the moment Xhaka’s the only one that can fill that left-DM pocket which allows our left back to push so far up.
I guess one way is to play Xhaka with Ceballos against teams that sit deep and play Xhaka and Torreira against bigger ones, sacrificing some of our attacking threat and bring Ceballos on when needed.
I’d rather not be critical after a 4 – 0 win. But I think a lot of our second half success was a result of shifting away from Xhaka as a distributor and putting the ball at the feet of Dani and Ozil sooner during incisive moments of our build up play. It made the subsequent ring passes more vertical and broke their lines, building through Xhaka’s position is more horizontal or vertical into two well stacked lines of defenders as they just drop off him (no dribbling ability). In the long run I see us switching to someone more… Read more »
As shite as this year has been, the one upside has definitely been the emergence of quality youngsters like Saka and Martinelli. Wonderful to see.
I wonder hiw much those too would cost to buy right now?
I hope we don’t find out!
What a second half!!!! Saka is such a baller and crazy to think left back isn’t even his preferred position. GET THAT MAN A NEW CONTRACT ASAP
Love that Laca got a goal!!! He was in there for about 10 minutes and got an assist with the goal. Need him on the pitch. He contributes so much. Love the celebration from the whole team. They knew how much he deserved it.
Also hope Ceballos just keeps improving off of this game. Great performance.
COYG
It´s nice to see how well can Ceballos do when you give him suitable position on the pitch and clear instructions what to do. 🙂
I am probably one of the few who believes Saka’s future should be a left back because I think he is much more dangerous when he attacks from the deep.
I think he’s a better as a forward but with that said I am mightily impressed by how quickly he’s understood his role of LB having never played there ever in his career. It just shows what you need most to be a successful player is intelligence. And he’s got loads of it. Very very intelligent player.
I think he did play under Ljungberg but I don’t know how much.
He played LB in his youth, even with England youth teams
Superb performance in the second half and four goals from our main attackers. Great to see and I hope we see loads more from them. Given they have shown they can do it I see no reason why we shouldn’t go on a decent run now. Also feeling confident for our chances of the Europa league. I don’t see a team left in that competition that we can’t beat on our day. Also props to Ceballos who silenced some doubters, including me.
Don’t want to be a party pooper or anything, but there are still a few very good teams. Inter and Ajax come to mind. Inter are superb this season and even though Ajax aren’t the same team as last year, they are still very dangerous. But if the guys get their s*** together and play every match like they played today, they can definitely win it. Season salvaged right there
We are currently 5th favourites to win the competition. Apart from the teams you mentioned, ManU and Sevilla are also seen as more likely to win it. But like Merlin’s Panini said, on our day we could beat all these teams. And if our squad performs to the full potential, I don’t see any team where I wouldn’t say that the game isn’t at least a 50 – 50 affair. So on a bad day, they beat us, on a good day we can certainly beat them. Hope Inter stays involved in the title fight, so they might have other… Read more »
I think it’s clear that Ceballos’ passing ability and forward runs open space for Ozil; I think Ozil’s presence forced Newcastle to give Ceballos a lot of room to operate; the return of Bellerin makes Ceballos a much better player as well. It’s almost as if our coach thought about systems, formations, and structure and how specific players fit into them.
Well, that was rather delightful. I was initially dubious of the decision to drop Torreira and play Ceballos, but his passing really helped us control the game. Haven’t seen posession stats like that for a long time.
Pepe was great too. Hope to see more of that.
Delighted with the 3 points. First goal was crucial. We’ve been threatening to kick on for a couple of games now. Let’s hope this is the catalyst for a really strong end to the season. COYG!
Really enjoyed that….
If Saka keeps producing this kind of performances, Tierney might have a hard time claiming his spot back when he’s fit again!
Great to see Mikel’s offensive choice praying off, Ceballos was a great inclusion.
Seems like there is competition almost everywhere in the team, it can only be good news for us!
Look at Man City: one of the reasons they have been dominant is that they have at least TWO players able to carry out the coaches instruction in each position.
Once I saw we were after Cedric, I immediately knew MA was looking to do something similar.
Today AMN, Guendouzi, Mari, Reiss, and Holding didn’t even make the bench! We will definitely be seeing some of them on Thursday.
I would move Auba back central, have Sako on the wing with Tierney behind… Our left side would be really strong in both defense and attack with Tierney liking to overlap to take a defender off Sako to free him up for crosses or taking a man on.
I am hoping he gets a decent contract and we tie him down long term. I am also wary of that dreaded second season dip in form a lot of young players seem to hit ( Iwobi was a prime example of that )
It does remind me a little bit of the situation with Silvinho, a great left back, who lost his position in the team to a certain young guy called Ashley Cole who became undroppable. Let’s hope Saka’s career doesn’t end like Cole’s though.
More likely that Tierney will struggle to get back into the team than Saka be dropped.
Sweet! Saka!? We havery got a player!
Y.A.Y
A win and we’re top half! Things are looking up fellas! Ceballos really showed his the missing gear to get this undoubtedly talented offence going. Ozil and Pepe, when they get going the effortless class on offer is just sumptuous. Saka tie that boy up to a 10 year deal! We got a proper team here, they looked like they are finally ready to play like arsenal this season. I know what a false dawn looks like supporting arsenal though the post Invincibles we should have just called it dawn, but this here feels truly positive and – dare I… Read more »
Not just the win, but goals, glorious goals!!!
Shocked by Eddie’s inclusion. Like his nippy short passes around the centre circle. If only torreira was better at ball distribution we’d have him and ceballos. Xhaka’s lack of mobility will be exposed whether or not he makes an individual mistake. Ozil. Intent to create was clear. Enjoyed him do his thing. Pepe. Excellent all round performance. Slow offensively in the first half. Bellerin. Hope he gets some form. Seems to have lost a step and was beaten so many times. Not a solid outing blogs. Luiz and mustafi were good today. Love the quiet renaissance. At the very least… Read more »
I give everyone a 10 including the coaching crew for bringing the mojo back
Backazette.
Backanette
Nice team performance! It can only get better. Onwards and upwards…✊
@Blogs, did you imply that Laca’s goal was a miskick?? I totally disagree.
He seemed to kick it off his other foot
It appears to hit his standing foot. Even at full speed you can see that the flight of the ball is strange…but who cares, right? Not him clearly! He’s back on the scoresheet and hopefully it will do him good.
Exactly
Takes a special kind of talent to take a shot with BOTH feet and actually score.
Time for a rule change. That should count for 2 goals. ;-P
Rule #1: be in the right place at the right time.
He did that ‘intentionally.’ LoL!
It totally was. He was laughing his ass off about that, he just didn’t fking care. Could be a sign of things starting to go right!
Thought Saka was fantastic, I’d give him a 9. That nutmeg and assist ??
Auba on top and Martnielli on the left, and we pretty much have a flawless team… in Arteta we trust
Steady on
What??
Awesome
I think Ceballos makes Ozil a better player. Its takes away the duties of carrying the ball from deep in our half. That allows him to get involved later on. We’ll see how this partnership evolves. Exciting times.
As Ramsey did.
Lacazette got a goal and an assist, surely he deserves a rating? Pepe MOM for me, 1 goal, 2 assists, and put one on a plate for Nketiah. Saka not far behind him, and Ozil’s best game in a very long time. Ceballos and Xhaka axis was interesting, both were involved throughout, Xhaka with 105 passes, with a 92% pass completion, and Ceballos 91 with 96% completion. Xhaka playing more of a functional role with Saka playing so far forward, but he’s a much more important player for us than he gets credit for, I’m really happy he stayed, Will… Read more »
First 20 min we were awful. Pepe Was our best player in the first half with his defensive work. Not sure what was said at half time, but a great performance and good intensity in the second half. Saka 10/10, Pepe 10/10, Xhaka 11/10 for not getting a second yellow. We have to play at the intensity of the second half against teams that are average. We have to get that level for 90 minutes. The key is to be consistent game after game. Hopefully with the fixtures we have coming up we can go on a winning streak.
I love that in our case we think distinctly average is awful. We were distinctly average in the first half and for us that’s awful. Completely agree with that. Coyg
It’s not a sure thing that Ceballos will be in the club next year but we have a stud in Saka. So excited for the quality of our young players. Adding in Tierney and Pablo and Arteta getting it right and we might just sneak into UCL next year. Happy Sunday all.
So what is it about the officiating?
beautifuly onside in second half…. linesman flags…. ref stops game……… In any other game, I mean any other gam I’ve fucking watched….. flag up, play on, then VAR it…… sorry but why didn’t they do that! I mean just why?
im back on the gin again cause I know it’s not a biased system but is it?
Spot on. Why the downvotes?
The commentators didn’t seem to care as well. The game was far from won at the time.
With four touches, Lacazette managed to get a goal and an assist but no rating.
I didn’t get a chance to watch unfortunately but damn it if I didn’t at least enjoy the highlights about 5 times in a row. Excellent stuff, more of this please.
Should give Dani a nine (9), he deserve it, yes he didn’t create assist or goal, but he was the one move the ball so fast in the build up, and let other players (mainly Ozil) to create the chances for the team. If we play Xhaka and Torreira in the midfield, Ozil can’t make and search room for the others, cause Xhaka and Torreira won’t move the ball fast and effectively up front. I just realized how deep our squad actually right now, we have Auba, Saka, Martinelli, Smith Rowe, Nelson, Pepe, Mkhitaryan (most likely to be sold next… Read more »
All those people who leave on 85 minutes missed two great goals. Should stay to the end like proper supporters.
Here here, I was thinking the same. Entitled nob-ends
If you are going to be rude then at least spell correctly “hear hear” as in “I hear you”…
Please, show more respect for fans who travel great distances at great expense every week on public transport
And because they travel such great distances and for such a long time, they shorten their live match experience on purpose? Ooookey.
Pro tip: If they left in the 25th minute, they will be home even earlier and the tube will be even emptier.
Let’s tell it like it is: They don’t wanna queue too long fot the tube. Which is totally OK. But why do I have to respect that?
– 1 for ceballos’ dodgy man bun.
But +10 for everyone for the cracking
second half
And sign Saint-Maximin up! They owe us
For debuchit!
maximin is bang average at best ffs,why you would want him, best scorer at newcastle is fucking shelvey, say it all really, all theri attacking player are rubbish
debuchy was decent at least, just couldnt keep fit
Was thinking he was dangerous as fuck in the first half, had me worried, had me wondering how much he would cost to buy… 2nd half I began seeing why he was not snapped up by a better team than Newcastle.
Bang average might be a bit harsh but he definitely lacks composure and vision for a pass.
Running pass player because he can run very fast doesnt make you great except on FIFA.his last ball is dreadfull at best
Laca deserves a rating of 9 for his assist and goal in less than 10 min.
Fuck it! I’m gonna give ‘em all a 10- just so happy for a resounding 4-0 that it couldn’t be otherwise! Refreshing..?⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️
I now it was just one game but I thought Ozil was excellent regardless of his goal?
*Know
Hope that’s not a typo Paul!
Gramma nazi karma right there
Haha
How long do we have to listen to Souness with his anti-Arsenal nonsense? Sky should get rid… Was he a pundit because he was sacked as a Newcastle manager? Get a fella from then toon who knows their team….
Congratulations to the coach and the entire team. We hope this is a sign of better things to come.
Slow start but started to be more aggressive winning the ball back in transition after about 25 mins, and after that we looked like a proper team again. Ozil really grew in to game and started to find that quality forward pass again, as well as the space between the lines. Thought Ceballos and Xhaka were really good too in midfield in 2nd half and helped us control the game and give the forward players the opportunity to do what they did. Great win, come on you glory Gunners!!!!
I think we are a little generous with the team as a whole. First half was tetchy at best. marked improvement second half following likely industrial strength hair dryer treatment from old Lego hair. 1) Leno – Decent as per usual. tried to get us going forward quicker when regaining the ball. 2) Bellerin – Had a particularly hard time first half. Pepe did not do enough to cover him. This was improved second half. Still lack enough cut and thrust going forward. One very decent cut back to Nketiah from a lobbed ball into their box. 3) Mustafi –… Read more »
I’ve felt for a long time that there was much more talent on this team than past performances indicated. Today they showed it. Arsenal really needed a win but also a multi goal win to offset those nail-biting one goal victories and late-game missed victories. Today they delivered on both counts, and threw in a clean sheet for good measure.
The competition to play will intensify, based on this display.
Can’t wait for the next game!
I’m disappointed Eddy didn’t take that shot with his right when he had space, Made it easy for the Newcastle defender to defend his clearly favoured left foot.
Hopefully he learns to take space when he gets it in the premier league. I think he has potential if he gets used to the pace a bit more.
Hilarious that the partnership of Mustafi and Luiz which people including myself thought would be even more calamitous and chaotic than any other seems to be the most solid.
Eddie was bang average. 5. Can’t be anything more than an average 5. Don’t even know why he started, this would have been the perfect game to let Laca get some goals and get his confidence back up
Pay Saka NOW! £3k a week is ridiculous for what he brings to the team. Yes, he is an unfinished product who needs to get stronger, more consistent, and continue to add polish to his game. But, playing out of position, he is showing flashes of brilliance just about every match. He is a world-class superstar in the making under the right tutelage. Arsenal can ill-afford to lose such a talent by “nickle-and-diming” him because he’s young. Put him on proper wages. He is the future fixture on the left side of the Gunners for the next decade at least.… Read more »
So nice to put a few in! Good stuff from the lads.
10/10 for finally shutting Alan Smith the fuck up. Loved and cheered him for the gunners, but now he’s just a right plank.
And how the hell does Mason give Saka a card there? Bolton connection much.
I like the speed of Ceballos passing, it creates energy and disconcerts the opposition. But everybody should be happy with an excellent second half. Pepe and Saka are exceptionall, and Ozil is always (well, not always…) a delight to watch.
Good win