A first half goal from Alexander Isak was enough to condemn Arsenal to a 1-0 defeat away at Newcastle this afternoon.
The Gunners never really got going, barely threatening the home side’s goal and this was, by some distance, the worst performance of the season so far.
Here’s how the players rated this evening.
Read the Arsenal 1-0 Newcastle match report and see the goals here
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Now that the pressure of winning the league is off, we will see some great performances from this team.
Man city lost though thank fuck for that!!!
Bournemouth gonna win the league 😂
NFO will win the league
1st November everybody
2nd. Dammit. Still no time to be giving up.
I mean you are right, but what I will say is.. this time last year we lost to Newcastle away from home with that ridiculous goal, and then we went to Villa the following weekend and lost there as well. So we are basically in the same boat now, 2 losses before the turn of the year, which we have to keep at that. City losing today was a huge let off, but we are at that same stage again where we are basically looking at perfection if we want to get anywhere near being seriously title contenders this season.… Read more »
Havertz scored on Wednesday. We need to improve, nobody is arguing against that but it’s a long season and we are only at the beginning.
I give everyone a 1 for wasting my fucking day!
Right? Their play does not match their paycheck! Id fine all of them 1 weeks worth of wages
No kidding, this should be done.
And refund the vising fans for the shambles!
Refund our travelling fans using the players wages from yesterday!!
Sure, you could😚!! Isn’t that why you are El__Chapitan? On a more serious note, the performance was disheartening! There are still 28 games to go though, I’m certain that there are loads of victories ahead for us!!
I advise you to change the way you experience your Arsenal fandom. It takes time as a process but I urge you to find a way to not have your mood determined by football. Arsenal losing or winning, your life is the same. Enjoy the good things. The good passes and chances and seeing Nwaneri on and Ben White back. Peace
and consider that i had to be on the phone with Virgin to activate TNT this morning; what a waste of time and money
Cool story
It blew up in your face?
got a broken foot and can’t go out to watch matches, so I added TNT yesterday, but said that it would take 10 day to show up, so i had to call them to get it activated in time for the match ;
1 shot on target should tell u the story. No one to blame. Tactically beaten by Newcastle who were up for it.
Good point.
To me this doesn’t feel just tactical. So many players are way under performing as compared to last season, and sure some of that has to do with our injuries and resulting makeshift lineups, but for me this also has fatigue written all over it. You won’t catch me criticising Arteta too much but the one pet peeve I have with him is that he, along with international football, runs these players into the ground. They kept finding little fuel reserves the last two seasons I think mainly because of the high of being so near a title, but that… Read more »
I don’t necessarily disagree, but it’s hard to tell about the individual performances when the on-field combos and partnerships have changed so much. You can see people making passes anticipating movement from a teammate that doesn’t happen. I wish we’d have been using Nwerari as a direct MO replacement more to help develop some of those instincts, because he was on a different page from White and Saka (but the potential is clearly there).
The potential is there sure but he’s definitely not Martin Odegaard, especially at this point of his career, so I think we’d lose something either way. It’s easy to fantasise about how well he could’ve played instead of whatever other combos we’ve had in midfield given some of his performances, but Newcastle away isn’t Preston North End and I don’t think it’s reasonable to assume he’d play as well as he has in limited time so far if you started and played him 90 minutes vs Liverpool and at Newcastle. And if he doesn’t he’s suddenly no longer the golden… Read more »
I’m not fantasizing about him going top bins agains Newcastle or setting the world on fire, but he could have been getting some time in some of these games to build some foundational chemistry. Maybe he has a telling pass or a little goal threat in him that changes up the out teams defend us, or maybe not. He is 17, he has miles to go. Regardless of what we think, it still begs the question of what the club’s plan for an extended MO absence was, with the shipping out of anyone else who resembled an attacking 8/10. It… Read more »
yeah that second part is definitely a fair criticism, if Arteta didn’t think Nwaneri was ready to be the full time Odegaard deputy to start the season then the club should’ve had a plan B for that situation, and it doesn’t seem like we did. I guess maybe the idea was some combo of Trossard and Havertz, but neither seems to be the highly creative link up wizard we really need there to activate the rest of the team, so there should’ve been another acquisition (Vieira couldve been it too but he needed to play and no one could have… Read more »
Agree and cheers for the exchange. I generally like your takes on things.
The club was probably banking of last season injury luck. Alas, the injury gods couldn’t neglect their favorite son for more than a season.
Obviously is ludicrous to demand from Ethan the quality and standards of Odegaard, but Ethan has shown better than what Trossard has been in recent games. So perhaps just try, if it does not come off, sub him and bring on the best 12th man of the league!
Absolutely, constant change of positions must be destabilising the team and chemistry. If Odegaard is injured play Ethan. We did not sign a backup, let Viera and Emile depart, surely trusting Ethan then why not play him. If injury to a single player means a great shuffle of the entire attacking line, style and tactics, then surely this must not be great planning. It does feel stupid criticising this management which has greatly improved the team, but similar issues derailing the team again and again hurts!
Tactically, physically, Mentally they wanted this way more than Arsenal. A convincing loss.
Maybe Arteta is loosing the dressing room
10/10 for Arteta for sending Jorginho in for payback.
worst game I have watched from the lads in a long time. offered nothing.
Our attack is just pathetic this season. And it’s not a one off game. We have really struggled with creativity. I wonder if perhaps Arteta needs to look for an attacking coach to add to our staff.
How about arteta is the coach and we get a manager for games?
We used to get bonus goals when we had Henry. Defenders just give up when they see him in some game phases. That fear, that fear, donde esta?
Arsene always made sure he had a top dog striker in the team, if he didn’t there would always be someone he was chasing hard to get to be that guy. Other than Havertz, which happened quite swiftly and without much preamble, that’s not been the case with Mikel. Jesus/Sterling/Odagaard/Trosssrd
That’s the only attackers he’s bought. Jesus & Sterling from previous experience, Trossard, a bit of a fluke considering we were in so heavy for Mudrk. Odagaard already at the club.
That’s 5 seasons. It seems odd we have never pushed for more.
It’s not coaching it’s personnel. We are missing our most creative player and don’t have sufficient trusted cover in that position so we are playing in a less creative way. Arteta & staff know how to do it, he just chooses not to at this moment.
I think we need the opposite of an attacking coach, we need our attack to play with more freedom, i think we’re over coached We have to learn and start to score from non-coached patterns of play For instance, and i know this might be deeply unpopular, but none of Saka’s assists have come from non-coached patterns of play. Havertz 2 long rangers from the high press – coached, Partey’s from the edge of the box – coached, the corners – heavily coached, the 2 in swinging crosses – heavily coached. If i can see the heavily coached patterns of… Read more »
Where is Arteta’s rating?
Did Arteta play?
If he swapped woth Merino, would anyone have noticed?
Does he play when we trash another team and he gets 10/10?
He never gets a rating because these are PLAYER ratings.
i appreaciate it could be controversial to have a rating for MA,
it’s not like a vote of confidence in him as a manager, (whether he should stay or go) but he puts in the team, prepares the plan makes the subs,
Yes we get that these are PLAYER ratings but the suggestion is perhaps he should get a rating.
No need to treat your readers as stupid.
However in this case Arteta can’t take much blame. It was mostly lack of intensity all round. Although the Zinchenko sub was s bit
Questionable.
I don’t treat anyone as stupid. But they are player ratings only, and always have been.
I think the short response was actually down to the passive aggressive post ‘Does he play when we thrash another team…..’ the pose before wasn’t short and I don’t think he has said anywhere that a mgr rating isn’t a good idea; only pointing out that there has never been a mgr rating when a reader suggested otherwise
Use the pain for the next two away games before the interlull. Let’s win both !
While I appreciate this positive approach I need to stew in some negative juices for a day or two. Things will look brighter next week, just don’t look at any other results or watch pundits.
I understand and also feel robbed by the lads as I spent 2 hours of my weekend watching this shit and now my mood is done until Wednesday.
But, if we win all remaining games we will end up with 102 points so I am a bit upset with these « title’s gone ». If Mikel, his staff and/or the players had this mentality we’d be Everton so I think we need to imitate their mindset when it comes to do our job as supporters.
we are certainly going the wrong way about it.
How do you think I feel. I wanted a little bit of hope today because Tuesday will probably see the fall of democracy where I live. We could not even take a throw in without slowing down the game to a crawl.
I’m with you Edzo. Expat living in Virginia. I early voted yesterday and was hoping for a pick-me-up today from the lads in advance of Tuesday.
I think throw ins have been slow for a long while. I actually hate Arsenal getting throw ins.
like your posts in general, best next to the dr.‚s! clear mind and a lot of positivity… 😃🙏🏻
Arsenal was shit today, so so dreadful.
Disagree that this was the worst performance by far this season, we have also been awful against Bournemouth, but everyone hid by a ref decision that we would have wanted in our favour had it been a Bournemouth defender committing the foul. We were also awful against Shaktar Donetsk, so this was top 3 of worst performances but by no means a one off.
Spot on. In general we have been poor all season bar Villa and city.
Our slow unimaginative style is a hard watch. I hate it. That is down to coaching.
I hate it too. Boring to watch lately.
We were down to ten men for over an hour against Bournemouth, so what do you want the team to do there? The red was also borderline. The referee’s initial decision to award a yellow was not a clear and obvious error as the foul was on the halfway line with potential cover arriving and as such VAR had no cause intervening. I would put that down as another game where we were happily screwed by the officials.
Similar play in Everton match today, except it took place 30 yards closer to the goal. Of course it was not given as a red card.
i’d say worst of the top 3 you mentioned.
We were terrible against Shakhtar. This feels worse, but against a better opponent, away, which should mitigate the disappointment, but we looked completely out of ideas in attack. Today’s loss felt a bit like the loss against West Ham last season.
The team has been competing this season against PGMOL in a competition called “let’s see who stinks better”. Before today, we were giving them a good fight but ultimately they were winning due to their high standards or lack thereof, but today we outplayed them off the stinking park.
Gave them all a 1 star.. with a few 0.5’s for ruining my Saturday night. I would be surprised if we finish top 6 with the way Villa and Chelsea are playing. I am predicting a 6th place finish. All on Arteta.
Some on Arteta, a lot on injuries, and a fair bit on the club/Edu for over investing in the back six positions and none in attack. (That’s not to say I lament the loss of anyone who we let leave.)
I shudder to think what kind of defense we’d have put out at times this season without the “over” investing in those positions.
If you don’t lament the loss of ESR then wtaf…
Empty performance, lacking any attacking cohesion. Newcastle absolutely coasted through without ever feeling threatened. Back to the drawing board because this team isn’t achieving anything with or without Odegaard.
Trying not to be reactionary these days, but it feels like we’ve gone backwards this season. I know the referees, injuries and fixture gods haven’t shined on us, but struggling to see how this team is going to string enough results together to improve on the past two seasons. We’ve got more depth at the back, but apart from that: Martinelli has peaked and isn’t going to magically discover an end product Jesus is a shadow of the player we saw when he first signed Arteta clearly doesn’t think Sterling is good enough, and he’s probably right Trossard is struggling… Read more »
I love the bullet points. An ordered set of statements/facts is refreshing to see.😂
Yes one of the cups this year league has gone. Champions league is do-able once Ø back. Amazingly we are third favourites with the bookies for it, they clearly haven’t see us play recently.
Good points. Of the recent acquisitions Calafiori is the only one who looks like a game changer. Merino and Timber look like nice pieces that raise the depth floor but we are dropping points in the same ways we did without them. Like you say it’s a long season and it could all come together, but right now it’s hard to think we shouldn’t have been investing in competition for Martinelli.
“ • Merino is looking like a slow, sideways-passing mid-table midfielder”
That’s because Merino IS a slow, sideways-passing mid-table midfielder!!!
Last 2 weeks gave an indication we are not title material. This week confirmed it.
Even as an optimist I can’t disagree with this comment.
Sad to say I live in Northumberland & the black & white knobheads will be all over this ! Partey was best player on the pitch by a country mile but in the WRONG position !! Insipid performance lacking heart & will to win. Said it before & here it is again ! We play to the diagrams shown to them by Arteta For all the good he’s done he has no capacity to change tactics or formations & we need to win something this season with that squad or he has to seriously have a look at himself! Nobody… Read more »
I thought Partey played well too but hes one of those that tends to get criticism quicker than others. We needed more attackers on. Trossard and Martinelli were both poor and Saka was double marked throughout the game. Hard to be a playmaker playing out of position in a situation like that.
I agree – Party did okay but what waste at right back and doesn’t offer Saka the attacking support he needs, the overlapping runs, movement etc so the right side is flat and for a couple of years it’s where the goals come from !
martinelli was poor but double or triple marked at times, he’s not tactically astutute (or not instructed) to switch play soon enough for us to gain an advantage
Partey deserves a higher rating. I think he was one of the better players and considering we’re asking him to play RB I don’t think you can ask much more. Also the fact the movement in front of him was constantly poor where is he meant to pass to?
First that’s our challenge for the title well and truly gone.
Very ponderous in possession and the obsession to have control is infuriating. The goal we conceded today came from the opponent switching play quickly and not dallying on the ball like we did all day. As s for ratings nobody really worth rating at all today.
I hate these early starts! Perhaps the team does too as the entire squad looked completely off their game today. Particularly Rice. This caps a series of lack-lustre performances and probably puts paid to any PL title aspirations – and we’ve only just entered November!
Has the fight for the top 4 officially started today? 🤔
There are still 84 points to take.
The value of mo has become increasingly apparent. I do not want to tun this into a ref bash, yet I remain very puzzled. In 1st merino and one of the Brazilian divers had some sort of foot to foot contact. HDTV showed nothing. Yet a foul on merino after the diver rolled around. in the second someone goes up and comes down on Saka’s Achilles. my commentator says it was an accident. So what? No foul given for the opponent injuring the best player and rendering him mostly useless for five minutes or so. then this is the one… Read more »
Hyperbolic perhaps, but unless City shit the bed, I think thats it now.
Well what do you know!
Harsh Blogger.
True, we’re off it ATM but when we have a stable back 4, things will change for the better.
( and don’t forget Martin)
Cheer up people……
Maybe we need Amoron to change our fortunes😂😂😂😂
So we have 1 world class forward in saka. It’s disappointing to try and win the league with just that. If our defence was working, it could be possible but that doesn’t even seem to be working at the moment.
Should have strengthened up top. No tactics can make up for individual quality and we just don’t have it going forward.
Dubai anyone?
We don’t have a single world class forward, if we had a single player putting up world class numbers we’d be champions.
Saka’s numbers are world class by any stretch of imagination. Put in a ball that deserved better form Rice. Apart from him though, none of the other 5 attacker and mids have level of creativity required to break a well drilled team.
No they are not, his goal scoring is poor compared to his peers and his “creative” numbers are highly misleading.
2 from corners, which we practice heavily, 3 from long range shots that I’d be surprised had an XG of more than 0.5 and 2 from in-swinging crosses, which again is a heavily coached part of our game.
To my eye he doesn’t have a single assist derived from individual, impromptu, uncoached play. That’s not a critisism of him by the way, just that i think we’re probably over coached.
Saka
No, he’s decent but no world class
Wildly over rated by our fan base
the Tomas partey experiment, what a joke. Too lose one premiership title with it is laughable but lose two is beyond belief, when we had the player sent off vs Bournemouth their was 6 lads in shot around Arteta, i presume they were their today and ill guarantee you Stevie Wonder blindfolded would of made changes to our system after 15 minutes today
it was clear from the first 15minutes that we were going nowhere near scoring a goal, but for set pieces, that’s sad.
This league is wide open, there are many very good teams, not really any great teams.
The low quality of our attacking bench is our undoing. Not one person on that bench is a game changer
Could it be Mikel is suffering from coming so near twice and not winning, realising Pep is going to stay ? A new contract syndrome… 🤔 Also, five years is a long time in today’s world and it must’ve taken lots of energy off him to manage the team. It’s all connected and might’ve rubbed off to the players . Finally I do feel for the away Arsenal supporters.
I’d take that Spanish chap from Villa
Serious questions need to be asked about a couple of players. Trossard, for one, has been absolutely dire starting. He gives it the big no celebration indicating he should start and then has been awful in the last 4 games.
Then Martinelli on the left, yikes. The last season and a bit, he has dropped off a cliff. Why not try Sterling from the left? Would Nwaneri be any worse than Trossard? At least we would have an excuse that he’s 17.
Are the problems that we’re overcoached? I dunno, but some players need dropped and fast.
Martinelli is playing how he’s being told to play, he’s so isolated again.
He’s not an automaton or perhaps you mean he’s been hypnotised?
I think you do what Arteta tells you or you don’t play
Marti has been very poor lately but do agree tactics playing a role too. He used to play much touchline and also often got close to goal, but now it is all touchline.
Sterling? Who’s that? Oh yeah that guy who was a steal on loan and will be resurrected into his 21yr old world beating self again…right. Forgot. Where is he by the way?
Ponderous buildup looks like security and control — if the cork pops out several times a game and Saka or Odegaard initiate disruptions. If they’re out, or knocked, or if chance distributes their contributions unevenly, we don’t seem to have a team system that can create those imbalances and opportunities. Maybe we just haven’t faced enough game minutes for that approach to be natural, so our guys revert to the habits that generally work when there are two geniuses up front.
I got butchered last week (and many other poor games this season) when I said Arteta will not win the title nor the CL. Downvotes came pouring in, as I’m sure they will again. Soft team, deluded fanbase (not all, but many).
Well, you’re not going to win hearts and minds when you label fellow fans ‘deluded’
The comment was not made to win popularity, but to outline the stagnation happening, meanwhile a good chunk of people STILL think this team can win the title.
So what if they do? You disagree, that’s fine, but the world is shitty enough without needing to call people ‘deluded’ because you think differently. Let people have their belief about a thing that’s completely out of all our hands anyway.
True, but when it comes to Raheem Sterling there is a lot of fkn delusion. Let’s be honest here…
I don’t disagree with you, blogs. But it also doesn’t help when you’re labeled pariah for voicing your different opinion (mine being that Arteta isn’t the man to lead the club to the title). Acceptance of difference in opinion should go both ways. Either way, I hope I’m proven wrong.
It’s called ‘support’, fella… look it up.
(oh – and you’ll find ‘entitlement’ under E).
yes it can!
Dysfunctional midfield again. Forwards need vertical passes. Awful all round performance. Not over yet though. Martin back soon.
Slow. Backwards. No urgency. No plan B. No plan A other than passing the ball around slowly. Everyone was below par. Some downright awful. Low on confidence. Nothing wrong losing away at Newcastle except for the fact we already dropped points at bourmouth, against Brighton. Unless something major happens to Man City the title push is over. Hopefully this display will lead to the purchase of a quality backup for odegaard, a backup for Saka. Jesus and Sterling are wasted space on the team. I’d say the same about Zinchenko but he did just come back from injury. He will… Read more »
Not sure about some of the ratings. Partey was out best player and White kept gaving the ball away carelessly when he came on…
We were absolutely rubbish
Created zero
Need Martin back
Pointless doing ratings if you’re just gonna take the piss and dish out 4’s for our players. The movment was poor at times, we badly miss odegaard, but show a bit of support ffs. They huffed and puffed but we’re lacking momentum at the moment. Bit unsure about the impact merino is having. He’s playing ok but I think he disrupts the shape and flow of the midfield. I’d stick zinchenko in at left back, timber at right back and put party in the middle where he’s badly needed right now.
Did you actually watch the utter dogshow that was Zinch when he came on? This team has moved far past his level to the point where, even when we were as decidedly average as yesterday, he still looked seriously below even that level!
Bad day at the office….only watched the second half, Newcastle looked well organised and we were below par.
Whilst Havertz is very good we still need an out and out striker who can guarantee 20 goals from
open play a season. Jesus is clearly past his peak
Otherwise mainly fatigue
Should not have sold ESR as his creativity would have been worth it’s weight in gold when Odegaard injured.
Still hopeful and at least City lost. Ultimately with all our players fit we are a match for anyone but our squad depth is nothing like Man City or Liverpool.
It’s hard to believe we are so impotent on the attack without one player (Odegaard), it’s obvious something needs to change so why not give the most similar player we have to him a chance with Nwaneri in the next match.
Awful. Dour. No Martin or not, that was poor.
Until further notice, our season is now one for the top-4.
What’d we think of Merino? Genuinely asking, I honestly dono what to think, maybe too early to tell?
To early to tell definitely but has not set the world on fire either. Seems okayish, not the statement/great improvement signing in any way
We should never rate any player before they’ve played 8-12 matches.
Take a look back at how Henry began for the Arse… over a dozen games with precious little return.
Well frustrating and depressing performance. Marti was perhaps my fav player in this team. He never had the best decision making or end product but always had his moments in a game. Now he seems to have regressed. His decision making is even more lethargic, has little end product and hardly impacts the game. The only likable aspect remains his work-rate now. How much of this is due to tactics? Is Marti being kept much farther away from goal then he used to be? Unfortunately, there is no real option to replace him. We signed Sterling, and can’t bring him… Read more »
Rice looked gassed out there halfway through the game. Commentary in Canada said Trossard looked on fire in warmups, must have cursed him because he was well off it today
Trosser is best sitting just behind a striker. He is not Odegaard and should never have been expected to play there – Ethan would have been a better option, with Trosser to come off the bench late on.
I know a few things have gone against us this season, but if we’re honest we have just not been very good.
It looks like a lot of teams have figured us out, our players look shattered, many are making bad decisions and everything is slow and laboured.
If we don’t sharpen up soon I fear we’re looking at a top 4 battle – Villa, Chelsea etc look better than us now.
Conclusion,
-no striker in the box
-no creativity in the midfield
-too many defensives (saliba ,gabby,timber ,party,merino,rice) All of them are defending.
With Odegaard out we’re really missing the glue that holds everything together. Trossard is great when he’s great but his form as a starter seems to change like the wind. The team two years ago was so exciting to watch and so effective. It feels like we’ve compensated for security so much now that the team has somewhat forgotten how to attack with purpose and conviction in some games. I hate to say it but I really miss ESR. A player who would carry the ball 30 yards up the pitch and force danger. He could’ve offered a plan B.… Read more »
Todays display reminded me of of the old Arsenal (from Arteta’s first two seasons). Timid and impotent. Arteta was tactically outclassed and did not have a Plan B. The Newcastle goal showed exactly what we are missing. A Centre Forward who gets at the end of crosses inside the box. I understand we play a different system but even then you need someone who makes run inside the opposition box. Also our crossing was poor today, Mikel Merino looks like a mediocre addition. A squad player not high quality. When you are trying to outrun Man City to the title… Read more »
Arteta is right in that we completely capitulated and allowed the Toon to play the game their way. Too many of our ‘big’ players took the afternoon off… Arteta is wrong in only bringing on Ethan with 30 to go – we clearly lacked any creativity down the right to set Saka and Kai up. The kid is good enough – play him!! And… can we please take a fiver for Zinchenko and never see him in a Arsenal shirt again? The bloke just gets worse and worse… woefully below the level of this current side, even when they’re playing… Read more »
FA Cup then!
A lot of anger on this post, which was expected. Partey is wasted at RIght back and I agree with Blogs. He did not have to play there. That experiment failed last season when Big Babi was being courted by the Saudis. I hope Arteta learns from this. And Nwaneri really must start…our lack of creativity yesterday was genuinely shocked…
Mikel Mourinho loves his versatile players and it’s not working. Play them in their normal positions! Never bought into the Havertz hype, overrated and not a CF although to be fair that’s not down him.