Tag Archives: Premier League

Match report: Newcastle United 1 – 2 Arsenal

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Newcastle United (0) 1 Arsenal (0) 2

Premier League

St. James’ Park, Newcastle

Saturday, 15th September 2018. Kick-off time: 3.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Cech; Bellerin, Mustafi, Sokratis, Monreal; Guendouzi, Xhaka; Ramsey, Özil; Aubemeyang, Lacazette.

Substitutes: Elneny, Mkhitaryan, Torreira, Lichtsteiner, Holding, Welbeck, Leno.

Scorers: Xhaka, Özil.

Referee: Lee Probert

Attendance: 52,165

After a brief hiatus due to international commitments, it’s good to be back at the day job again; this week, the lads find themselves up the road and near the Tyne at a true cathedral of English football, St. James’ Park, the home of our old adversaries Newcastle United.

There surely cannot be another club in English football that define themselves completely by he who wears the coveted number nine shirt, and to be fair, one can see why; Hughie Gallacher, Jackie Milburn, Wyn Davies, Malcolm MacDonald and Alan Shearer, all players that would comfortably fit into any side, in any era. In fact, Malcolm MacDonald did; he played for us for nigh on three years in the late seventies, scoring 42 goals in 84 appearances, an enviable record for any Arsenal footballer.

The cacphonous atmosphere that greeted the combatants today made the arena seem almost gladatorial in its very construction; and indeed it became so as the sound of Blaydon Races resonated around the stadium creating an atmosphere of both tension and intimidation. As the match got underway with the Barcodes wasting no effort in pressurising the Arsenal defence, it was looking as if it would be surely a matter of time before their work would bring an early reward for them. For one reason or another we got out of jail constantly early on.

Time after time we were found wanting, and it seemed at times that our team collectively had two left feet, with the inability to string a series of passes together becoming evident. In fact, the only thing worth talking about from out point of view in the first half was the wasted chance that Aaron Ramsey criminally squandered; if he had played the ball across the six-yard box instead of missing the target completely, then Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang would surely have scored. Ho hum.

Anyway, come the break, cometh the man. Mr. Emery must surely have had a word in one or two players’ ears (and a flea in others) because the change in the chaps became obvious. Just four minutes after the break, Granit Xhaka’s perfectly struck free-kick found the back of the Magpies’ net, and that moment onwards, it was Arsenal’s match to win. The dynamic changed when Lucas Torreira replaced Mattéo Guendouzi in midfield, and our confidence just grew. Little more than ten minutes later, a shot from Alexandre Lacazette rebounded off a defender thus finding the feet of Mesut Özil, and the gimlet-eyed little midfielder wasted no time in scoring a goal, which turned out to be the defining moment of the match. As the back of the net rippled when the ball found its one and only true home, the cheers and applause from our supporters became apparent, and at the same time, fifty thousand Novocastrian hearts fluttered, knowing that for them, today’s game was lost. Despite a late raid by the Magpies which saw them score a goal in injury time, the match (and more importantly) three points went back to Islington, for us, a job well done.

Despite a victory, (the third in a row, it should be said) there are points to ponder. The good thing was that we didn’t pick up any unecessary yellow cards; but on the other hand the defence is still rocky. The full-backs charge up the pitch (a la George Male and Eddie Hapgood, or in recent memory Lee Dixon and Nigel Winterburn) but in doing so leave the centre-backs exposed. It was heartening to see that when in the second half Shkrodan Mustafi slipped, stumbled and fell leaving a Barcode forward to charge in on our goal, Sokratis came across and neutralised the threat, which shows that an understanding is being cultivated between the two men, which is a very good thing. It’s going to be hard to see how Laurent Koscielny is going to get back into this team if this CB pairing gets stronger, which it should. In midfield, it’s interesting to note that Granit Xhaka plays with more freedom when Lucas Torreira is alongside him; it could be that young Mattéo Guendouzi is not ready yet, and this is the line-iup that works. We’ll see. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as these early days are going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners.

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.

Things about to get a lot easier for The Arsenal

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Unai Emery was handed a horrendous start to Arsenal’s new dawn the Premier League fixtures were drawn.

Manchester City and Chelsea. The last two champions. Winners of 4 of the last 5 Premier League seasons.

It was always going to be a thought start, and Arsenal have ended up with the results that many expected.

Two defeats from the opening two games.

Prior to the opening day game of the season, Arsenal had beaten Manchester City just once one 7 games – that FA Cup Semi-final.

Arsenal have not beaten Chelsea at Stamford Bridge since 2011 – when Robin van Persie scored a hat trick.

So anyone expecting 6 points from the opening games was deluded.

There was hope.

City and Chelsea both had a lot of players at the World Cup, and Chelsea had a crisis summer with a new manager coming in late. But the hope did not materialise as Arsenal lost both games.

Against City, Arsenal struggled; but every side is going to struggle versus the Champions.

The Chelsea game had a lot more positives about it.

Whilst we were still shaky at the back; we were electric upfront and could have scored 4 or 5 if the players realised it was not rugby and you have to put the ball under the bar.

Matteo Guendouzi continued his fine start to an Arsenal shirt. A physical presence in the midfield, he shows nice passing to get alongside defensive prowess.

The same old faces were the ones to late us down again.

Petr Cech could have done more with two of their goals. Hector Bellerin ran out of steam on the right, and Granit Xhaka was poor in the middle. The game passes Mesut Ozil by.

It is time to make a decision on Cech. He has had a rough first two games and does not look comfortable playing out of the back. With new signing Bernd Leno waiting in the wings, it is probably time for a swap.

As for Bellerin, I feel sorry for him a bit.

On another day, if the finishing was better, he would’ve come away from the game with a hat trick of assists. Instead he was horribly exposed towards the end, with Chelsea’s winner coming from his flank.

The problem is under Emery’s system he does not have the cover of a winger. He is expect to defend and attack, and it is draining.

Mauricio Pochettino up the road uses his full backs in a similar way, but he rotated them almost every game.

If Emery is to ask his full backs to bet up and down the wing every game, he is going to have to expect them to run out of gas.

In Stephan Lichsteiner Arsenal have an experienced, dependable right back who surely needs to come in for Bellerin, even if it is just for one game.

The middle of the park is a bit of a concern.

Xhaka was horrendous, but Emery played down taking him off at half time by saying:

‘It was a tactical decision because he has the yellow card also.

‘I think we don’t take risks with this yellow card and also to give the chance to another player in the match.’

On came summer signing Lucas Torreira and alongside 19-year old Guendouzi they looked an ok partnership.

The concern when playing that pair is neither is a good a passer as Xhaka, and you feel we might have trouble transitioning the ball from defence through the midfield.

I would like to see Xhaka alongside Torreira, but also think Guendouzi has done little wrong to lose his place.

It is a conundrum and it might take a few games to work out where our best pairing is.

8 of the next 9 fixtures are a lot more comfortable than the 2 we started the season with. These will go a long way to showing the progress Emery has made with this time.

I am not too concerned with the start we have made.

The truth is Man City and Chelsea was always going to be a tough first 2 games.

Had Arsenal played the likes of Fulham and Newcastle, we’d probably be top

Plenty of positives to take. Still expect us to be top 4.

Keenos

Arsenal set to complete £65m triple transfer “within 2 weeks”

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A huge criticism of the last 10 years of the Arsene Wenger era was the dithering over transfers – with the club often waiting until the last week of the transfer window to complete deals.

The new era lead by Raul Sanllehi and Sven Mislintat has heralded a new policy on transfers.

Not only were we happy to deal with a super agent when we signed Henrik Mkhitaryan, and got through a complex deal which saw Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang join the club in January, we are not concluding our transfer dealings earlier.

We have already seen Stephan Lichtsteiner join the club on a free transfer, and it is becoming increasingly likely that he will be joined by 3 more new signings.

We already know that the deal of Sokratis Papastathopoulos will go through at the beginning July. The Greek centre back joining Arsenal for £16m.

The Gunners are closing in on the £26m signing of Sampdoria midfielder Lucas Torreira.

Arsenal are discussing personal terms with representatives of Uruguay midfielder Torreira and a deal for the 22-year-old who came off the bench on Friday to help Uruguay beat Egypt 1-0.

A £26m fee has been agreed between the two clubs. Over his release clause but allows Arsenal to spread payments out.

Unai Emery is also keen to sign a goalkeeper and Arsenal have made contact with Leverkusen over a move for Bernd Leno. The 26-year-old will replace Petr Cech as the Gunners No1.

Reports are they have approached Bayer Leverkusen over a £23m deal for German goalkeeper Bernd Leno, who recently liked an Instagram post concerning the transfer speculation.

As Leno was left out of Germany’s World Cup squad, there are unlikely to be too many delays in completing the deal.

With all 3 set to be completed in the next two weeks, it will leave the club plenty of time and money to complete a “special” signing before the window shuts on the eve of the transfer window.

Keenos