Newcastle are a decent outfit.

There is a reason why they finished 4th last season, why no other Premier League side lost less in 2022/23. Why this season they have already beaten PSG and Manchester City at St James Park.

They are a big, strong physical side, well drilled by Eddie Howe.

Just 3 home Premier League defeats since the beginning of last season – twice against Liverpool and once against The Arsenal.

St James Park has gone from being filled with whinging losers to whinging winners. When Newcastle are playing well, the ground is a fortress. When they are playing poor, the crowd quickly disappears.

In the last season and a bit, their home Premier League record reads: P 24 W 15 D 6 L 3. So any Arsenal fan that expected the team to rock up and take 3-points without breaking a sweat were deluded.

Their victory yesterday over us took them back into the top 6. They need to be considered a big player in the Premier League, and a visit to St James Park should now be up there with the likes of Anfield as dangerous away trips.

I actually thought we played well, but Newcastle did what they did in many games last season and ground out a win.

The Kai Havertz situation certainly got the locals blood boiling, but I think the ref got it spot on.

From inside the stadium, the challenge looked dangerous and reckless. Havertz flying in late and high and taking Sean Longstaff out. But on replay, it was clear that Havertz’s leading foot got nowhere near Longstaff and the contact was minimal with the back foot.

I fully see why their players and fans were angry. They had mis-read the situation. I am sure if the situation was reversed our players and fans would have reacted in the same way. But the ref kept his clam whilst others around him last their head and read the situation spot on.

As Havertz got nowhere near Longstaff, the challenge could not be considered dangerous. And whilst it does not need contact for it to be dangerous, Longstaff did not need to take avoiding action to prevent a bad injury. Therefore, the lack of contact removed the dangerous element.

I am not soo sure how VAR decided that Bruno Guimaraes did not deserve a straight red for his challenge. Elbowing an opponent in the head whilst not challenging for the ball is clearly violent conduct. They got that one wrong.

As for their goal, I am satisfied that the correct checks were done and the officials were right to give it.

The ball being out is a bit like the Japan one against Germany last year. The angle can be misleading. It is incredible though that we have not invested in the same technology as used on the goal line to provide a 100% accurate result.

The foul wass one of them. If the ref gave it, the decision would have stood. As it is he did not and VAR stuck with the decision.

I do wonder whether they should adopt a cricket stance of the onfield ref giving a “soft signal”.

Onfield officials are encouraged to keep their flag down, or not blow up. This makes it seem like they did not think there was an infringement and VAR then back the ref.

If the onfield ref can give a soft signal – ie “I thought it was a foul but let play go on just in cae it was not” then we would have more clarity on VAR not overturning (or giving them a chance to overturn more). A lack of decision by the onfield ref should not automatically think there was no infringement.

The time it took VAr to make their decision also came in for some critcism.

On one hand, we demand VAR take their time to ensure decisions are correct, then on the other we moan how long they take. As a fan of rugby and cricket, we will just have to get used to VAR not having the capability to always make an immediate or swift decision.

Our unbeaten start to the Premier League is over, and the fact we are in 5th shows just how tight it is at the top – had we beaten Newcastle we could have gone top.

The Premier League looks strong this season.

Manchester City and Newcastle have certainly not gone backwards, whilst Liverpool and Tottenham are both better than last season. Throw in Aston Villa and there sensational form, it will be a campaign where teams will lose plenty.

Last season, Manchester City won the league with 5 defeats. They were to Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham away and Brentford away (the last coming after the title was won), sand Brentford at home. They have already lost twice this season to Arsenal and Wolves.

I expect this years league winners to lose at least 5 games again. Therefore it is important when we do lose, and we will lose again, we do not overact as a fan base. We do not act like it is doom and gloom.

We should not over analyse every defeat, every draw, every poor performance. It will become tiring very quickly and just led to negative actors trying to create divisions within the fan base,

There is no shame in losing at St James Park. What is important is that we dust ourselves down and go again.

Things change quickly in football. We could have been 1st today, instead we sit 5th. Looking at our upcoming fixtures, things will change quickly again.

UTA.

Keenos

Batch 2 of the Mini Clockend Clocks on https://t.co/DYtSIZ2ysC now.
Please note Despatch for these is 14th November and as a pre-order please dont order any other items with it. pic.twitter.com/PaAQ0UdarK

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Newcastle United (0) 1 Arsenal (0) 0

Premier League

St, James’ Park, Barrack Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4ST

Saturday, 4th November 2023. Kick-off time: 5.30pm

(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Takehiro Tomiyasu; Declan Rice, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho (c), Kai Havertz; Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah, Gabriel Martinelli.

Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Jakob Kiwior, Cédric Soares, Leandro Trossard, Fábio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Karl Hein, Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Yellow Cards: Kai Havertz

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 60%

Referee: Stuart Attwell

Assistant Referees: Richard West, James Mainwaring

Fourth Official: Graham Scott

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Andy Madley; AVAR Stuart Burt

Attendance: 52,194

For this important clash against the Novocastrians today, not only are we already without Thomas Partey due to a muscle injury suffered shortly after he returned from his groin problem, but we have also lost Emile Smith-Rowe due to a knee injury which he sustained in the match against Sheffield United last Saturday. However, our captain Martin Ødegaard is not fit enough to return to the starting eleven (nor the substitutes bench either) this afternoon.

As this is Newcastle United’s last Premier League home match before Remembrance Sunday, after a short period of silence to remember the fallen servicemen and women of our country in all military conflicts, the match started with our boys kicking off this much awaited game late this afternoon in this fever pitch atmosphere at St. James’ Park. The match started with both teams rather gingerly trying each other out before trying to find a chink in someone’s armour somewhere, despite the home side being quicker out of the blocks to no avail whatsoever. However, the home side have sensed a weakness down our left side, courtesy of Miguel Almiron but our intrepid full-back Takehiro Tomiyasu was alert to such malarkey. Strong tackles and crisp passing appear to be the order of the day so early in the match, with both sides scrambling to hit balls that will get to their strikers, but the defenders are staying firm. We won the game’s first corner after about ten minuites, but the ball was cleared by the Newcastle defenders, and we then had a free-kick awarded to us when Miguel Almiron fouled Gabriel right in front of the referee. We are putting the home side under pressure, and have won two corners in a row, but unfortunately the subsequent attempts on goal have gone away and into the blue, high into the stands of the Gallowgate End; interestingly enough, Declan Rice complained to the referee that he was fouled inside the penalty area just before the last corner kick, but Stuart Attwell merely waved him away. We are far and away the best side on the day out there so far, with our players closing down Newcastle men successfully, and creating chances and winning corners, which can surely lead to bigger chances soon. Declan Rice is covering a lot of ground, and as such is a total inspiration to his teammates. Dan Burn appeared to be fired up in the wrong way tonight, and has to be careful in his tackling; Bukayo Saka has been upended a couple of times and needs the referee’s protection. Will he get it? Our defenders are playing excellently as a unit, successfully blocking out the home side’s strikers, who are getting more and more frustrated with us. The ground exploded when Kai Havertz tackled Sean Longstaff who ended up in a heap near the touchline, for which our man received a yellow card (even after a VAR review), somewhat unjustly, one feels. As we approach half time, the atmosphere in the ground is more electric than ever, but our boys are holding their nerve and sticking to the gameplan. David Raya collected the ball well after Anthony Gordon lost control of it in just in front of our goal, and in the four minutes injury time at the end of the first half, we continued the pressure with Gabriel Martinelli having a decent attempt on goal that was saved by the goalie. Bruno Guimarães has completely lost his head with a disgusting whack from his elbow to the back of Jorginho’s head, and tensions were further inflamed when he aggressively confronted Declan Rice just before the half time break. Let’s see what the second half brings!

The home side kicked off the second half, and almost immediately we nearly scored when a shot which came off Gabriel Martinelli’s shin via a clearance by Tino Livramento and for the next ten minutes or so, the home side were on the ascendancy. Shortly afterwards, referee Stuart Attwell had a word with both Gabriel and Callum Wilson after some words were exchanged in the heat of the moment, and a few minutes later, we had a great chance to score when Gabriel Martinelli’s cross floated over to the back post that was headed away, but it went into the direction of Declan Rice, who headed the ball wide. On the hour, Bruno Guimarães barged into Jorginho again, and then angrily raised his hands to urge our man to get up; if he carries on like this, he will be fortunate to be remaining on the pitch! Four minutes later, Anthony Gordon scored the opening goal of the match, but there is a massive question to the VAR team about it, because basically there were a couple of pushes, then the ball looked like it may have gone out of play from Jacob Murphy’s initial shot, then the strong challenge into the back of Ben White from Joelinton almost on the goal line, all contributes to the fact that this goal should not stand. But stand it did, and nobody can understand why at this point in time; but it is obvious that as the VAR team in Stockley Park are conerned, the ball never went out of play, Joelinton did not commit a foul and Anthony Gordon was not offside. Ridiculous. We tried immediately to serve up a quick response as we won a couple of corners, but the last corner was sent to the near post, where it hit one of our men and spun off and went behind the line for a goal kick. The match was flying from end to end and with eight minutes of the game remaining, Fábio Vieira and Leandro Trossard replaced Jorginho and Eddie Nketiah in order to try and grab the equalising goal. The home side were defending deep whilst we are throwing everything including the kitchen sink at them, and then at last Bruno Guimarães was booked for an appalling foul on Fábio Vieira; he was very lucky to be still on the pitch after his antics earlier in the game against Jorginho. Eight minutes injury time was awarded, and after Tino Livramento hacked down Gabriel Martinelli (for which he was rightly booked), we were awarded a free kick, and the Fábio Vieira cross that flew into the Newcastle penalty area was headed away by their defenders. Minutes later the whistle blew and we were unjustly the losers here at St. James’ Park tonight.

Unfortunately, this was the first time we failed to score in all competitions this season (this being our seventeenth match), and with fourteen shots on the Newcastle goal (and only one on target), we need to do better in the striking department. Having said that, our efforts deserved something out of this match tonight, and there were some extremely unsavoury incidents out there tonight; how the home team managed to keep eleven players on the pitch was nothing short of a miracle. Unjust is not the word here. We are now third in the Premiership, only three points behind leaders Manchester City and two points behind second placed Tottenham Hotspur, who play on Monday evening against Chelsea. We have a bad few days overall, and we desperately need to get back to winning ways again in our Champions League game on Wednesday night. All to play for now, chaps.

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Sevilla at the Emirates on Wednesday, 8th November at 8.00pm (Champions League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon

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Following the West Ham game, the consensus seemed to be that Mikel Arteta was correct in resting most of his strongest XI, and that meant we would always struggle to beat a full strength West Ham team.

As usual, some fans went OTT with their criticism, saying that results against the Hammers, Lens and Chelsea showed we had gone backwards from last season. They seem to have forgotten about:

• Brighton – when we lost 3-1 at home in the League Cup. A worse performance by our 2nd string than Wednesday night.
• PSV – when we lost away in the Europa League. Not to disimilar to the Lens game
• Manchester United – when we lost 3-1 away to a poor United team. At least we took a point from Stamford Bridge

We also had games such as Sporting (both of them), southampton (both of them), Everton away, Brentford and home, Bournemouth and Aston Villa (last minute winners!) and those games against Liverpool and West Ham where we threw away a 2-goal lead.

Last year we were certainly not infallible, and we had many a game where we did not play great and failed to win.

There is also a feeling that we are not quite as danagerous an attacking outfit as last year. That we do not look as slick and clinical in the final 3rd. But is this true?

Goal scored

The most basic way of comparing if we have gone forward or backwards as an attacking unit.

After 10 games in 2022/23, we had scored 24 league goals.
In 2023/24, it is 23 league goals.

Just a single goal less scored this year in the league than last. you would expect that to be a lot bigger to have a noticable difference on the pitch.

So maybe it is that we are scoring as many, but not creating as much?

Expected goals

After 10-games last season, we had an xG of 20.30. This season our xG is 19.89.

That shows that we are have basically created level of chances this year as last. And that is why we have scored pretty much the same as last year.

Like with goals scored, you would expect if we were playing noticable worse in the final 3rd, there would be a huge difference.

So we are (almost) equaling last years attacking output despite

Gabriel Jesus being out

Last season, the introduction of Gabriel Jesus made us very exciting in attack. His movement and fluidity transformed us!

Gabi has started just 4 league games this season, so is it any surprise that we might not look as fluid in attack without our best striker?

Eddie Nketiah is much more of a “stay in the middle” type striker. We saw last season when Jesus was out that the front 3 were not quite as scintilating with Eddie up top.

That does not mean we are any less of an attacking threat, just that without Jesus that attack is different, a little more formulaic rather than off-the-cuff.

And Martinelli also missing

Whilst Bukayo Saka is easily our best forward, I think Gabriel Martinelli is our most exciting. He gets bums off seats with the way he plays.

Like Gabriel Jesus, Martinelli has spent some time in the medical room this season. He has started just 7 of the 10 games.

Martinelli has certainly not looked as sharp this season as last – one goal after the first 10 games of the season this season compared to 4 last. His struggle for form and fitness has made us a little less exciting in attack, even though we are clearly just as potent.

Bukayo Saka not 100%

On the other wing, Bukayo Saka has not quite looked 100% all season. Despite this, he already has 4 goals to his name (compared to 3 goals after 10 league games last season).

You have to think just how high the ceiling is for this team if we think that Jesus has been out injured, and Martinelli and Saka out of form.

If we have scored 1-less goal this season compared to last, just wait until these boys begin to hit their stride.

Starting slower

And I expect them to hit their stride in the 2nd half of the season.

Title winning teams tend to pick up pace in the title running. They aim to peak for the last 10-games of the season, not the first 10.

Last season, we started hard and fast, and then ran out of steam in the closing stages. City, meanwhile, started a little slower and did not hit top gear until the 2nd half of the season.

We certainly look like we are are playing in 3rd gear rather than 5th gear right now, and for me that is exciting as we are holding back our peak performances for the run-in.

Compare that to spurs who look like they are already playing at 100%, they will run out of steam a bit like we did last season.

A case for the defence

Despite conceding twice in 3 games already this season, we are better defensively this year than last with 8 goals conceded against 10 in 2022/23.

So we are potentially playing a little more cautiously than last season, a little less “gung-ho” and the result is just the 1 goal less scored and 2 less conceded.

Last season we conceded more than 1-goal a game. That is too much if you want to win the title. If we can concede less than 2022/23 whilst scoring a similar amount, we should be in a good position to win the league.

A few less 3-2’s, a few more 2-nils. I am happy with “boring football” that does not seem as attacking, yet generates just as many goals whilst conceding less.

11 different goal scorers

So how have we managed to score just 1-goal less than last season, whilst our front 3 have looked out of form and / or not fit? Mutiple goalscorers.

Arteta has continued with last seasons philosphy of having goals all over the pitch. We sacrifice a single scorer of a lot of goals for numerous scorers of many. This season we have already had 11 different goal scorers in the league.

Tottenham have had 8 different scorers this season, Manchester City 7.

We are the most unpredictable of the top 3 when it comes to scoring goals. They come from all over the park and from corners and set pieces as well.

The Arsenal have also scored more this season than Manchester City and Tottenham – a stat that might surprise you considering how Spurs have been praised for their free flowing attacking football.

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This season was always going to be a little underwhelming compared to last seasons start.

The fact we are just 2-points and 1 goal down on last seasons 10 game total shows that we have a new normal.

24 points and 23 goals from the opening 10-games has us on target for 90+ points and 87 goals. If that is us going backwards, I look forward to when we click into top gear and start playing well.

Enjoy the game today to all those travelling up!

Keenos

Over the weekend we created a collection for Arsenal's Declan Rice…

Beach towel, shin pads, bottle opener and a mug! Artwork by the brilliant @CarlBourkeArt

RT and follow to be in with a chance of winning the bottle opener!#Arsenal #ArsenalFC #AFChttps://t.co/8DmFpjpFqo pic.twitter.com/Bs9bpzbuRx

— Kick Off Merchants (@KOMerchants) October 9, 2023