With a chance to go back into the top four, Arsenal froze at St James’ Park, going down 2-0 to home side, leaving needing a miracle to reach next season’s Champions League.
It was all square at the break but a Ben White own goal put the home side ahead, and although we made attacking changes, we couldn’t get a hold on the game at all. Late on Bruno Guimares doubled the lead and that was always going to be that.
Here’s how the players rated this evening.
Read the Newcastle 2-0 Arsenal report and see the goals here
Newcastle 2-0 Arsenal – Player Ratings
The ratings are 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 Aaron Ramsdale. Also, please give the ratings a few seconds to load.
….. I’m tired. Arsenal drain the last bit of hope I had for champions league.
I think the CL would have been a hard unpleasant campaign next season even with reinforcements
Yeah, how lucky were we to avoid that?
Yeah, we’re the youngest team in the league and have a pretty thin squad, so if there is a silver lining here it’s that the team gets another year to develop before (hopefully) jumping into the CL cauldron. A year in the Europa league will also mean we get more playing time for squad players.
We showed our inconsistency this season, as to be expected given the limited experience of players and the manager, but it’s good to remember that finishing fifth exceeded the expectations of many. Progress has been made, and I believe in this project.
You say thin young squad as if these are force majeure rather than management choices. If these are the explanations you’re willing to buy, I can easily draft the next ten years of “logical” reasons why we should optimize ourselves into a mid-table club. E.g.: ” June 2025: Saka is increasingly a selfish player prone to falling in love with his dribble rather than buy into team concepts. Largely unavailable for key Conference League fixtures, his brace in the FA Cup final was offset by failures to track back for both of Stoke’s goals. Not good enough for his 150,000… Read more »
So… you really spent time and mental energy (albeit, not much!) to write all of the above?
Ouch.
Goon, the amount of time you’ve wasted spouting ‘opinions’ here could build the pyramids. Spare yourself the sanctimony.
Hey… I’m older and have more time to spare now.
lol
And I happen to think the pyramids are pretty cool.
I agree. I’d love CL football, but a year in the EL will give some of the younger players more experience. Squad needs bolstering for sure. Will Jesus go to Arsenal without CL football? Doubt it.
Level headed rational thinking. I agree with you and to add more of a silver lining the quality of opposition will allow more rotation and opportunities for younger players.
I’m still incredibly gutted however.
Realistically – we’ve over-achieved with what we have, and certainly, given how we began this campaign. Nonetheless, it will be a little harder to attract the quality we need without the CL carrot. Which means the pressure is fully now on Edu to step up and buy smart – plenty of talent out there, just behind the shiny shop windows of the top clubs, he just needs to find it! And we HAVE to finally bite the bullet and move the journeymen on: Cedders, Granny, Laca, etc… Keep Mo as back-up; take what we can get for Pepe since Mik… Read more »
The downvoters: do you really NOT believe that we now need to draw a line with buying (and being satisfied with) ‘average’, ‘not-too-bad’ players? Either we are going for CL qualification and, ultimately, some trophies, or we are not. If we are – then it starts with the levels of commitment and skill we demand from every player who dons an Arsenal shirt. Certainly, we will need the Mo’s and the Holding’s as depth-backup… but when we are playing the Laca’s, Cedrics, Granit’s as first choice picks, we will never rise to the top level. It just won’t happen with… Read more »
Sad but true. This current squad is simply not yet ready for CL football. We need another season of building.
The only regret is that we may well have been able to sign a better calibre player, had we qualified top 4.
Still a shame not to have taken part though.
Just think – our young lads getting smashed by PSG would have given Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher excitement induced heart failure.
Oh well, there’s always next season and the next, etc…..
I am infinitely more bothered by the fact that we ceded our spot to the Shite….
Still keeping me up nights.
100% agree with these ratings. The midfield and attack were really really disappointing today. We were always going to have challenges defensively, with our injuries, but I expected a lot more from those in front of the defence. Poor, poor, poor.
Toothless is the word. Deer in the headlights is the phrase.
Let’s be honest, we’d have taken top 5 at the start of the season. We’ve over-achieved and got such a thin squad with key players out. It’s gutting not to get CL but I reckon with a few tweaks in the summer we’ll be ready to go again in 22/23.
And at the start of the season I had little to no faith in Arteta.
Before alllll the injuries and shit with Auba, id have taken 5th. Knowing all that nonsense was on the horizon id have taken your hand off for it.
Yep. Though I had a little more faith in Arteta, even if I thought we’d finish sixth. To be fighting for top four in the final weeks is a credit to him and the players. Disappointed but not despairing.
It’s only Man U’s demise which has left us 5th place. And I doubt they will be so poor next season. We may be 7th
Yeah but seeing spurs take the spot stings
Have we overachieved, or have the other teams challenging for top six just been shit?
I’ve read and heard a lot of people voicing opinions on what other fans would’ve ‘taken’ this season. I would’ve taken 4th so you don’t speak for me or many others who would’ve viewed this season as an opportunity for a supposed excellent coach to drill in his idea Monday to Friday into a group of players who should remain fresh and raring to go each weekend having solely focused on the match ahead well in advance. To be fair we’ve still had injuries to key players so that has affected that thinking somewhat and also the spuds ended up… Read more »
We are going to relegate Everton on Sunday with a 6-0 trouncing and Norwich will beat Spuds 3-0. Good times!
PS I am very very drunk
It’s a shame there’s not actually a trophy for top 4. You can guarantee the spuds would find a way to dodge it.
😂👍🍺
Not a big fan of emojis but just 😩
Any hope around Nketiah should have been debunked today. Decent player but not top 6 standard. Definitely not worth a bumper contract. See ya
Thought he was better than the rest of the team personally. We never got the ball out of our own half for them to do anything.
We had zero midfield today so I’m not blaming Eddie for being a ghost.
He was terrible, times he had pass on and didn’t play it. Plays for himself. Let him go. He’s that good palace snd West Ham want him on a free. No big clubs are interested.
In all honesty, are you expecting him to be a game changer?
Eddie is probably just playing at the level he currently is WITH whatsoever support he can get from out midfield.
Think he has already shown what he can do in the last few games showing he’s not a fluke. And he’s also covering more ground than say Laka. So not sure what more is expected
If he was good enough yes I am expecting him to be a game changer. That’s what I want and expect from The Arsenal. Let’s give a bumper contract and as long as he keeps covering more ground than Lacazette we can be happy. 😂😫
I agree.
He has a bit of pace, but ultimately he’s not really a team player. The mere fact that he turned down a contract rather than stay and be part of this project, speaks volumes. The dude wants to be a big fish – but only the tiny ponds want him.
There’s no point wasting good money on bumping up his contract, just because he can run faster than Lacazette. Blimey, even my missus can do that.
No, get rid of him and buy in Gabriel Jesus.
That could be said about any of our players if you’re just basing it on today’s performances. Eddie wasn’t any worse than the rest..
Europa league player at best which is where we are.
What a strange thing to say when our entire team wasn’t up for it how’s a striker suppose to score with little to no service? Newcastle had nearly 70% possesion In the first half.
This was embarrassing and the blame lies on the team tonight if your not fired up for a game like this you shouldn’t be playing for arsenal
It began at the back; Rambo (despite some excellent stops) seems to be having distribution brain-farts more and more frequently. Likewise Ben W – who may be rusty but nonetheless had a shocker. Gabriel also made some loose passes, likewise Granit – who was even more painfully ponderous than usual. EveryReady Mo always become more conservative when his back 4/5 are shaky and so it was – he tended to play the safe (square or reverse) pass more often than not.
The team is ahead of schedule. We have 21 wins this season, I believe. One more than Chelsea who has played one less game. But way to many losses. We don’t have the composure or experience to come back from a goal down to win or draw. But that will come with a new striker and center half, maybe even Saliba starting for us. Need a back up right back. At this point, AMN is superior to what we have. If we turned half those draws into wins we’d be third. Lots of positives from this season. Nearly over the… Read more »
Haven’t we lost a third of our games or something? Crazy…how did we actually end up 5th…!
We could have played that game for a further hour and still not score.
Toothless display
Tired, jaded, mentally and physically drained young squad and manager
No spark in midfield
Razor thin squad finally bit us on the arse…decent achievement with the players we have at our disposal. We were bottom of the league after 3 games this season…now we finish 5th. It’s progress of a sort. However, Mikel needs to deliver top 4 next season or he’s gone.
It was always gonna take a few transfer windows to sort the squad that he inherited out.
We should get about 5-6 new quality players in this summer, then you’re right, no more excuses.
Gonna be hard playing Thursday nights again, but we’re not ready for CL anyway. If we can win the EL and give some young players valuable experience it could be ideal.
Just hope Saka signs a new contract !!
… as always against physically strong oponents…
So are we targeting polio victims or the malnourished as part of our recruitment drive?
I hope there are a lot of fans out there who are a) disappointed but also b) so proud of this team.
It has been very emotional for us fans and I would imagine the players too. They’ve looked mentally exhausted for a little while and it’s understandable given the age and profile of most of that team.
Still possible, a job to do on Sunday. COYG.
Regardless of the outcome of the spu*s result, I hope we can win at the Emirates in the last game and the fans give this young team the support they deserve. There is much to learn and grow for them and they will.
Why would they be mentally and physically exhausted. We have played practically one game a week for most of the season. The team and squad and possibly manager (I’m still not convinced) are not good enough we have lost 5 of last 9 games, let that sink in. I do hope lots of you are right but in three seasons I’m reliably told Arteta has come back and won a games from a losing position 3 times. One game a season.
The teams who will finish ahead of us this season all had European football yet our squad is mentally and physically exhausted and we are playing half fit players in some of the most important matches of the season? Smacks of piss poor recruitment and piss poor management. We will need pulses/bodies/mammals to send to Azerbaijan on Thursday nights for the Europa League. God help us then
Hard to comprehend how these players played so far below their level today. A win away at NC can’t be taken for granted these days, but to show essentially nothing for 90 mins is unfathomable to me. Couldn’t even get our foot on the ball. Guarantee already-relegated Norwich put in a better performance than that against Spuds next weekend…not that it will be anywhere near enough mind.
I completely agree. While I continue to believe that we were royally screwed by officials in the NLD, it was still in our hands. We did not do it. Fair play to the ref this time, very good and sensible officiating. Fair play also to Newcastle. There were no attempts of unnecessary roughness, provocative antics or out of the ordinary timewasting. They just played their thing, did it well, were in control and hardly ever in problems. With more or less nothing to play for, it was a very professional performance and it deserved to be rewarded with a win.… Read more »
We were so off in many phases of the game. Even making simple passes and controlling the ball became difficult. Fatigue? Pressure? We can only hope for a win against Everton (are we up for it?) and HOPE that Sp*rs lose against Norwich (a VERY tall order I know!!). Things can ONLY get better. COYG!!
God I’m depressed. I thought having the season mean something again at the business end was supposedly a good thing but this feels so awful! How is it even possible for our team to put in that performance when it matters so much and especially after Thursday? Genuinely incredible
January killed us. Killed this young side. There are no top quality 28/30+ year old players like kane etc to lead these 21 year old kids to victory! We were outplayed, for the 2nd game in a row… but, these kids are on their arses!
Why do people keep say ESR isn’t fit? If he wasn’t fit surely Martinelli would be starting. Is it just making an excuse for him being poor?
Because he’s been carrying a groin injury for months, it’s why his minutes have to be managed.
Why start him tonight though? Martinelli should have started based on a decent performance against spuds.
At no point has anyone confirmed this but if true why is he starting the game if he’s carrying an injury? Martinelli has been doing alright.
Exactly!
So why risk exacerbating the injury and run the risk of having him sidelined long term?
I agree I think this is the same with Ben white. Blogs and Co make a lot of excuses for Ben white. I think he’s overrated
Yep – Blogs actually has the temerity to rate BW a full point above Mo (5 vs 4)????
Countless misplaced passes, sluggish throughout, hardly any duels won… and an own goal!!
Come on Blogs… this Nenny-hate is becoming really tedious!
White was under the cosh the whole game and in that respect he did very well.
Mo wasn’t, and didn’t.
I suspect he is suffering drop-off in form as a consequence of the long term effects of SARS2 infection (I can’t remember, was he infected once or twice?). Fit athletes are more likely to have positive outcomes from infection I think but there’s no ambiguity about it: Covid is an illness that can cause long term and, as far as we know, potentially permanent damage to many parts of the body including lungs, brain, heart etc. This is caused by infection, whether vaccinated or not, though vaccination seems to slightly reduce risk of sequelae after the acute phase of the… Read more »
Good post however I’m an old guy smoke, drink, haven’t even had 1 jab of the vacc let alone a booster and have not had covid, flu, even a cold. Am I just lucky (phaps) is my immune system so great (dunno?) Is it all down to luck? I ask this question in all seriousness
Are you Tim Sherwood?
You know the really frustrating thing? I can’t see us getting any better next season.
We have a rookie manager and a young, inexperienced squad that’s at least 5 quality players short of a top-four outfit.
We will make two or three average buys in the summer and just repeat this shambles again next season.
It’s so depressing to see how far this club has fallen.
Hopefully we lose ‘fans’ like you next season and we’ll already be better off.
Support the team or go find something else, it’s that simple.
Leemillion denies everybody else’s reality and substitutes his own
I don’t have the data in front of me, but I wonder how many times Tierney, White, Gabriel, Tomiyasu, Xhaka and Partey all played together, and what the results were in those games. My guess would be very few, and pretty damn good. This team is not “at least 5 quality players short of a top four outfit.” Need a striker and better quality depth, which can definitely be obtained in one summer transfer window. Last time out we got Ramsdale, White, Tomiyasu and Odegaard. Already have a fantastic addition built in with Saliba. But if you think the players… Read more »
Are you Piers Morgan? The target this season was top 6. We’ve achieved that and could still qualify for CL on Sunday if Norwich turn into Bayern Munich (I know…) Yes, we’ve faded away. But our young squad will have learned a lot from those last two away games and will hopefully be better prepared for those atmospheres next season. We now need to move on the last of the dross – Soares, Tavares on loan, Pepe and I don’t mind if Nketiah moves on either tbh, unless he’s happy to be third choice. I also think we could do… Read more »
We blew a golden chance to finish top four. End.
Even the most deluded optimists among us must surely see a pattern emerging here: blew 18/19 ‘shoo-in’ top four under Emery, blew 18/19 Europa League Final under Emery, blew 19/20 Intermediate stage Europa League v Olympiakos at home under Arteta, blew 20/21 Europa League Semi Final v Villarreal under Arteta, blew 21/22 League Cup Semi Final 2nd leg v Liverpool under Arteta, blew 21/22 ‘shoo-in’ top four finish under Arteta.
Good God man… you’ve finally solved the mystery!!! Fats IS Piers….
It all suddenly makes perfect sense.
My work here is done 😂
If only we were as consistent as you are doom-mongering, mate!
This is why access to the internet ought to be vetted.
Pepe is by far the biggest fraud i have ever seen put on a Arsenal shirt our biggest flop in the history of the club.
How he couldnt be bothered to chase back after giving that ball away smh
I have no idea how Lille were set up when he played for them, but he strikes me as someone who needs to play in a counterattacking team (and in every game). He’s not really a player for a team that wants to play on the front foot.
He’s done….he just wants to avoid injury and leave.
In offering Artera a contract extension before the end of season was an admission that top 4 wasn’t the priority and Europa league was infact good enough for the ones calling the shots. That said, there is progress and we are moving in the right direction. COYG 💪.
Completely agree with the ratings. I know this may seem out of place but I’m more embarrassed at this performance than the Spud match.
We literally made Newcastle look like a top 4 side in every way possible. I know we’re praying for a Norwich miracle. I am too. Though I’m not confident about the last day whatsoever. That Norwich side has less heart than the Tin Man.
If Norwich have the Tin Man then we have Scarecrow, who wants a brain (Xhaka) and the Cowardly Lion (Stan Kroenke) who lacks courage plus the ever faithful and obedient Toto (Elneny) We’re 5th because Spurs have Kane and Son, we had Cain and Abel (Arteta and Aubameyang)
Love Smith-Rowe but he was non-existent today. Hindsight always great but Martinelli surely a better option.
I thought the two central defenders gave everything today tbh.
The physios in charge of keeping our players fit need their asses kicked. I think Arsenal hired the dip shits that barely passed medical school, but still got a degree like the people that actually paid attention.
We have a small squad and the replacements aren’t all up to standard. That’s the problem. Nothing to do with physios.
Cedric really needs to move on in the summer, he’s ineffective, always has a disaster in him and his corners and crosses are mostly horrible. He was another Kia Joorabchian stitch up and the sooner he’s gone the better.
13 league defeats this season, 5 in our last 9 games, no where near Champions League standard. Outworked by a Newcastle side with nothing to play for, a performance as bad as anything served up in the Emery era. As I mentioned in another article, possibly the most frustrating aspect of this current Arsenal team is how little we get the ball out to our most dangerous players compared with our opponents. Newcastle were able to find ASM time and time again while we barely got Saka and Ødegaard the ball. The stat on Ødegaard says it all really and… Read more »
The reason we didn’t get the ball to those players is because they were hiding – but for different reasons.
Saka does just look absolutely exhausted. He’s given his all this season but has run out of steam.
Odegaard however is just not good enough. He’s weak and scares far too easily in loud stadiums. I hope he has played his way out of contention for the captaincy because he is not a leader. He’s happy to show-boat when the sun’s shining and we’re 2-0 up at Home but he disappears when it matters most…
Good post MO is MO incarnated just too lightweight when the s*** is hitting the fan but when we are flowing and the confidence is high he looks world class at times. Do any of you think RM would let go of a young player if they thought he was someone they could rely on when the going gets tough?
Yes, Odegaard has been very poor for the last two games but he’s not become a bad player in two weeks. He’s a class act, terrific technique, great energy and one of our very few leaders on the pitch.
What??? ‘scares in loud stadiums’ (stadia!)… Seriously???!
The bloke’s been playing in Europe’s rowdiest cauldron’s since he was SIXTEEN… he captains his country…
He looked absolutely gutted at the final whistle – our issues yesterday began at the back, radiating from Rambo, through a way outa sorts Ben White, and a tentative Gabriel. Xhaka was iffy – as he too often can be when faced with a hi-energy, harrying opponent.
Ode simply was hardly used for his real skills… that’s NOT on him.
So if Chelsea get booted out for not getting their club sold does that mean we get the Champions League after all?
No, it goes to the 5th placed team in the Ukraine league
Absolutely spineless no heart, no grit, no desire no nothing second best all round .
I’m disappointed in Newcastle. They have been lazy, stupid and indifferent for pretty much my entire adult life. Today they come out like it’s the World Cup final dipped in the Hunger Games. They couldn’t be useless old Newcastle one more time?
Looks like they were a sleeping giant under Bruce
There are going to be about EIGHT teams next season with a serious chance at Champions League. The bar just gets higher and higher.
Once Newcastle start spending their oil wonga on transfers it’s gonna be even harder for everyone to break into the top four
Arteta clearly needs to learn to manage a squad and how to rotate and keep players fresh. I really hope the lack of champions League doesn’t mean we miss out on our main transfer targets but I would assume it will.
I became very nervous about our top 4 spot when we played Leeds utd and couldn’t beat them convincingly even with 10 men at home. I didn’t feel we had enough in attack, fair to say if we had aubameyang we’d made that top 4.
If we had Aubameyang playing with the right attitude, yes. But he didn’t have that for the last year he was here and probably wouldn’t have changed it had he stayed.
Not being able to get the right attitude out of your best player is bad management
What’s even worse management is publicly exiling your best player when you think you can’t get the right attitude out of him – enabling him go on a free meaning you’ve got no funds to replace him
$350,000 per week is derisory, barely above the minimum wage negotiated by the Prima Donna Union and not nearly enough to incentivize performance.
So much of Premier league football is now about beating the press. Arsenal desperately needs a player who can drop deep, receive the ball and then spin on a dime to beat the pressure. Xhaka and Elneny are neat passers, but they just don’t do that. Thomas Partey is much better at beating pressure to find space, when he’s fit and in form. That is why I’m pretty sure that Arsenal are going to get Arthur Melo from Juve. He can turn on a dime and is brilliant at beating pressure (think one-footed Santi Casorla). He will then bring Odergaard… Read more »
Beating the press doesn’t mean tiki-taka in your defensive third.
Newcastle beat our press just by hoofing it to Wilson a couple of times, exploiting our high line, and very soon we stopped pressing altogether.
We often do the same with Martinelli and Saka, but we also need a CF who can beat defenders. I wouldn’t mind Watkins.
But I get what you’re saying. But you have to tiki-taka if you are starting in a low block. Further, if you keep possession of the ball you reduce the chance of the opposition hoofing it back at you. I certainly think, though, that the team needs a big CF to provide that outlet if necessary.
Arsenal had 30% possession in the first half. That will horrify Arteta.
We had the chance to sign Arthur in January and declined it. We had the chance to sign Guimaraes in January and declined it. Both would have fit that description. When the facts are all laid out, we were a top 4 team in January and released or loaned out all of our squad depth while adding absolutely nobody. Spurs signed Bentacur and Kulusevski, and that’s going to get them Champions League football next season.
You can add Renato Sanches and Aouar, both of whom would have been extremely welcome over the past 2 months!
I couldn’t agree more. It was reported that Edu had done a deal with Juve for Arthur and Josh Kroenk stepped in and squashed it (presumably because it meant Arsenal breaching the budget going forward). Arsenal will look pretty damn stupid if it gets Arthur now.
Really interesting twitter feed on Arthur. If he has a flaw it’s that he relies too heavily on his strength (ball control under pressure!) but a good coach should iron that out.
https://twitter.com/covercianograd/status/1523719081337458688
ESR can do that.
Problem is MIDFIELD and lack of goals/chance creation. Any team with Pace and power will just run over us. Odegaard looked like a pre teen tonight and not for lack of effort, Guy was just bouncing off people and getting shrugged off. Xhaxa and Elneny’s lack of athleticism and power completely found out also the abiltiy to beat the press with good/quick feet and a turn of pace and then find a pass all in one motion. Partey has been missed massively for that. As much as i love our young players they shouldn’t have the future of the club… Read more »
Getting top 4 with 13 matches lost would be a minor miracle.
We lost too many matches.
About as disappointed after a match as I’ve been in years. Worse than losing a cup final given the ramifications of this loss and it meaning f’ing Spurs back into the Champions League.
Disappointed but, on reflection, mainly for recruitment prospects .. might be better for these players (the twelve or so I wouldn’t punt out the door) to play for a European trophy they have a shot at winning than to get thrashed by Bayern or Qatar in the last 16. And there’s always lasagna.
Can the europa league be moved to Wednesdays atleast? since there are 3 cups in Europe now?? that’s my biggest issue with missing out on CL, it messes up the league over the weekend too!
Add the loss of money and some players not wanting to join due to Europa, and the disappointment is complete!
Arsenal are always penny wise, pound foolish. A DM would have gotten us the league when Leicester won it. And a striker on loan in Jan would have probably sealed the 4th place this time! anyways!!
Norwich have got this. Come on lads!!
We have a lot of players that have been given to many chances. Xhaka, Mo, Cedric, Holding and Laca are not good enough but time and time again they get back into the team. They can do a good game or two and the shit hits the fan. In Arsenal you can get back into the no mather how bad you have Bern because we don’t have anything else to put in. That xhaka and elneny has been our midfield and Nkethia our attack show how far away we are from the teams above us. It’s actually a miracle that… Read more »
With advantage of not playing in Europe and crashing out of the FA cup and they still were not good enough.
Say what you want – a young squad, inexperienced coach or poor refereeing decisions you make your own luck in this world.
Arsenal are not good enough for top four.
If the players he signed last summer are anything to go by I dread the summer…
We looked knackered today. I’m heartbroken for the boys who have put in so much this season. I think it was the three losses prior to the United and Chelsea wins that really cost us. I just hope this doesn’t prove to be a sliding doors moment. We have a lot of good young players who Champions League clubs will fancy poaching. A horrible thought but it makes our summer more difficult.
I am not going to get angry with the team, they have over performed on a threadbare squad for large chunks of the season and just look like they have run out of steam. Besides I don’t think they are ready for CL football yet. 5th place and European football is a big improvement and if we can sell the obvious deadwood, Cedric, Lacazette, Nketiah, Pepe, Mari etc and replace with quality players there is no reason why we cannot challenge for 4th/3rd next season.
Remember it took Klopp several seasons to get Liverpool back to the top!
I hope you’re right but there will be at least 4 teams we simply cannot compete against financially next season: Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd and Newcastle. Klopp succeeded because he recruited wisely. We’ve spent a lot more money that Liverpool but on bang average players or very dodgy loan deals for discarded Chelsea pensioners
OUCH! Blogs had this to say in his prep for this match: Qualification for the Champions League is a huge motivation in itself for these players. They’ll want it on a sporting level, for the challenge and prestige it will bring next season, and for the club too after so many years without it. Clearly not – two big matches, in two packed stadia, to shape our own destiny. And we simply didn’t /couldn’t bother. Yes – we had injuries. Yes, this is a very young side. Either way, however, there is a LOT of mental work to do on… Read more »
Really depressing. But at least the team put in a solid effort. Oh..
For those clutching at straws: from the advantageous position we were in before Spurs away, describing Arsenal in 5th as an ‘Upper Mid Table Club’ is a bit like calling Hackney ‘East Islington’ The Spurs game was a conflation of catastophucks (mostly) beyond our control but Newcastle was just a gutless, spiritless and disorganised surrender to a bang average team. That said, with Newcastle’s massive spending plans bound to kick in this summer, finishing 5th in the future will be even harder than it is now for ALL the clubs outside the monied cartel so maybe some kudos to Arteta… Read more »
Everyone is talking about how bad we were. While that may be true, I think it must be said that we were so bad because Newcastle were so good. They smothered us all over the pitch, especially in midfield which is so important. If you recall, Crystal Palace did the same to us recently. Which raises questions about whether we have the means to respond to such harrying and pressing tactics. And I say this even if all our players are fit and available. If we can’t cope under such pressure, the opposition will often try to take advantage of… Read more »
100% expected them to follow the CP game plan. I’m sure that Arteta&Co. did as well. My hunch is that they had a plan but couldn’t make it stick per Xhaka’s comments post game
To me getting knocked off the top-4 slot is not that big a blow, yes it was those ****s. What is alarming is that if we lose once we keep on loosing instead of jumping back the next game. This needs to be addressed especially when we are talking about Europa etc.
A goal difference of just 9 plus failure to score in 11 games and scoring only once in 8 others is testament to our lack of firepower. Add to that an inability to come back once we’ve gone behind and it’s a miracle that we are fifth.
I assume these ratings are out of 100! An absolutely terrible performance from everyone involved last night. Far too many apologists on here as well. As recently as a few minutes before kick off, Arteta confirmed that the aim this season was to get 4th, so stop with this “happy to get 5th” nonsense. It’s not good enough. The vitriol and borderline xenophobia on here when Emery missed out on 4th by a single point was nasty and he was eventually let go for a lot less than what Arteta has delivered. He’s been an abject failure and should never… Read more »
Defence is worse than last season and White was a waste of money for 50m. The team reminded me of the latter years of Wengers reign, no fight and bottling it when it came to big games plus too much emphasis on young players
We will have conceded more goals this season than last (with Everton still to come) but I think White is a good player in a train wreck of a team (and he hasn’t been fully fit for several weeks) I guess we’re forced to play him because of lack of numbers (due to injuries and our own indiscipline)
This is what I think was the significant difference between Spurs getting 4th over us: They beat City twice and drew Liverpool twice (8 points total) whereas we lost all 4 of those games. Spurs could cope with the very best, we couldn’t.
Good point!!!!!
Who the FUCK picks Smith Rowe over Martinelli Having played Conference league football if your not prepared for a physical fight on a cold wet night up up north you will lose.
Read what Granit says Newcastle, Crsytal Palace,etc etc
Jesus Christ.
We have only won 1 game this season when the opposition team scored first. If we are being harsh, that means we are unable to win the game if we go down 1-0. I don’t know if it is a mentality issue, but that is something we need to fix for next season. At times it seems like we have no plan B, when things go a bit sideways.
That being said, I do believe we are moving in the right direction
I think the most damning stat for this season is that we’ve literally lost 100% of the time we’ve conceded first.
Except home to Wolves