Arsenal moved 8 points clear at the top of the table, despite being held to a 0-0 draw by Newcastle this evening.
Eddie Howe’s side sat in, stayed compact and defended well. Arsenal didn’t have quite enough craft to open them up, and not enough on the bench to try and change things.
Here’s how the players rated this evening.
Read the Arsenal 0-0 Newcastle report and see the goals here
Arsenal 0-0 Newcastle – Player Ratings
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Missing Jesus..
Off the bench? Yes. As a starter? No.
I thought Odegarrd was tonight. We have a 30 million pound player in the bench and he’s not used. Could have gave him last 20 minutes. Still hopefully we are really fired up for the scum on Sunday.
It is one of the positives today . Highly likely Arteta is going to tell the board .. ” See, I didn’t have anyone to call upon when needed” ..!
Maybe, but Vieira could easily have come on, as could Tierney with a reshuffle. I think it was more a case of not changing too much and losing control, as last game.
The main takeaways for me, were Eddie Howe’s takeaways, and the totally incompetent referee.
Why the hell did they give the game between 1st & 3rd in the Premier League to that spineless clown? He wasn’t even Championship level. Lost control from the first minute, and the players could tell. Absolutely useless.
Not sure if it would have been a great idea to bring Vieira on in such a physical game. Even if Ødegaard had a quiet game offensively, he still did a lot of hard work without the ball and that‘s exactly where Vieira has some work to do if he wants to play more games in the league.
Vieira not physically strong enough for that game
Would have been played off the park…. question is-when will he be ready? He cost us a lot! Jury is still out on him…I don’t see the Bernardo Silva comparisons yet..
There is a player in there but he’s yet to be coaxed out of hiding
I agree, but he still worked his arse off, would we have got that work rate out of Vieria?
Next game – 3 points. Let’s go!
0/10 Fat Tony Pulis
Howe did he gain so much weight so quickly?
Christmas selection boxes.
When you just park the bus, you don’t actually move around enough
I hear oil is very high in calories
Underrated comment
ad hominum attacks?
So if we do sign Mudryk, do we play him late in a game like this? Viera may could have made a difference
then again that’s why we sign Mudryk. We had only one offensive option on bench. We miss ESR
Yeah I guess that would be the initial plan.
Tonight for example when White went off, instead of Tomiyasu coming on we could have brought on a Mudryk, gone 3 at the back, have that extra player in the final third.
Vieira looks good but doesn’t really look like a last-ten-minutes game-changer type of player.
You never can tell. Against wolves earlier in the season, Viera made a telling contribution off the bench.
Vieira looks ineffectual and lightweight. He’s young and he’s learning to play at this level but he would have contributed preciserly zero to this game as a sub.
Looks very lightweight. Hope he doesn’t follow the same path as lokonga. Badly miss ESR.
Frustrating but still so encouraging the way we’re dominating game after game.
0/10 for Eddie Howe, his assistant manager, Newcastle playes, Saudi Blood Oil Money for their constant shitbaggery on the pitch.
off it, too! at least one assistant coach got in on it, and a sub was even booked for it
Why did VAR review the Foul by Burn on gabriel in our box and not the clear and obvoius foul by burn on Gabriel in their box? Wtf…
Because the FA doesn’t want Arsenal to win.
don’t want to undermine their colleague’s decisions and make them look (more) foolish on television i guess
Clear penalty. The handball was also a pen. We’ve see handball pens give. For much worse. Why do they trot out some idiot ref for what was always going to be a game like this?
Because Jarred Gillett in the VAR room hates Arsenal.
If the Premier League is to be seen as competitive, VAR can’t give the pen.
Exactly. Clear pen. Outrageous but then not for first time
exactly my thoughts!
Tough oppo today and the next two matches. Hope we do well in them as February is overall easier (apart from the City match).
It’s games like this where I miss someone like Giroud. An option to bring off the bench when you just can’t get the breakthrough, who can offer something totally different. All in all though it wasn’t a bad result, just frustrating how it played out. Hopefully we can give (at least most of) the boys a rest on Monday and they’ll come out fighting against Spurs.
it would be nice to have someone like Weghorst or Fullkrug to activate the protocol Rob Holding reverse
Yep – and we coulda had him for ONE million when he left Chelsk! What struck me tonight is that these are the games where we’ll maybe get 2, possibly 3 chances and we HAVE to take at least one. We can’t rely on the ‘twat-in-black’ to see a clear penalty when it happens so need to take things into our own hands. Eddie, Ode, Saka and Martinelli could all have scored on another day – yes, Pope had a blinder but we must learn to put those one-off chances away (or buy someone who will!). Especially against those teams… Read more »
I wonder what this match has told about how Arteta is thinking about our substitutes…
Bring back Jesus asap 🙏
Is Jesus allowed to perform miracles on himself? Because ASAP would include some serious healing…
Well… it’s way past the third day… #justsaying.
To me zinchenko, slowed the ball all night along. Back and forth back and forth. Even in extra time. I get that it was wet, windy and rainy, but balls needed to lifted for Marinelli to run on to and fight for. The Newcastle defense was very well organized but we did challenge them enough.
Completely agree regarding Zinchenko, he took a touch, then another touch, he paused and then took another touch before he passed. Some passes were good, but he just kept killing the momentum for me. Found it really frustrating. I thought Tierney would’ve been someone to come on rather than Tomyasu, Martinelli needed some help on the attacking side against a very good Trippier.
Hopefully tonight will show the board we need top quality players, our overall squad needs bolstering up.
He was poor in the first half (sloppy passes, too casual) but made some brilliant passes in the second.
Which match were you watching? Zinchenko was one of the positives in the game and covered well in the middle while Xhaka went forward – something neither Tierney (no disrespect) nor Tomi can offer. If you talk about slowing things down I think you’re talking about Granit Xhaka. He can’t play the quick transition game and that’s his nature. Not a weakness per se but we need another option in his place for games like those where the opponent sits and requires opening up with fast and crisp passing.
Agree on Xhaka, he’s having a great season for us but his limitations were self evident against Newcastle and Brighton. I was surprised Vieira didn’t come on for him, we need more options in that position.
Couple of times now, in recent games, we’ve seen Granit in pole position but unable to sort his feet out for a quick shot. Fair enough, it’s not his strength – more of an ESR thing… which then begs the question – his more forward role has been very effective but should he be getting right up into the box at those key moments? Seems he almost gets in the way, on occasion.
Zinchenko and Gabriel were our two best players imo. Zinchenko made one serious mistake in the first half but some of passing was through the lines was sensational.
I don’t understand the officiating in this League. It is atrocious and so sub-par, it’s incredible. Disgusting. If the League Title comes down to dropped points from these games, they can go fuck themselves.
Very disciplined Newcastle team today that I think an option or two off the bench would see us beat them.
Eddie loves a feint before allowing the ball to go past for him to run on to. One will come off soon and he’ll be clean through.
As controlled as Zinchenco was tonight, I felt he slowed out play down a bit too much. Maybe with a bit more match fitness that will come.
I agree. I felt at times Zinch held on to the ball for a bit longer and slowed us down. I also wish if Odeggard could share a tip or two about having a perfect weight on the pass to Xhaka. Couple of passes from Xhaka did split the defense but they were slightly overhit which allowed Newcastle defense to get back.
Arteta, you absolute melt. make some fookin changes on the offensive side of the pitch. The front 3 looked absolutely knackered by the 60th minute. Should’ve thrown on Vieira, Marquinhos, and Butler-Oyedeji to shake things up. Thank fook we scrounged a point off Stoke-lite.
Who? Marquinos is a kid. Vieira lightweight. We dont have anyone thats the bloody problem
Newcastle defenders would have eaten them for breakfast
Scrounged a point?????🫣🫣🫣
I have seen some bizarre comments off the back of this game, but this one takes the top prize.
What an utterly ridiculous suggestion. You’d be the first in line with your pitch-fork if he did that and we lost.
hahahahahahaha – fucking sloshburger! you’re out of control brother!
Disclaimer: previous post may contain traces of bollocks
How were lesser experienced players supposed to win us the game at the expense of the starters? You’ve been playing too much fifa
How is there no VAR check at the very end?? Shocking and laughable.
Its not like the gaffer didn’t think we had enough to influence things from the bench today. We literally did not have anything to influence things in the attacking sense. We could not bring Vieira in because we needed somebody to run at their defence, and Fabio is not that. Smith Rowe would certainly ha e helped but he is not available. Mudryk cannot come soon enough.
But Im really proud of the boys today. Newcastle came and proved that we are a team to be scared of now.
Definitely were the better team and tried to actually play football, ridiculous to not have at least one of those penalties given as well as many yellow cards they should have had. Would like to have see more zip to our passing and mixing things up a bit in how we attacked (at one point in the first half it seemed we spent 5 minutes passing in a triangle between Partey, Zinchenko and Gabriel with little soft slow passes without looking to do anything different). The game was screaming for Odegaard to come get the ball more often in the… Read more »
Why are you blaming the opposition for our own shortcomings? Yes they parked the bus, wasted time and fell over in defiance of all known gravitational laws but we weren’t good enough to overcome this.
Surely if you’ve played your best eleven then bringing anyone on will weaken the team on the pitch in some way.
Or you’ve not played your best eleven at the start
Yes because players don’t get tired ever.. that doesn’t affect anything.
How about we just keep playing Saka until he has no ankles left because their is a drop in quality to the squad players.
Why don’t we just put on all the pace merchants like it’s a video game. Stick to fifa
Your best eleven is the best eleven for the particular team you are playing e.g. we wouldn’t go with a back five and two holding midfielders against say, Cowdenbeath
Wonder if Tierney, especially his early Arsenal version could’ve changed the things… as good as Zinchenko is maybe some recklessness was needed… 🤔
Some overlapping run on Martinelli’s side from Tierney could have helped. He almost always had two players defending against him. Newcastle were quite disciplined about their defensive duties.
Agree with this. THe overlap from White or Tomi helps take the double team off Saka so many times and if they don’t go Saka slips the runner the ball. Would work with Tierney, a natural left footer., on the other side.
This will no-doubt get downvotes but, much as Pepe was not the miracle we all hoped for, these were the kind of stubborn bus-parked matches where he pull out one single moment of brilliance, nick the front two hubcaps off that bus, and curve it into the top left corner.
He was stealing a living most of the time but I do agree he had top drawer quality on what were far too few occasions.
It’s sad we couldn’t win against the bunch at our home. The two penalties, especially the first foul on Gabriel not being given was indeed scandalous. We absolutely needed someone to come from the bench and help our push for the winner but sadly we had no one 🙁 Although we didn’t win, I think we played quite well. Xhaka and Martinelli needs to improve the weight of their final third passes. Saliba seemed to be letting the ball bounce but he handled situtations well, so may be that’s his style of play. Let’s not get worried/upset/sad about this. I… Read more »
Agreed. Once we start blaming our fate on refs we can safely assume we’re not going about our business properly
Feel like Granit offers very little in the final 3rd in games like this. He is solid all around but lacks that special ability which you want from your midfielder who has the freedom to move up.
His forays into the final 3rd are no longer a surprise to our opponents.
I think Martinelli and Saka could’ve been half a point less. I thought they looked a bit mentally tired in the second half.
Disagree, thought they were our most dangerous players today, particularly Saka. The bigger issue was that Ødegaard and Xhaka both weren’t quite on it today.
Overall, I’m happy with the performance. But this games showed why it will be impossible to win the title without reinforcements this window.
I felt like not only was the final touch off from all of our front 4 tonight but the decision making was slow. Martin and Xhaka especially compared to their normal standards. I think they underestimated how hard NUFC players work coming back to help on the ball. I mean they got away with a ton but they did work back hard – especially Joelinton. I bet Arteta would have tired Vieira if we were down a goal but really wanted to ensure we didn’t ship a stupid goal. Solid defense tonight outside of Ramsdale and Zinchenkos two poor passes… Read more »
Hard to play football against whatever Newcastle tried to do tonight. Still, we had chances and Newcastle did exactly what they wanted to.
Maybe my Arsenal rose tinted glasses, but I thought the ref had no control over the game. The time wasting, the play acting and the clear and obvious penalty when a defender tried to take Gabriels shirt off.
We are still top and got a point though, we move on!
I love Zinchenko and I think he brings a lot to the team, but if I were Arteta he would have been off for Tierney around the 60th. He wasn’t at his best and we mainly played through him which tonight meant Odegaard had a lot less of the ball. We needed something special to break them down, and Zinchenko wasn’t going to make that difference tonight. I think Odegaard may have been having an off night too, but I would have liked to see us make more of an effort to get the ball to him.
It is worrying that Arteta seem to trust so few of the offensive minded guys on the bench. This winter transfer window can not fail
He only had Fábio Vieira and Marquinhos as attacking replacements from the bench and neither has really done nearly enough to date to warrant significant game time
One of those nights I suppose. Positive thing is we pushed until the end. One point will have to do tonight. We go again.
I try not to always blame our misfortunes on refereeing but Newcastle wasted 25 minutes just to kill our attacking momentum. We can argue about what teams play like but it’s ultimately down to the referee to punish cynical timewasting. Utterly inept.
I agree, but what makes things even worse, is that as the laws currently stand had Arsenal scored late on, the ref would have added all that wasted time back on for Newcastle to equalise
Viera
Thought gabriel was incredible with his passing and also his defending. Would giVe him a 9 and MAN OF THE MATCH
My dad passed away last night having watched the game, which was obviously quite stressful, so let’s go and win the league for him
So sorry to hear that Savage. Sincerest condolences to you and your family. Puts things into perspective. It’s only a bloody game afterall.
My condolences.
The players looked slightly off the pace which is probably because of the short turnaround from the Brighton game. Both games were played on sodden pitches in a howling gale, which saps energy and the swirling wind makes it more difficult to judge passes. For the Magpies timewasting and breaking up play it wouldn’t make much difference, but for our players trying to play football it just added another layer of difficulty. This was a game we would’ve lost even last season, playing against a cheaty team with an incompetent referee. It’s disappointing not to win but that was a… Read more »
Like Arsenal don’t waste time in some games?
Can’t say I share Arteta’s conviction about the two ‘scandalous’ penalty incidents. There was a foul on Gabriel by Burn certainly but it was initiated outside the box. The purported handball in added time wasn’t a penalty as the ball struck an arm that was close to the defenders side. That said, Eddie Howe’s valet bus parking service were good value for their point as we weren’t penetrative enough in the final third to deserve all 3 points.It’s a body blow but not a knock out punch etc. I thought the game was crying out for some KT berserker porridge… Read more »
The issue most people are having with the incidents in question were not that they weren’t given as penalties, but rather the lack of consistency and transparency when it comes to the officiating said incidents.