Arsenal slightly increased their lead at the top of the table to 8 points over City, who now have a game in hand, after the 0-0 draw with Newcastle. On the whole I don’t think this is a bad point, but there are so many frustrations from this match. Where to begin? Not really sure, but let’s give it a go.
In what now seems to be a theme of Arteta’s Arsenal, we started absolutely brilliantly. We completely jumped Newcastle and had 5 attempts on goal in the opening 7 minutes of the match, including one that Martin Odegaard should have worked the keeper and probably scored to put us up early. Unfortunately our in-form Norwegian skied his shot in what was probably our best chance at scoring on the day. Newcastle quickly shifted their game-plan with Eddie Howe doing his best Mourinho impression by parking the bus for the remainder of the match. The stats said as much with Arsenal having 67% of possession and 17 shots compared to Newcastle’s 33% possession and 8 shots. Their objective shifted to looking to capitalize via counter attacks and set pieces, while trying to slow the game down with a series of fouls and shithousery.
To say that Tony Pulis would have been proud is a profound understatement, as they did their best Stoke impression committing 16 fouls and countless occasions of kicking the ball away and delaying proceedings. The referee wasn’t punishing Newcastle in any way, so they understandably kept it up given there were no repercussions. On one hand it was good to see Arsenal stick up for themselves and fight back, but on the other hand it did feel like we got sucked into the series of silly games they wanted to play. Arteta was losing his mind on the touchline, resulting in a series of stern talking tos from the 4th official and even an altercation with Eddie Howe.
Arsenal were unable to find the breakthrough with much of the focus following the match being on the two major penalty incidents involving Dan Burn dragging down Gabriel in the box and the late handball in stoppage time. While the handball was a 50/50 call in my opinion, the Gabriel incident seemed an obvious one. How VAR doesn’t get involved there I’m not really sure, but I’d also be lying if I said I was surprised by anything with PGMOL at this point. It has to be said how poor the officiating was last night. This wasn’t just an Arsenal thing or an attempt to claim there was a bias, but the lack of consistency across the board, the allowance of constant shithousery with no repercussions, allowance of players to get in his face after every whistle and overall lack of control was downright pathetic. I saw the total time of play was something like 46 minutes, with the average EPL match having 55-60 minutes tells quite the story. Plus only 5 minutes of stoppage time – insane. All the fouls, faked injuries, cramps, a few subs, etc. Yet another reason why I’m all for the stopwatch being introduced to remove the mystery. Or go back to the World Cup stoppage time approach. Without referees being held accountable to explain their decisions I would just feel better with more standardization to minimize the leash refs are given to screw things up. A good ref isn’t noticed. Last night that was clearly not the case. Anyways, I digress…
The other clear talking point is Arsenal’s lack of depth at the moment. Arteta was clearly not comfortable with his options from the bench, with his only sub on the night being Tomiyasu for White. Perhaps we could have seen Fabio Vieira, but given the physicality and need to defend set pieces you can understand why he wasn’t introduced. The return of Emile Smith Rowe can’t come soon enough, but we also cannot rush him back and demand too much. He will be such a crucial player for us throughout the rest of the season, so let’s focus on easing him in. With 11 days until our next Premier League match it’s blatantly obvious we need to get a deal done for an attacking player. Chelsea meddling in the Mudryk deal is incredibly frustrating, as it likely results in them pushing the required fee up and elongating the negotiation process. There’s no doubt the pressure is on Edu to get something done. Let’s see what happens.
Player Ratings
Ramsdale – 6/10 – Didn’t have much to do, but did give us a bit of a scare giving the ball away in a dangerous position in our third. I do also have to question how often he chose to play the ball long to Saka, who was simply never going to win a header against the gigantic Dan Burn.
White – 6.5/10 – Thought he did his job well, but is clearly a bit off the pace with another early exit. His combination play with Saka didn’t have the usual zip and fluidity either.
Saliba – 5.5/10 – Still suffering from a World Cup hangover, but did look a bit better than last match. Getting his timing back.
Gabriel – 8/10 – Arguably our man of the match. Was absolutely fantastic. A rock at the back, didn’t give Wilson a sniff, same for Wood when he came on. Dangerous on set pieces and should have had a penalty. Almost scored another one too.
Zinchenko – 7.5/10 – Zero doubt that he is Arteta’s first choice left back. With that said, he is absolutely everywhere! At one point he spearheaded an attack from our right hand side, but didn’t give up at all on his defensive duties. Constantly ordering people around on the pitch and raising the level. What a signing. Just needs to stay healthy. Good to see him do the full 90.
Partey – 7/10 – Another solid match from the Ghanian both in possession and defensively. I’m still incredibly worried about what happens if he goes down, as nobody can replicate the role he plays for us.
Xhaka – 6.5/10 – Xhaka didn’t do anything wrong today, but it seemed like Newcastle made a conscious decision to shut down Odegaard and make Xhaka beat them. It took him a bit to come to terms with the tactic from the Magpies, but, again, didn’t do badly. Just wish he did more.
Odegaard – 6/10 – Just not his day. It may be a bit harsh, but he’s been our in-form player and game changer week-in and week-out. The miss in the opening minutes and the misplaced pass for Xhaka in the box stick out as game changing moments where a little more quality likely results in the crucial goal. Worked hard as always.
Saka – 6.5/10 – A number of nearly moments. Tough for him against a side that put 10 men behind the ball. Constantly double and triple teamed, but still would find a way to beat his man and create danger.
Martinelli – 6/10 – See above, although he had the difficult task of going against a really quality defender in Trippier. Noticably wasn’t able to receive the ball in stride, but rather had to pick the ball up in static positions and try to create against Trippier and a packed in defense. A nearly moment with a header, that almost snuck in the right side of the post.
Nketiah – 7/10 – Strikers are judged by goals, but I thought Eddie’s performance was so encouraging. He played different roles at different times in the match. He picked his spots and had a fantastic turn and shot, that Nick Pope did really well to kick a foot out and stop. He’s getting better with every match and showing he is able and willing to lead the line. In a tough position with absolutely nobody available off the bench, so has to adjust his approach to be effective for the full 90.
Tomiyasu – 6.5/10 – While his introduction was a bit rough last time out against Brighton, Tomi looked much more on the pace against Newcastle. Did really well in defense and contributed to build-up play. Just needs to stay fit, as his 2022 was so marred by injury.
That’s it for today. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for all the latest updates.
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