Newcastle, for the last two seasons, have been our bogey team… and quite frankly, it’s time to wipe our nose, and discard the tissue. It’s time for The Gunners to shoot The Magpies down, and ensure they never take a three points flight against us, for the foreseeable future.
I don’t know what it is about this fixture, that causes atrocious officiating, to take centre stage… But I hope that trend dies a horrible death, like Tie-Dye T-shirts.
We have to leave St James’ Park with all three points, and not just because Liverpool are five points ahead of us, but because it would lay a marker down. It’d let Newcastle know that their “Hoodoo” over us is finished, it’d show the doubters that we’re more determined this season, and have a winning mentality… But most importantly, it’ll give the players confidence. Confidence, and belief.
Confident players don’t overthink, and instinctively make the right decisions, all over the pitch, which reduces the probability, of making costly mistakes. Confident players, win you games.
Now, I’m not suggesting that these Arsenal players are currently low on confidence, but having more of it, will only aid them throughout the season.
Leading up to this game, there’s been A LOT of talk about our style of play. Some people feel we’re too defensive, don’t take risks, and rely too heavily on our set-piece prowess.
Some people think we’re boring, and easy to figure out…In terms of how we struggle to break teams down, who defend deep.
Well, I’m NOT one of those people. A couple of seasons ago, we played more attacking football, blew some teams away, but we’d ALWAYS get done on the counter-attack… and we played the same way, home, or away… regardless of the opposition.
We’d push too high up the pitch, commit too many players forward, and a simple pass through the middle, would be our undoing. Naïve defending, WAS most certainly an issue.
After finishing second, for the last three seasons, Mikel Arteta has rightly looked for solutions.
He realised that we need more than one style of play, and that conceding sloppy goals, is avoidable, if certain adjustments are made.
We now show more football intelligence when breaking forward, communicate better, and ensure two or more defenders… remain on the halfway line, which makes us less susceptible to the counter-attack.
Now we have the best defence in the league.
Our set-piece coach Nicolas Jover, working with the team on how we can hurt teams more from set-pieces, was a brilliant idea. It gives opposing teams something else to worry about, and it’s added another dimension to our game.
No, we’re not too heavily reliant on set-pieces, we’re just extremely good at them… and why wouldn’t you do the things you’re extremely good at, to win football matches?
Mikel Arteta identified areas in our team, and in our play, that needed addressing, and he addressed them. That’s what good managers do.
I don’t think he gets enough credit for this
Are we less exciting (So far) this season? Yes.
Are we better defensively? Yes.
Do I care about being less exciting, if we’re winning football matches? NO! Absolutely, not.
Arteta has tried the other ways, and failed. I think he deserves a chance to try this current way of playing.
I’m all for setting up a little more defensively, AWAY from home. I’m all for adjusting your team-sheet, and gameplan, in accordance to the opposition, and their personnel.
That’s what tactically astute managers do. Mikel Arteta has done, and IS doing, a good job.
Don’t let your judgement be compromised, by pompous punditry, ominous opinions, and by the new statistically driven way, the beautiful game is going.
Just use your eyes. Your eyes will never lie to you. Who cares what XG says.
What can a computer possibly tell ME, about the amount of goals to expect from my team?
XG is ridiculous, because a computer doesn’t know how to expect, the unexpected. Yet, it’s being used to praise, or ridicule teams, and managers.
Again, just use your eyes. We’ve played well this season, and we’ll get better, and better, as the season progresses.
Ok, on to the match.
Mikel Arteta surprised us all, with his attack minded team selection.
David Raya in goal, Riccardo Calafiori at left-back, Gabriel Magalhaes, and Cristhian Mosquera, in central defence, and Jurrien Timber at right-back.
Declan Rice, and Martin Zubimendi, sitting just in front of the defence….and ahead of them, Leandro Trossard on the left, Eberechi Eze central, in his favoured No.10 role, Bukayo Saka on the right, and Viktor Gyokeres up front. We were set up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with our most creative players starting the game. Arteta’s message clear…START ON THE FRONT FOOT!
Arsenal gave Newcastle the runaround, in the early stages…With some slick, incisive passing. There was some intelligent movement, and one-touch play. Newcastle were getting a football lesson, and had no idea they were even in class.
In the 5th minute, Eze had a great left foot strike, that was unfortunately saved by Nick Pope.
Every time we went forward, it looked as though The Magpies would get their wings clipped, and The Gunners would continue to fire upon their nest.
In the 14th minute, Eze deep inside his own half, played a long ball over the top to Saka, but with three Newcastle players around him, he couldn’t quite control the ball. The Newcastle defender attempted a pass back to the keeper, but the pass was short… And Gyokeres ran onto it, charging into the Newcastle box. Nick Pope, in an attempt to snuff out the danger, clumsily took out Gyokeres… And without hesitation, the referee pointed to the spot. Arsenal were awarded a penalty!
Saka picked up the ball, ready to dispatch the penalty…Only for the referee to go and look at the screen, under advice from VAR. This was bizarre, because it was a clear cut penalty.
The referee however, overturned his original decision, and the penalty was NOT given.
Yet ANOTHER controversial decision, had gone against Arsenal, at St James’ Park. I was absolutely, FURIOUS.
More shots from Saka, and Eze, were saved…and a wonderful strike from Trossard, hit the inside of the post, but somehow didn’t go in.
Concern started to whisper in my ear, as whenever we don’t take our chances, we get punished for it… And in the 34th minute, Newcastle’s striker Nick Woltemade, became the punisher.
Mosquera needlessly put the ball out for a Newcastle corner, which was a rare mistake from him. A short corner was taken, and Sandro Tonali floated the ball into the Arsenal box, Woltemade beat Gabriel Magalhaes in the air, and headed the ball home. Totally against the run of play, Newcastle were 1-0 up.
Arsenal continued to pass, press, and probe… Trying to erase the injustice of the penalty decision, and recover from the proverbial sucker punch… But undeservedly, went in at the half-time interval, 1-0 down.
William Saliba was brought on for Cristhian Mosquera, at the start of the second half. I don’t think this was a reflection on Mosquera’s overall performance, but I’m guessing Arteta wanted a bit more defensive experience, for the remainder of the game.
Newcastle camped out in their own half, and repeatedly broke up our play with persistent fouling, which the referee shamelessly ignored. This only made my frustration gather an unstoppable momentum, and hope bid me a tearful farewell… As the minutes ticked away, and the possibility of defeat, felt like it was heading towards an inevitable certainty.
In the 70th minute, Bukayo Saka made way for Gabriel Martinelli, and Riccardo Calafiori, was replaced by Mikel Merino.
Arsenal were still dominating the game, but the breakthrough seemed further away, as Nick Pope continued to make save, after save.
In the 82nd minute, Martin Odegaard came on for Martin Zubimendi, and the game shifted even more in our favour. Odegaard adopted a new profession as a seamstress, the way he was constantly threading through the eye of a needle.
Newcastle couldn’t cope with Odegaard’s vision, and passing accuracy… And Arsenal were quickly reminded, just how much we’ve missed him.
In the 84th minute, we won a corner, which was surprisingly taken short by Declan Rice. He played a short pass to Eze, who passed to Odegaard, and he zipped the ball back to Rice, who whipped a dangerous ball in to Merino, who glanced the ball into the net. GOOOAAAAAAL!!!
Something we’d deserved from the opening whistle. Arsenal had equalised, and with enough time left on the clock, to go a get the winner.
Hope entered the chat, and was in deep discussion with belief, and determination. We can do this! Time suddenly stopped being our enemy, and begged to be on our side, which we gladly obliged.
Arteta took off Leandro Trossard in the 88th minute, and brought on Myles Lewis-Skelly. Some much needed fresh legs… And he made a great run in the 94th minute, and was found by an incredible through ball, from Martin Odegaard… But Lewis-Skelly’s attempted cross was blocked.
In the 96th minute of injury time, Arsenal earned a corner, that Martin Odegaard took. He curled an inviting cross in, towards the keeper’s near post, Gabriel Magalhaes accepted the invitation, and with a towering header, he put Arsenal 2-1 up! GOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!! The king of the castle!!!
The match finished 2-1 to Arsenal, and the precious three points we collected, was everything we deserved. We had more possession, more shots, and played the better football.
This performance had everything! We showed our battling qualities, and more than stood up to Newcastle’s physicality. We had the mental strength to stay composed, after some abysmal officiating… And we refused to give up, and pushed for the winning goal, after our late equaliser. That’s the winning mentality I mentioned earlier.
We capitalised on Liverpool losing to Crystal Palace, and closed the five point gap, to two points. BRILLIANT!!!
Champions League tie next, at home to Olympiacos. Let’s carry our excellent form into that game… But in the meantime, I’ll be rewatching how we massacred The Magpies.(HAHA!)
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