Wow, forgot how much I hate Newcastle and their obese fans. A year ago last year, they were wholly responsible for knocking us out of the Champions League places after bullying us up and down the pitch at St. James to get a 2-0 win over us and fully sending me down a spiral of depression.
Earlier this year, they played us to the most 0-0 draw at the Emirates which an absurd amount of timewasting, fouling, complaining etc. Credit to them, they left the Emirates with a point but karma is such a bitch. Newcastle to their credit, have been tearing up the league since their Carabao Cup final loss to United and have bullied and punished teams in their backyard. Today, the Arsenal boys stood up for themselves and shithoused and fought out a 2-0 win away at St. James. Not much has changed in the title run with City refusing to lose, but at the end of the day, all we can do now given our recent mess ups is to keep the pressure so we move onto the next week.
THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:
- We might have got away with one but sometimes, that is how things go: Literally from the get-go, Newcastle had banged a shot off the post and had a close-penalty shot with Bruno G. having a clear shot on goal form the top of the box. It felt like deja-vu from last year with their fans right on top of us with their players running free right through our midfield. Joe Willock also had a clear shot on Ramsdale and puts up a terrible attempt and shoots right at him and had another one in the second half when Xhaka puts in a game-saving tackle to keep the shot out of the net. Joelinton had a clear header in the box after a Zinchenko disasterclass that hit the post. Despite the 2-0 win, it felt like we got away with one, sometimes that happens but we just remember to count our blessings cause another day, this could have been compeltely different.
- As much as Newcastle missed their chances, we also had chances which we worryingly did not convert as well: Once we withstood the early Newcastle onslaught and the Martin Odegaard against the run of play goal, Martinelli, Saka, and Odegaard all chances to extend our lead in the first half with all of them shooting at Pope. All worse than the next with the Odegaard chance the most ridiculous. All fine and dandy with us winning the game 2-0 but something to think about and for me to complain about if we messed this game up or for our upcoming games.
- All my complaining about Odegaard is done for the season: It is up for debate who is to blame for the Arsenal four game collapse of Liverpool-West Ham-Southampton-Man City, but Odegaard as our captain is nowhere near the top of that list. He got us back into the game against Southampton, had a goal against West Ham, grabbed two goals against Chelsea and grabbed a huge against the run of play goal away at Newcastle which turned the game on its head. I apologize sir for all the garbage I have thrown your way that maybe should have been at Arteta and Saka. 15 goals and 7 assists in league play, that is Player of the Year form for a title winning midfielder, unfortunate that we will most likely fall short this year but he definitely gets into the team of the season in the Prem.
4. Jorginho was good today, but Arteta can’t make this a habit: Jorginho has been very good for us, hasn’t put a foot wrong, has played a huge part in this latter of the season, but I don’t have time for all of this Jorginho nonsense especially at the expense of starting over Thomas Partey. Yes, Thomas is more risky on the ball and is sometimes a dumbass, yes he has cost us goals with his mistakes but the difference between the two is that way more is asked of Thomas Partey from a defensive and offensive standpoint than Jorginho. Not even close. Thomas is asked to cover the back 4 by himself with Xhaka tucking in today to help Jorginho out. It is not Jorginho’s fault at all, he is an aging 33 year old, unathletic, slow midfielder and was one when we signed him, but for Arteta, I don’t think he feels the same way which isn’t good, Chelsea gave him away on a cheap fee for a reason, he has limitations, and it was apparent in the early Newcastle onslaught where they should have put us to the sword with Jorginho getting passed and ran through like swiss cheese. Arsenal fans don’t care though because we won 2-0, which is fine, but it is largely paper over cracks at this point. Play Thomas next to Jorginho, I don’t care. But we can’t have this nonsense going forward. At his core, what Jorginho does well, is not sustainable to win a league title, it works in certain games, like today (barely), but it is an unequivocal disaster if we continue to put him out there with our style of play. This isn’t a shot at Jorginho, it’s a shot at Arteta if he continues to not play Thomas and
5. Saka confuses me: He is so good man. He has so much strength and pace to go at every defender in the world that he faces and today he had a lumbering 6 foot 7 Dan Burn just begging to be got at and Saka left him off the hook every single time. Every time a pass found Saka, he waited for the ball to come to which left Dan Burn the ability to get his hands and body on Saka, which in turn makes it more difficult to get away from that ogre if he can keep his hands on you. Not once did Saka go towards the ball to receive it and force a touch away from Dan Burn, just kept inviting the pressure and seemed motivated to outmuscle the dude who is a foot taller, and much heavier than you. Makes no sense with the skillset that Saka has to not take Dan Burn to the cleaners every chance he gets.
6. Chris Kavanagh wins the dumbest person of the day award: In a day where ETH willingly started Weghorst in a match they needed to win, I don’t think anything compares to Chris Kavanagh’s performance today. My goodness, Bruno G could have committed 10 more cynical fouls and I would be still out there like a homeless man begging for a yellow card. Newcastle are dirtiest scum of the bunch with a plethora of late fouls but Chris K. was too dumb to realize and/or do anything about it. Just a blatant display of ignorance by this man today.
PLAYER RATINGS:
Ramsdale: 8/10 – Superb today, made all the big saves when called upon, made all the right passes and got his hand to every cross he came out for.
Ben White: 6/10 – Did alright. Didn’t do too much offensively, and got beat a couple times.
Kiwior: 7/10 – He did well today, all things considered, his first away match as a starter, in a tough environment against a confident Newcastle side. Kept his composure and positioning was well throughout. Makes Arteta look more like an idiot with every passing day as he decided to play Rob Holding ahead of this guy.
Gabriel: 6/10 – looked sluggish at times but was recovering from an injury against Chelsea, still our best defender and needs to be out there if we can help it.
Zinchenko: 4/10: Sloppy in play and my goodness, got put on skates by Jacob Murphy, freaking Jacob Murphy, which almost cost us a goal, he needs to get his head out if his ass man.
Jorginho: 7.5/10 – Did very well, always in the right area, started off slow, but grew into the game. Intelligent on the ball, reassured, never put us in danger. Not my cup of tea at all but can’t argue with the results.
Xhaka: 7.5/10 – This game was perfectly tailored for Xhaka man, Newcastlem the kings of shithousery met its match today when this Swiss lunatic strolled into St. James. As long as he balances on the right side of the line where he doesn’t hurt our team, he is a a menace on games like today. Rolling around when he is down to time waste and to come on immediately right after, brilliant. Egging the Newcastle players on all day, love it.
Odegaard: 8/10 – My MOTM today, when we needed him, he stepped up.
Saka: 5/10 – Trossard should have started over him
Martinelli: 7/10 – Worked his ass off all game, hugely responsible for our second goal which came of Schar lol but fortune favors the brave sometimes. Martinelli currently doing everything Saka is at the moment.
Gabi Jesus: 6/10 – held the ball up well, did his best to occupy both their centerbacks and thought he did his job well. Always ran back to cover the wingers in their defensive duties.
Tierney: 8/10 – the antithesis of Zinchenko, good or bad. Hugely plays on the flank, way more direct, not as technical but more of a old-school defender, perfectly suited to help us see this game out.
Chris Kavanagh: 5/10 – Deserves a 0/10 for the work he did on his match but probably gets paid really well be absolutely worthless at this job with no reprecussions, so I kinda got to respect him for that.
Newcastle players: 0/10 – Scumbags
Eddie Howe: 0/10 – Eddie Howe complaining about Arsenal time wasting when his team did the same exact thing at the Emirates to defend a draw, not even a lead. Eddie Howe’s men also lead the league in time wasting, very rich coming from this man.
Manchester United: 10/10 – love this team man, they make my weekends when they put in shifts like they did against West Ham and Brighton. The only bad thing is that I waste too much time laughing at them on social media when they lose smh. It would be a huge shame if they missed out on Top 4, huge shame. If I were them, I’d win more often to secure Top 4 but they seem to be doing the opposite with Liverpool lurking.
Featured image credits: Getty
video credits: NBC Sports