William Saliba says he’s well aware of the highly-charged atmosphere generated by Newcastle fans after watching PSG melt in the St James’ Park cauldron on matchday two of this season’s Champions League group stages.
The French champions, featuring a host of big names, went down 4-1 in October and Saliba says it’s all the warning he and Arsenal need before their own trip to the North-East.
Having missed Arsenal’s 2-0 win at Newcastle in May due to injury, Saliba is looking forward to a first taste of Geordie hospitality.
“We know St. James’ Park is a really tough place to play,” he told Arsenal.com.
“We saw in the Champions League against PSG that Newcastle are so good at home because they have such a good atmosphere.
“It’s a really physical team and they are so good with the ball as well, so we expect a tough battle.”
Saliba is likely to be returned to the starting lineup having been rested for the Carabao Cup defeat at West Ham. Despite a humbling night at the London Stadium, he says the Gunners come into the game feeling good after a 5-0 win in the Premier League against Sheffield United.
“We played well in the second half. We only scored one goal in the first half and we could have done a lot better, which is what the coaches told us at half-time.
“But it was a good game for us and gave us a lot of confidence for the next game against Newcastle.”
Elsewhere, Jorginho, who started on Wednesday, is keen to put things right following a bad night at the office.
The only thing we can take from this tough result is how we need to be much better at competing for the next game,” he told Arsenal.com.
“If you’re going to play at this level, you won’t win for sure. So that’s what I think we need to improve on for the next game to try and win there.
“It’s great that the game [against Newcastle] is on Saturday, because it’s a chance to turn things around, and turn this feeling because it’s not the best feeling of course. We can go and try to put things right.”
That photo is so badass, our defensive big three 🤩 kind of looks almost like the Beastie Boys at the end of Sabotage
https://consequence.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/beastie-boys-sabotage-sound-engineer-memoir-tim-meadows.png?resize=1000,580
Pls can someone photoshop that.
I see why Benny Blanco isn’t called up to the national team anymore. Southgate too scared of him.
“Physical” is a very diplomatic way to describe Newcastles collection of cloggers and rats who love to foul and petition the ref for the 58 minutes they play during a match
Yes, we can look forward to getting kicked for 100 mins with Kieran Trippier reffing the match
Trippier is such a smug twat
The phrase you’re looking to describe trippier is “little rat faced prick who sold his soul to a theocracy”
We can put things right by Jorginho and Havertz not playing for starters.
Havertz at 9 over nketiah
Nketiah was as bad as kai against hammers
Ask yourself; would Haveryz have scored those 3 goals against Sheffield ? I doubt
Let’s do the talking on the pitch.
I feel sorry for Jorginho but if he starts we’ll be steamrolled plain and simple. We’re s different best with Declan as DM.
Just rewatched our 0-2 win against Newcastle. Completely forgot about our starting line-up. Reminding myself having missed Partey & Saliba last time around gives me hope and belief.
Jorgs bossed the midfield. I am sure he is capable of delivering such an elite performance once again
We didn’t get steamrolled v Man City with Jorginho playing.
With Partey out, away to Newcastle, Rice/Jorginho/Odegaard is our most logical midfield 3.
Like we were last season you mean?
Granit, bless him, called it right when we imploded 2-0 & our CL spot up there 2 seasons ago when he rightly said our side bottled it, we reversed that result last season 2-0 by taking control and keeping those mouthy magpies quiet which i hope is a repeat after the disappointing result v bubbles, i expect Raya, Ben, Saliba, Gabi, Tomi, Rice, Jorginho, Odergaurd, Saka, Martinelli, Nketiah to be 1st 11, hopefully we get a ref who doesn’t bottle it either.
Just read the “midfield” article but today it’s imperative to stop Almiron & Gordon from running ! Stop them you stop the Toon. So for me ? No Zinny !!! Joelinton is the guy who sparks them off so we need him pressed coz he’s a clumsy git who lives & died by his physicality ! Schar at the back is a top player with a great passing range so whoever is up top they need to keep at him plus he’s a bit soft & frail when it comes to injuries ! I’ve played coached & managed up here… Read more »