Arsenal lost their unbeaten record this season when Newcastle United defeated them 1-0 in the Premier League at St James Park tonight.
Mikel Arteta’s men had maintained their unbeaten run through games against Tottenham, Chelsea, and Manchester City.
However, they faced a Newcastle side full of confidence after a 3-0 victory over Manchester United in midweek.
Newcastle also owed their amazing atmosphere to their fans, and the game started with both clubs working hard to open the scoring.
It was a closely contested game, with Newcastle matching Arsenal in pace and power, demonstrating why they belong in the Champions League.
Tempers flared, resulting in four bookings in the final eight minutes of the first half, but neither side managed to score a goal.
The teams began the second half with a clear desire to break the deadlock, and the game remained closely contested in all aspects.
It was tough to separate the two teams until the 64th minute when Anthony Gordon found the back of the net, courtesy of David Raya missing the ball while attempting to pick out a cross.
A lengthy VAR check was conducted as it appeared there might have been a foul in the build-up, but Stuart Attwell ultimately awarded the goal. Arsenal, now without Odegaard, could not find an equaliser in the remaining minutes of the match.
It wasn’t for lack of trying, though. Newcastle displayed aggression and discipline, tracking every Arsenal move and defending against the Gunners’ attacks effectively.
One last thing, the officiating today was not the best and it is perplexing how Newcastle ended the game with eleven men.
Third grade, inferior, low IQ of refereeing. There’s no point in watching this stupid league anymore. This game was more of a wrestling match than football. Disgusting
I fully agree with you the ref was pathetic and Newcastle was dirty and the ref allowed it what was Gilmarez still on the pitch. For the goal the whole ball cross the line then a clear push from Linton yet its a goal shamefull display from all the officials.
How did you tell the whole ball crossed the line? Don’t we need a top down view to be sure? Would have given a foul for the push though
The Refs are spoiling games and clubs losing at their cost.
its simple for a ref to make and defend a wrong decision. But please, they should value the players efforts, it takes alot to move a ball from one,s box to the other net.
Stuart Atwell the bloody asshole. He shookd be investigated for bribery.
I agree FbT. You can’t have so many crap decisions from VAR or the ref and his co officials that decide the fate of games and once it’s realised that the decision was in fact wrong give some equally crap conciliatory posthumous apology. For teams that are in a relegation battle, this could be so detrimental that you could potentially lose your place in the premier league and all the benefits that are part of being in the league. Thank god the people that are in charge of, or preside over VAR aren’t aren’t in a more crucial role suchal as capital punishment. I also agree it wasn’t really a football match. It was more about physical endeavour as a means to disrupt the game by Newcastle. There’s still this sentiment that Arsenal don’t like it up em and Newcastle saw that as a means to navigate their way through the game. Just as Arteta rightly said in both his post match interviews it is a disgrace that football, moreso the premier league has come to this. It’s not about open, enjoyable expressive football. It’s about being as disruptive as you can with over physicality and snide tactics. This far from the greatest league in the world. It’s just a throwback to the premier league of the 90’s where it was all kick, bite and b@llock. Teams like Bolton and Stoke would be in their element right now and Man city would be eaten alive.
I predicted 1-0 lol
Woooooooo, congratulations!!!!!
Well done! I bet you’re so pleased with yourself.
Every cloud
🏆🎇🎇👏👍😎, Gloat on.
I don’t think this was incompetence. Bias is also less likely nowadays. The amount of money in the premier league leaves me with just one conclusion. Human beings are no saints. I’m not sure I want to continue to finance this machine. I know I’ve said before, but there’s really much more important stuff in life than football.
We were not good today but VAR and the ref nailed this one. Ball was out and a clear foul on Gabriel.
Raya and Havertz. Have they made the team stronger or weaker? What would you make of it.
Havertz wasn’t that bad today
I agree but it’s not all about today. He’s been a bad signing. Just one pen goal is all he has and more games than not he’s looked downright abysmal. 65mill for him. Huge waste of funds
I cant blame too much on Arsenal today, rather than our one bad tackle by Havertz Newcastle were playing wrestling all along and somehow they avoided yellow card despite repeated fouls. How on earth such push on defender cannot be foul, same like what happened with Ramsdale during fulham match. Today’s poorest players were our both wingers who were too much predictable, everytime same action through out 90 mins. Saka look like little boy scared to death by seeing senior players. Most of his assist are coming from corners and crosses, he has lost his creativity, no initiative to take on defenders or create space for forward or create space for shooting, nothing nothing at all. He really needs rest or bench role. Most will not agree but for me Havertz was the best player today doing little bit of everything, he worked socks off, was aggressive , was sharp, active and willing to make things happen throughout the match. Raya had 2-3 jumps blatantly in the air and one led to goal and making mistakes is being a norm for him. Our efficiency against Sheffield United seems to be due their lack of their quality rather than our strength, as we have been struggling for goals from open play all season along. We might be going backwards this season and officials are not helpful either where everything is so tight. This was the game where Jesus and Partey was dearly missed but then again we can’t count on them anymore, so is it time to look toward transfer marker?
You’re a true fan, everyone else has been talking with emotions; I too was really pleased with Havertz, he’s going to come out as a fantastic player, I observed he’s bucked up and has added aggressiveness to his game. we all called out for a Striker and a Saka substitution or least we promote an academy player.
Anyone who doesn’t agree Havertz is a bad signing at this point is just insane. After 3 years of trying but couldn’t fit in at Chelsea, why the hell would we sign him for 65M?? Imagine if Chelsea signed Pepe from us for 70M after failing to impress for 3 years, would any Chelsea fan not deem that as a bad signing?
To make matters worse, our 200M outlay last summer put us at our FFP limit. It might come back to stop us from making any big money signings come January
I’m insane. Keep moaning please.
VAR clearly showed it crossed the line.
And you won’t take the push. Was it a wrestling match or a football game? You’re so shamelessly strange!!!!
Stuart Atwell is a asshole referee and always bias against Arsenal. He single handedly hand the match to Man city when Arsenal is able to win that game.
He wasn’t that good either.
VAR is a good concept but poorly executed. Why not have more cameras? We have goal line technology, couldn’t that have been used to see if the ball was out of play? Every other sport, VAR world well but in the PL it has not been implemented well. Why not just replay every decision to the on field referee, it comes down to someone in Stockly park making a subjective decision and more often than not they make the wrong decisions.
I agree with you
Yea Pires I agree with you👍
Please let’s cut Havertz some slack it wasn’t about him today he competed well in the game.
Jorginho wasn’t fantastic in the game he couldn’t replicate Odegards creativity and sluggish on the ball at times. White was also poor allowing Joelinton much time to cross the ball no wonder Arteta removed him after the goal.
Arsenal was rubbed by VAR.
We move to Wedsday UCL.
Havertz does some things, but he is almost never in sync with the rest of the players. We didn’t need him, he doesn’t fit, it was a really dumb and expensive signing. Chelsea laughed all the way to the bank on that one, and then invested the money in magic beans.
In current Arsenal except for Rice, Saliba and Gabriel or may be Odegard everyone else are expendable. There are lot of space for improvement. I am not fan of Havertz but lets not make him scapegoat in every match when there are bigger disappointment than him. He is not playing in position where he can supply consistent goal contributions. So what about players who are responsible for goal contribution and still neither scoring nor assisting?
Saka and Martinelli are not expendable. They are constantly double teamed by 2 defenders most of the time when they have the ball. It’s unfair to expect them to beat 2 defenders and create something when we leave them double teamed without having fullbacks or AMs who can take a defender off them to let them go one v one
👍top4
Saka and Martinelli were unexpendable last season but this season both are just average. How many goal contributions they have provided from open play this season?? They are constantly ineffective in tight games, very predictable and opponents are aware of their weakness and shutting them down with relative ease. Being double teamed in not an excuse as all the team will do. Yes, you are right about fullbacks who are inverting into midfield rather than byline flank, and it is also making our game more predictable and Arteta need to be blamed for this. But in these tight situations we should at least have target man and plenty of pin point crosses from flank which we were lacking. Nketiah was also not fed through out the game and we cant expect him to score if not fed the ball in box. Our flaw has been evident in most games this season and it doesn’t seem to improve anytime soon.
I may be old school but I always felt that overlapping fullbacks are there for the purpose of preventing wingers from being double teamed and giving them opportunities to go one v one against opposition fullbacks so that they can contribute more. I strongly feel that we have let Saka and Martinelli down in that aspect.
Even if we sign a big money winger, we will still be stuck in the same predicament, if we allow the new winger to be double teamed most of the time. I can’t think of any wingers in the world who thrive more when double teamed. When wingers are double teamed and can’t create on the flanks, conventional CF like Nketiah will lack the service to score.
I’m sorry but I don’t understand the benefits of the inverted fullback. Pep experimented with it and I believe he has good reasons to revert to the conventional overlapping fullbacks after trying out an inverted fullback in Zinc. Sometimes new innovations work, sometimes they don’t
Havertz didn’t turn out to be the weakest link on the team today, but his consistent underwhelming performances are a source of worry. Before the game, I voiced my concerns about the possibility of losing to Newcastle if Havertz was in the starting lineup. When Admin Pat inquired about my reasoning, I chose not to elaborate, trusting that Havertz’s performance would reveal the answer. Unfortunately, my apprehension proved correct. I didn’t want to unfairly single him out, but it’s apparent that our lackluster attacking displays often stem from his struggles.
Please lets not become Haverz appologists. He isn’t and hasn’t been good enough. Another game in an Arsenal shirt and what goal contribution did he have. How many games doing nothing of note, is acceptable?
Reggie, let’s not be overrly critical as fans. On today’s Arsenal lose its not about Havertz. Jorginho, Raya and even White all did pooly. Rice was my MOTM.
Rice far too good for us
Agree but Haverz is one of our summer star buys that is supposed to improve us. Surely if we see he isn’t, we cant defend him. He has been a waste of money and a team place. Raya, is a baffling one, nobody but Arteta and the goalkeeper coach had the vision, that so far is not working.
Jorginho for all his issues, still used the ball better than Havertz today, despite costing more than 50M less. At this point, my hopes for Havertz is that he would turn into a Marouane Fellaini type of player who can impose physically and win headers, but 65M for a Marouane Fellaini is an absurdity. If I have to cut Havertz some slack, then I have to blame the idiots who signed him
Havertz is the worst Arsenal signing EVER.
There is no debate. No argument. No defence.
Havertz offers NOTHING.
He has done NOTHING.
Oh sorry.
Scored a penalty that was given to him in the hope that it would kick start his career at Arsenal Did it heck
£65 million.
If Arteta gets fired for whatever reason it should be for signing Havertz.
Unforgiveable.
We’ve had a lot worse than Havertz, but not worse value.
Yeah, because you said so, you must right. I believe you.
he is never in sync, well almost never.
Raya disaster.
What does Mikel see in him.
Raya basically does everything other than keeping. He is not a goalkeeper, but he is someone wearing goalkeeper shirt and pretending to act like goalkeeper. His ball distribution has improved little bit but what is the point if he has no idea about the most basic job he is meant for??? Now this seems like obsession of Arteta to be like Guardiola and have his own Ederson, but till now his obsession has failed miserably.
Definitely weaker. MA has other reasons he plays them, and he must come clean. Nketiah also just not good enough.. Until we get rid of these three, we must forget about winning anything…Mark my words..
@SF T
what pain me most is that how manage M.A do not understand that these sets of players are never reliable and they only give one match magic and takes another 7-10 matches before they do wonders again of which they do so in less team matches.
nketia, havert and viera are next sets of players to be shipped on.
Harvarts is every big problem, is the cause of everything, no creativity no plans made no good cross even any short on goal why do they play him always
Raya and Havertz are gonna cost Arsenal any chance of winning the League, they are terrible..Arteta is starting to disappoint me with these decisions he’saking, our midfield isn’t creating changes like we did last season although Rice has made it solid. If Partey doesn’t get fit we will need to buy in Jan cause Havertz is a conplete joke..
Crazy stuff. Arteta needs to be criticized for his decisions in the summer and the decisions he’s making now. This squad is NOT as good as last season. Gk, LCM we are now worse, no CF, Saka cover was brought in during the summer. And Mikel is now actively making poor choices by continuing to use Raya and keeping Kai in this midfield role. I had us finishing 3rd before the season started. That’s looking kind now because the amount or CONVINCING games we’ve played this season are in actuality quite small
RSH, I have to say you have several good points there.
200M spent yet playing less convincingly than last season is mainly down to poor transfers and MA overcomplicating matters. We are lucky that results held up despite not being as impressive on field as last season. If not, MA would be facing a major backlash from the fans
65 was Havertz the rest was on Timber injured 1st game and Rice so bit curious as to your financial breakdown. Arteta deserves criticism if Kai doesn’t work out but that’s not what your comment implied with the 200 mil price tag and way too earlier to judge Kai.
Without VAR cheats we take a point away at Newcastle to remain unbeaten not the free flowing performance you want but still. If you can name the big teams that do cut through newcastle like butter I’d be interested. Understand we have not been as flowing as last year overall (almost like we’ve had severe injuries on top of constant short ones.)
The 200m should have been spent on Rice, a top CF and another CM or DM. If there’s any left, perhaps a RW. We did not need Havertz for 65. Timber looked good in preseason but we should have prioritised CF, CM and RW over a 40M RB. There was enough cover at RB and LB even without Timber. With 200M spent, we need to play more convincingly than last season.
VAR might have let us down today, but like what some wise fans said, if Raya (another one of MA’s strange and unnecessary experiments) didn’t miss Willock’s cross that was out of his reach and he simply should not have gone for, he would have been directly in between Joelinton and Gordon to grab the knock down by Joelinton. That would have been the end of this tragic story and we wouldn’t be at the mercy of a screwed up VAR.
It’s not about losing to Newcastle or remaining unbeaten. Like I said before, results have actually been quite kind to us this season. After watching our performances since the start of the season, we have more often than not played less convincingly compared to last season, when we should in fact be playing better, given our huge summer spending. I understand that we have had some untimely injuries, but injuries are part and parcel of the game. If we had reinforced more wisely in the summer, we might be able to deal with it better
Rice 105million, Kai 65million, Viera 34 million, Jorginho 10million that’s a midfield of over 200 million, and what do we have to show? Zero goals! Every one here went over the top when we defeated Sheff. Agree that the refereeing was poor, but unable to score one goal?
We need to sack the manager tomorrow morning. Nothing less than can improve our chances of silver ware.
Emotions are high but I personally hope MA will succeed. I like him as a person, I like the way he speaks at press conferences and I like him when he was a player. I really enjoyed the season when Coquelin, Cazorla and him gave me hope that we can thrive in a midfield without Vieira or Fabregas.
A defeat against Newcastle is not the end of the world. My hope is that he learns quickly, accept the mistakes he has made and be flexible to effect changes, even if it means reverting to a system that defies his inventiveness. I hope we have enough for FFP to reinforce in the January transfer window to reinforce in areas we should have last summer. Hopefully when some of our injured players return, we can go on a remarkable run and achieve more than last season
It’s not Raya(eventhough he was poor)But VAR…..These referees are a F****ng disgrace
Pires Var was bad agreed but it won’t have gotten to var if Raya had saved that simple ball. How can a goalkeeper be so poor like that. Twice he has made that kind of mistake
That is why premier league refeereess have taken long to be chosen as best referee s in uefa and world cup
It was a bad game for us. We move. Next up Sevilla. Coyg!
Not David’s fault . Newcastle just removed our unbeaten veil . I just pray teams don’t see us much easily now
Putting this loss on Raya is missing the point. This was daylight robery that ball was out of play.Poor officiating overall.
Secondly if you don’t score you will obviously concede.Unless we get someone who can score for us,we should be ready for more of this.
Another Raya mistake? Really? The mistakes were with the ref and VAR.
Arsenal should never have sacked Unai Emery
Tosh
Really?
How did VAR not see that the ball went out of the line?!!!
England FA are the best. 😂
It takes a lot to win this League.. You have to compete against Man City. And also hope that the refs make the right decisions. Mistakes week in week out.
Very poor officiating. No consistency at all. VAR IS A JOKE.
Arteta should get Ivan Toney in January. We need another DM in January. Jorgihno is light weight.
Leagues corrupt to its core has been for decades but it’s getting insane now with the state money floating around.
Why did the referee not go and watch the incidents on the screen?!!
Because he’d have to overrule the decision then.
For SJ and Angus
The problem is that VAR has to demand that the referee should go and have a look at the screen.
The problem is VAR not the referee. Referees are not corrupt but can be incompetent. VAR is definitely not up to the mark as myself and Jon Fox and a few others have been arguing against it for years now.
Referees need help. I have been shouting for ages about extra officials (approx. 6 plus the sideline official instead of 3 and the 4th person being the side line official).
I could see it so clearly that the ball was out of play (but Stockley park does not have the angles). Foul on Gabriel is a 50-50 decision. But how is it not offside as the goalie is advanced and there is only 1 fouled defender who is playing them onside?
It looked to me as thought the ball was played back, or at least in straight line to the scorer. Having said that, the ball did look as though it was out of play before Willock (it had to be him) crossed it, and Gabriel was so obviously fouled.
For Jax
I still don’t get this. There have to be 2 people either in line or in front of the attacking player. As the goal keeper is in front of Gordon there is only 1 player (i.e. fouled Gabriel) and the ball to Gordon has not come from Raya or Gabriel but from Joel Linton. So how is it not offside? It would not be offside if Raya was in line with Gordon.
IGL, the position of the ball sll of the time was in front of Gordon, so he cant be offside. It has to come from behind him to be offside.
Oh I see.
Well from my perspective because initially i thought he was offside, Gordon was never in front of the ball. You can only be offside, if the ball from behind you. I thought hecwas behind the ball all the time. Just my take.
Var took issue with working out when the ball had been touched never that Gordon was definitely not offside. Excuse on excuse. If they were forced to rule on any of the 3 decisions they’d rule goal out. If the referee had ruled no goal on any of the decisions var would of upheld and there would be no debate. If you can’t see that there is an issue that way round your confused.
Bit we don’t experience much of these incompetence and cluelessness in other leagues. For instance, see the elbow on Jorgihno from Bruno. That should have been a yellow card offence. I believe these refs are biased and very corrupt.
Agree, it should have been a yellow card but the ref didn’t see it and VAR doesn’t do yellow cards.
It’s a straight red. Violent intent, deliberate act of raising his arm to strike a player. Literally letter of the law but your on one so rules and logic be damned.
Same way players get sent of for the softest pushes in the face.
Worst thing when Xhaka was with us and undoubtedly would of been sent off for that you’d be arguing opposite, rightly but point remains.
It could use the broadcast footage camera views to make decisions. The post match studio analysis with Carragher using that footage clearly showed the ball being out. And despite him and Izzy Christensen say it was still inconclusive because you couldn’t see the arc of the ball in relation to line itself (the tangent). But at one point in time , their was clear visible space between line and ball and that’s all you need. But then again, such are the loosely put together, farcical ideas that are presented as rules. It’s no wonder that when corners are taken again, they’re clearly out of the arc and no part of the ball is touching it…..however it’s still allowed.
Because the VAR did not instruct him to.
Why?
Dunno. You’d better ask them.
First thing to say is how good Declan Rice was but im afraid nobody else played well enough. We were poor at corners and our crosses were to nobody. We actually controlled the game but it was either too slow, too deliberate or too negative. The goal eas massively down to firstly Gabriel air kicking and it has got to be said again AWFUL positioning from Raya, who could and should have prevented the cross going over his head. We were not good enough to score and made some really terrible and naive decisions in our play in the second half. Raya has cost us again and our style if play has brought us nothing.
The Ref did not even bother to check the screen, why won’t VAR have all angles, that’s crazy.
Newcastle can be very strong at times, dey defeated Mancity, and we knew we going to this game with injured players.
10-0 corners, I think. There is no special trophy for unbeaten, we lost
On to the next game. COYG
Draw was the min Arsenal deserved from the game. Agendas are going to run even in the face of the blatant corruption. Newcastle never looked like scoring until the officials cheated.
Get over yourselves, it was a goal. It wasn’t 100% out and nothing to prove it was. Gabriel was not fouled and it was not offside. Gabriel not clearing the initial ball up and Rayas joke of a position are where you should be looking, not trying to blame refs.
What a comment, this is a daylight robbery, a disgrace and a total unacceptable standard of officiating in EPL. Reggie, stop supporting cheat.
That was a foul on Gabriel Sir. And the ball was clearly over the line.
It is not rocket science to figure these 2 scenarios Out.
I suspect that the camera couldn’t confirm the ball being out, so it doesn’t get overturned. The worst part of it was we had one of those classic Arsenal/Arteta brain farts and chaos ensued…
Correct Stewart and feet on the ground and not in the clouds.
Unless you can explain how Gordon is onside and Gabriel is not fouled simultaneously.
Because all your clever clogs excuses for the foul on Gabriel ensure its offside and vice versa for the foul if you excuse the offside. That is the crux of the matter.
You do this a lot when confronted with actual arguments. Devolve into to this petty nonsense. You could just answer my point and prove me a fool. So why don’t you do that?
Just seen the appalling camera angles sky offered up on the offside, just to be clear Gordon was miles clear of Raya it wasn’t debatable as an offside unless you judge Gabriel to have played the ball. Just incase this was a classic case of the media misleading some with poor angles.
No Angus, it you who is the one who loses all perspective, get personal and cant repect people. You just start slinging insults. Thats immature. Jog on fella.
Plus you dont understand the offside rule.
Why was the ball crossing the line incident only showed once?!!
They were supposed to show that first incident at least 3 times.
No angus, you are embarrassing. It was a goal and could have been prevented by Gabriel and Raya. It was poor from Arsenal, whatever you or i think of the reffereeing.
I’d expect an apology when the pgmol issue theirs but I know you already. It was not a goal.
Perhaps you can teach him from your sofa. After the match has been played. And the game has been dissected tactically by people who know far more than you.
Perhaps you can advise him then.
That was not meant for you Angus – I agree with you though.
No worries, expect everyone to be a little heated tonight have a distinct distrust of those who are not.
Is this really Gary Neville masquerading on this site ?
Not a goal, I’ve tried posting links from X (formerly twitter) but awaiting approval. It was over the line when looked at from down the line, there’s pictures available. I understand that the angle shown to us on telly, diagonally, that it’s inconclusive but when you look down the line it’s at least 3 inches over- all of the ball.
Andy you may be correct but there are also apparently pictures on social media, showing the ball on the line. Fake photos? And please dont tell me ( in a previous post) i am defending cheats. I am not but i dont think that there was a problem with the goal has the rules and VAR rule stand. What people cant accept is we are probably talking millimetres and it went against us. That doesn’t make the goal not a goal. Personally i thought the pundits got the summing up right. I think the goal was 100% avoidable from OUR point of view and that is more important.
Agree with you here, Raya should have continued to watch the ball and the game instead of running out flapping like a chicken. Bring back Ramsdale!!
The real shame is the eye watering amount of money in the game and for all that money, we don’t have the technology to know if the ball went over the line when Tennis has had it for years. As for offside, there must be sensors that can scan every millimeter of a pitch, live in 3D that would instantly know if offside or not.
The problem is the slow movement in nature of joginho and Kai in the mid field, these cannot win arteta the premier league
Welcome to the English Premier League. A league filled with the most corrupt refs in the world. Bad officiating week in week out.
I know we have very injuries to our key players. Any team would struggle without Timber,Partey, Odegaard,unfit Saka&G.Jesus add Xhaka who was not replaced at all then you realise we are a shell of what we were last season.
How we failed to beef up the squad with basic quality additions to specific positions is unbelievable. I watched us play West ham and realised they have more quality in their squad than us.Its just shameful.We have nothing beyond our starting 11,how can we compete?
I think arteta made some wrong moves in the summer. I am still trying to understand what Havertz offers to the team. Arteta should learn to evolve and adapt
He needs to do 3 things.
1. Play Havertz as a CF.
2. Buy Ivan Toney in January
3. Buy a Defensive midfielder in January.
Why Ivan Toney?
The man who gambled against his teammates and was banned for corruption?
I would rather stick with the one good game every ten Eddie than have a criminal signing for us…
The entire referee association in the epl is rotten and an embarrassment to the footballing world. My God, is this what the so called best league in the world is all about??
I get your point Me2. But we need a top quality CF in January. G Jesus is injury prone.. Too many injuries at crucial stages of the season. Nketiah can’t be relied upon to score goals consistently. We should buy Toney for footballing reasons. He is not a criminal. He is a footballer. A top quality Striker that scores goals week in week out.
Toney DID NOT gamble “against his team mates”. DID NOT gamble on any matches involving his team at all. And for your further info was not banned for corruption. What are you doing on this blog telling lies. Effing TROLL.
The problem is the slow movement in nature of joginho and Kai in the mid field, these cannot win arteta the premier league , plus the striker height and size of nketiah that is not for premier league cost arsenal
Very good games by Rice, Jorginho and Tomiyasu but I thought Martinelli and Saka weren’t on it today and we certainly need a decent striker!
we can’t break down an organized defence, has been an issue for quite awhile. Odegard certainly helps in this sense but Newcastle did it well.
Martinelli and Saka were abysmal.
TWO THINGS ARE NOW CLEAR. We ARE going to finish in top four. We are NOT going to win the title.
Our only REALISTIC trophy chance is the FA CUP.
My thoughts too Jon, no chance of winning the league.
I agree. I don’t know if Arteta can get us over the top. He is a good manager but he doesn’t seem to learn and adapt. Maybe it comes but I just don’t know…Edu and Arteta’s signings are also a real mixed bag right now. Rice is great but others, not so much. Timber gets a pass for now…
Perhaps you can teach him from your sofa. After the match has been played. And the game has been dissected tactically by people who know far more than you.
Perhaps you can advise him then.
Changing perspective based on evidence is a issue for you? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
That’s a sign of intelligence fyi
Perhaps you can be less condescending and let people voice their opinions, just like others let you
Because we lost one game?
I bet you were not saying that when we beat Man City.
Different tune then I expect.
😂👍
Will hurt if spurs win it before we do.
We have done as the spuds never have
Top 4 could be tricky. We should scrap through but it won’t be a comfortable ride
Havertz is slowing us down. Just can’t play the Arsenal game. We are going nowhere with him in our squad.
Haverz and Jorghino.
Eddie Nketiah was very poor today….
He even blocked a Hervatz goal bound shot!
How many chances does Raya get to prove himself. He has cost us more than a few goals. Add to that, Ramsdale’s confidence is shot right now.
His positioning is abysmal and Arteta can’t or wont see it.
For Reggie
Could not understand MA with a team selection process where you have 2 goalkeepers as subs + Cedric on the bench. I would rather have had an academy product who could have provided something different or creativity like Bradley Ibrahim who has been training with the squad.
I would like see Ramsdale between the sticks starting with the CL upcoming game.
Raya has slightly more game intelligence with using his feet but is less talented than Ramsdale.
IGL, Arteta boobed with Martinez, who help win him his only trophy. And now he has boobed with Raya. Raya looks not good enough for a top team. Arteta and his Goalkeeper coach need a long hard look at themselves. Raya has cost us and he makes far too many errors.
He definitely boobed with Martinez. Now he is at it again.
We had a goalkeeper, who could have been our undisputed no1 and let him go.
Arteta hasn’t learned his lessons yet, whenever he starts the two chelsea rejects we always either loose or draw I knew it was obvious we were going to lose this one after seeing the lineup.
.
The only positive for me out of this game is the continued rise of Saliba and Rice. Saka was kept quiet and Martinelli lacked any end product today. Then there’s the Goal? Maybe the ball was still in play but without an arial view you can’t say. However, how was it not a push on Gabriel? The offside I can understand even though it was a fine line. Our squad is much better than it was two seasons ago, but is still not good enough.
Bring back Ramsdale now!
I’ve lost faith in the premier league. What is the point of VAR if you can’t see the ball was clearly out and a foul on Gabriel. Saudi money paying dividends!
Football is now so corrupt. Saudi and Quatar money counts for everything as was evidenced today. The referee was shocking and VAR once again showed itself to be completely inept. Have to ask who funds it. FFP talks a lot but does nothing to penalise those clubs flouting the rules.
An absolute disgrace
I have asked this before but who organises this corruption? What is the objective of this corruption? Are people recruited to be corrupt? Who trains them and ensures they are corrupt against Arsenal? And why Arsenal?
The Middle East states whom own these clubsnand think their money can be used to make the club’s successful illegitemetely, i.e. outside the rules of the game- whether that’s through bribing officials to fix results or overspending beyond means of earnings. Think Man City and their 115 charges bought against them starting from back when Mancini was manager. Do you think there is no corruption in football? I present Juventus as evidence
It’s not just against Arsenal, it’s also against other competitors to these State owned teams i.e Liverpool etc. look at that game against the spuds, who ultimately benefitted from Liverpool dropping points and also Liverpool’s players getting dodgy sending offs and subsequent bans for 3 games? It is City, as they are widely considered as their main competitor for the title as we’re we.
So how do they recruit these refs? What do the refs get out of it? Are they all taking bribes?
The team of officials that officiating the Liverpool game was in Saudi Arabia less than 48 hours before the that game referring a match out there as part of some referring swap programme to help raise the standard of referring out there. It wouldn’t surprise me if bribes where being thrown around. Has it not happened on a number of occasions in Serie A? Can you completely rule it out that it’s not happening in the Premier League where arguably the stakes/money is higher? I might be wrong but if it stinks like excrement then it usually is excrement. How much did the offside Brentford goal against us last season cost us?
Sorry, I copied my post above from the other article to post here but I’m shaking all over with fury and selected too much. Apologies
I thought overall we were very good.
We missed flair in midfield from Odegaard and the inability to find the net when we should have. Maybe I had rose coloured specs on but I didn’t see that Newcastle were particularly good – we couldn’t make a good display count.
I agree with points made about Saka who goes to ground- sometimes without good reason – writhing about
Officiating standards have hit rock bottom Havertz started it and BG followed suit and I’m surprised 22 remained for the game’s entirety.
No killer instinct where it counts
Cant argue Sue, as it is.
These people who go looking for scapegoats, and worse targeting Raya merely because they want to see Ramsdale in goal, are incredibly tiring.
With all the things that happened in this game, it’s incredible that the headline here is Raya…mind boggling. Playing with a DM who, 90% of the time passes the ball back or sideways, and each time we defend he goes missing, he gives absolutely no creativity and can’t make a single pass to the forwards to score. This coupled with a striker who plays 80 minutes and comes out without an attempt at goal, and at the end of it all we pick on the GK? I call that negative profiling, period.
You are aware that we conceded because of our GK’s bad positioning, right?
Yes and why was it bad? He lost focus, he ran 5 yards out of position waving his arms, that the ball had gone out of play and got caught out because he wasn’t focussed on his position. If he had been in the correct place and made a simple catch, the rest would not be of concern.
Agree with you here, Raya should have continued to watch the ball and the game instead of running out flapping like a chicken. Bring back Ramsdale!!
Andy, he may well have believed it had gone out, but as we all know, you play to the whistle and don’t let things disrupt you focus, until the whistle goes or the ball is deemed dead. It was poor by Raya. Whatever the refs and VARS decision. If hexwas in his correct place, none of it would matter. It was an easy catch.
Completely agree with you. He absolutely should have played to the whistle and that goal is foremost chalked as a blunder by the goalie first but also a blunder by VAR for not calling a foul on Gabriel being pushed in the back using to hands. The ball going out and the offside was not conclusive. To be honest, I couldn’t understand why lines weren’t drawn as usual. Maybe someone can shed some light on that for me?
What kind of an Headline is this? 😕😕
We simply lost due to the Poor or CORRUPT officiating of the Ref and VAR.😒😒
The Boy gave their Best. But Nketiah, Martinelli and Saka has to find their Scoring Touch ASAP!
Sounds lik rubbish excuses!
Ignoring VAR for a second, how many goals did we score?
👍👍👍👍👍👍
Irrelevant. It changed the course of the game. Klopp explained it after Liverpool were cheated playing Tottenham. Firstly the game would have restarted by our goal for either goal kick or foul and not from the halfway line, secondly we wouldn’t have been chasing the game. In incorrect goal being allowed changes everything, as does an incorrect sending off or not.
But Spuds are owned by ENIC nothing to do with the middle east.
It benefitted Man City because Liverpool dropped points and their key players missed subsequent matches. Liverpool are considered one of Man City’s main rivals to win the league. Sorry if I didn’t explain myself well enough first time 👍
Gabriel and Raya botched up big time but the ball was out of play and the goal ought to have been disallowed.As to the match itself we certainly did not deserve to lose and in Declan Rice we have acquired a really great player.Sadly certain players did not perform with Saka being particularly innefective.Newcastle will always push the physical boundaries at home and unless a strong referee is in charge they will continue to get away with strong arm tactics.Without key players like, Partey, Odegaard and Jesus we struggle to produce clear cut chances despite having the bulk of possession.
We need a top CF in January. G. JESUS and recurring injuries are like 5 and 6. We need a better goal scorer. That is the truth. We also need a Manager who learns from his mistakes quickly and corrects them. We paid 65m pounds for Havertz. Arteta should know bu now that Havertz at midfield experiment is not working. He should play the guy in CF.
Havertz doesn’t even make the bench in my eyes
Yes AndyE. Buy what can we do? 65m pounds already spent. The guy has to play. lol
I understand that, £65M must be justified but Kai has to earn the right to play. How must Trossard be feeling just getting a few scraps of minutes here and there when Kai is indulged with full games at the detriment of getting winning results?when Kai plays, it looks like we are playing with 10 men and as for Jorginho, someone needs to tell him what direction Arsenal usually play in. Maybe we should let him call the coin flip at the start of the game so he chooses what way we play then it might sink in to his head and pass in that direction.
Yes they did Grandad, to those who want to see it. Im not sure, the technology is there to say, the all of the ball was over all of the line. I wasn’t sure it was fully out, so im not sure how anyone can. It was tight but that is fact.
We could win today. Newcastle did not win the physical battle and created little, They were there for the taking but without Gabi, Partey and Odde we could not do it. Kai and Eddie are just not at the level we need. It’s not confidence or form with those two, but quality.
And Newcastle had more quality than us because?
The less I say about Raya the better, he’s a calamity of a goalkeeper, Havrvetz wasn’t that good today he just did the basics today very well. The only positive today is rice saliba and Tomiyasu. Arteta has arrogantly caused Saka loss of form, he should have bought a good back up for him, the boy has been playing non stop for 2 years for both club and country now he’s tired.
@ Lenohappy, the Saka backup has been discussed many times. But Arteta never considered it. Kudus went to westham. Diaby went to Aston villa. 2 top signings that would have been a backup for Saka. Arteta needs to learn. He needs to adapt
Yes, allowing for the fact that we were cheated of a point, our starting eleven was simply not good enough even on paper let alone in how they performed. A midfield of Harvertz and Jorghino? That’s called sliding backwards into mid table. White and Tomiyasu as wing backs? Strong defensively but they are not going to terrify opposing defenders with their penetrating runs and incisive crosses. And then there was Eddie who we know well and don’t expect much of in big games. Of course, there were injury problems affecting these selections but we should know that Partey, Jesus and unfortunately ESR are chronically injured while Newcastle had their own selection issues. For Arsenal this season will be defined by some baffling decision making during the summer window. There was money available and half of it was wasted by poor judgement and possibly due to stubbornness on Arteta’s part.
Arteta was a average as a player and average as a couch
I stand with Viera here. At least he’s able to move forward with the ball and make passes forward. The question is, what do Jorginho and Havertz bring to the team? What’s ARTETA’s obsession with the two? Viera has talent, versatility, and chemistry with the rest of the team. Jorghino comes in and kills all of that with his sluggishness, meaningless passes and inability to match the pace of the team. Passing the ball to him is like bouncing it on a wall., but now, he’s given this crown of being a senior player🤷🏿.
No Odegaard, no creativity. What does Viera bring to the table? Nothing, he’s a lightweight that plays with no heart. Havertz and Jorginho, Chelsea rejects and rank up there with the rest of the Chelsea reject dodgy signings in recent years. Raya, has NOT improved our squad, he’s unbalanced it. ramsdale is a world class keeper and FAR SUPERIOR shot stopper to Raya- which is the NUMBER ONE and FOREMOST skill a keeper should have, not this distribution nonsense- Ramsdales distribution was not bad enough to consider replacing him.
Reffing ‘not of the best’. That’s very restrained it was utterly incompetent (and that’s very restrained too).
If the truth be told neither Raya nor Ramsdale are great keepers.
Will Arteta keep searching or settle with one or the other, Grandad?
For Grandad
We let the best one we had in years to leave to Aston Villa for 17 m to accommodate Leno. I would have Martinez over those 2. But Ramsdale is definitely better than Raya who would cost a further 27 m to keep him permanently. I just hope we do not make that decision. Ramsdale can definitely become as commanding as Martinez.
RAMSDALE has the talent and determination to become one though Grandad. And the vital self belief.
RAYA has none of those and is only a decent, not top class keeper.
WHY he is here is a puzzle, as MA alone seems to think he is top class. Few fans do, to judge from many posts
👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾 Ramsdale also falls in the young keeper category while raya is older and still isn’t as good. Mikel is stubborn and hates being wrong so expect us to sell Ramsdale and buy the downgrade
A goalkeeper is only as good as the ten men in front of him
It’s not over yet. 😎
Harvertz can’t move forward can’t pass forward. A misfit. Then Raya?? Jornihno?? Nketiah?? If we can win the league with these players, then there’s something wrong with the EPL. I hope MA is listening…
Your forum is pathetic . How does Raya come into play when first of all the ball went out and secondly defender was pushed in the back .
Referring was bad. Granted. Remove that goal. But were we gonna be happy with 0-0 draw? Harvertz can’t move forward can’t pass forward. A misfit. Then Raya?? Jornihno?? Nketiah?? If we can win the league with these players, then there’s something wrong with the EPL. I hope MA is listening…
Too many rubbish excuses from people! Same old people that simply can’t face the facts.
Havertz is absolutely terrible, Jorginho is slower than a week in prison!
How many goals did we score today? How many shots on target we have?
I thought we were far too deliberate and slow. We are together when we have the ball but our style needs looking at because for a top team we are wide open at times without it. White, Raya, Haverz, Vierra and Jorghino are taking us nowhere. The big worry is, Haverz, Raya and Jorghino, were very recent acquisitions.
I’ve never seen such hideous and vile officiating in my entire life. Let us take a brief moment to analyze a different scenario, let’s say it was Gabriel that was behind that Newcastle striker and he was pushed the way he pushed Gabriel in the box, would penalty be given or not? A foul is a foul and an infringement is an infringement anywhere on the football playing field so why didn’t arsenal get the call today?, The only answer I can come up with is that the moron referee felt he did us a favor by not showing Havertz a red card for his earlier tackle then compensated Newcastle with that goal. A goal he didn’t go to VAR to check neither was Bruno guimeres punished for his violent play throughout the game.
Shame on the epl, shame on the entire referee association in the epl.
https://x.com/SkySportsPL/status/1720899411297853445?t=mof-N4Amewjzs2-Qz0YZ5A&s=08
Scroll down below the video and you will see a snapshot of the ball clearly OVER the line. An absolute disgrace. Saudi money has corrupted officiated in the Premier league. This league is finished
https://twitter.com/OFFAISAL/status/1720899731730128913?t=D9VddlVk-KJWKX68Ak1_6Q&s=19
The other angle:
https://twitter.com/wshayaz/status/1720903413615984749?t=fAu3MOGZS7MmfcyrGWTzJA&s=19
Toon fan here! In peace! Some incredible comments above. Everyone going on about the goal. The fact is, the ref has a device that tells him if the whole of the ball crosses the line. I assume it didn’t or he would know. If you look at it the other way round, if it was your goal, how would you argue it? Let’s park the goal for a moment, though. You had one shot on target. We only had two. It was a very tough, physical game. Havertz was very lucky to stay on the pitch, however, the same could easily be said for for Bruno too. The level of officiating was not great. I saw two strong teams, both with injury issues, playing a strong physical game. We happened to get the rub on this one for a goal I felt was good. If you had scored it, I guarantee you’d be arguing that it was good too. This will not define either teams season. Good luck for the rest of the season.
No more luck for you guys, I’m afraid.
havertz tackle was a yellow, never would have been a red, his trail foot which caught the player was bent, studs away from player…not denying was a pointless stupid challenge.
the goal i am not going to argue about, on another day a foul, offside or handball could be given, but they werent the most obvious error ive seen.
my issue was with bruno forearm on jorginho…the ball had gone before he was near him and he purposely raised arm into the face. apparentlt it wasnt red because it was forearm and not elbow…which is the most ridiculous thing i have heard…it is the most blatant red card i have seen in a long time and was done to hit the player, nothing else. shocking that wasnt sent to monitor.
I disagree on Havertz, as do most pundits. If that had been the other way round you’d be screaming for a red! I do however, agree with you on Bruno. It was stupid and unnecessary and should’ve been a red. Most sensible Newcastle fans would agree. It was a scrappy game. You had one shot on target that our goalie easily caught. Your issues are not with the ref or VAR. you had 10 corners! 🤷🏻♂️. Last season I had hoped you guys would beat City to the title but you didn’t. That’s football.
i can see why people were shouting about havertz tackle, however, i would have no problem if that is always yellow. i dont think it should ever be a red unless front foot caught him. in this day and age, i can see why it could have been red, dont agree with it.
Some are shouting about Havertz foul. Most pundits do not suggest it should have been a red card; some say it could. Most referees will give a yellow for that.
The Bruno offence is in a completely different category as he deliberately struck a player when not contesting the ball. Violent conduct any day of the year, straight red card.
Talk about UNDERSTATING the flashpoints Martin!!
Granted that officiating was poor and VAR never disappoint by making wrong decisions yet, I must point out that we are the architect of our problems. After the poor performance on Wednesday, why start White? Does Arteta required to be told that our weak link was White? Why did he allowed him on the pitch until he caused that goal? And why did the coach realized late that White was not in the game by changing him shortly after the goal? This partern of playing a player not minding if he’s on form or not is killing the team. The partial selection of the untouchables in the team is doing the club no good. White had no business being on the pitch today.
Away from White, can anyone sincerely said that Raya is an improvement on Ramsdale? Though White did not close up Willock before the cross. Could anyone tell me why Raya was not able to stop that cross? It’s time Arteta gave Ramsdale another chance.
Having said this, I would say that the club is still missing Xhaka. I give kudos to the boys for matching their physicality.
Let the coach learn his lessons.
We underrated the Partey and Xhaka combo in midfield
Any team would miss Partey but Arteta chose to put Jorghino and Haverz in there. They are his players.
We could’ve gotten an actual midfielder to replace xhaka. Instead we bought and overpaid for a known flop to stroke artetas ego about how brilliant he is
👍
I’m surprised Kennedy’s assassination and Jimmy Hoffer wasn’t in there to lol😂
I don’t mind you making fun of my comment too. It’s not too much for me to take as I’ve got thick skin and don’t get upset too easily.
Unfortunately, money has corrupted the beautiful game. Now that the Middle east has got involved with their PetroDollars, expect more of the same controversies. Until their is a worldwide cap on player wages and club spending budgets, our beloved football will continue to downward spiral into a cesspool of corruption, with the rich getting richer whilst playing oneupmanship against each other using OUR football clubs as their petty, playthings. Once the Electric car revelotution really takes off, all these shiny new cities in the desert will crumble to the sand when noone’s buying their oil and what of these PetroDollar owned clubs then like Man City, PSG, Newcastle? Thell get tossed back to the people that supported them all along with a huge bill of dept and a small thank you note.
Lol, you guys are very entertaining! Let’s see what oil billions you’re talking about with our team yesterday. Perhaps you mean our highest cost player ever, Alexander Isak, who cost less than Havertz and Half of Rice, but oh wait, he wasn’t playing. Perhaps you mean our other big spend player, Tonali, oh, he cost less than Havertz too, and he wasn’t playing. It must be our star England defender, Trippier, oh hang on, he cost £15million, way less than Havertz. Or maybe it was our incredible goalie that stopped all your shots, oh wait, it was only one shot and he only cost £10million… it must be Joelinton in midfield perhaps? But no, he was there before the “Saudi billions”. Hmmm so where was all those Saudi millions Oh you must mean our top class manager, Eddie Howe! Lol, ur nope, he was the “fella that relegated Bournemouth “ … you may want to remove those rose tinted glasses and look at things with a bit of reality. You lost a game. There was some controversy as there is in many games these days. Refs and VAR are not fit for purpose. I agree. Some decisions you get, and some you don’t. We had many many go against us over the seasons.
Oh and as for supporting oil rich Saudis, I assume then you drive an electric car? 🤷🏻♂️
It’s 100%….football is corrupt. Corrupt to through VAR not doing it’s job properly. The ball was out of play, and Joe Linton pushed Gabriel. Nough said…..daylight mugging. Criminal
It’s started to remind me of those boxing matches when Don King was a promoter, you could guarantee it would go to points and it would be a dodgy decision on points. I now come to expect controversial decisions in big games to benefit Middle East owned clubs in football as well
I have long believed that MA could bring changes we need to get our club out of years of shambles, but I also suspected he won’t be the one to take us to the top. Transfer and team selection ultimately came down to him, and he seems to have no clue what is going on this season. Not sure how much longer the board may keep investing and our talented young team will age as time passes by. Without entertaining the idea of a replacement, maybe MA’s decision shall be better checked and balanced for the sake of hedging the risk of an unseasoned manager.
We matched Newcastle toe to toe and gave as good as we received – top marks to the boys in that respect, as we weren’t bullied one little bit.
The team MA selected, whether right or wrong, did what he instructed them to do.
Individual players made mistakes, but the team worked so well together and covered each other’s mistakes.
The “goal” was a travesty and it will be interesting to see what Alan Shearer says about it on MOTD, be it offside, a foul, or the ball out of play… perhaps we will get confirmation on which of the three should have been applied by the “referee” or VAR?
On to the officials and I have to say that to read that those who have trumpeted that they are not cheats, have now changed their tune, thereby corrupting the game, is long overdue.
Why it has taken so long, is as big a mystery as how we have remained unbeaten in the PL up until this game.
We have seen the likes of Dean corrupting the game, but today it went to another level and I believe it will take a career ending tackle before the PGMOL are finally required to explain themselves.
We are a shadow of the team that should have won the PL last season and MA has to take most of the blame – his experimenting early in the season, his stubbornness with certain players (both for and against) along with some excellent and dire signings, no out and out striker and cover for Saka, all this despite the many good things his management has brought to the table.
I feel really bad for the boys and MA following this result, they deserved better.
Hi Ken
I completely agree with your first 3 paragraphs and your last paragraph prior to your summation.
However, I disagree with you on the corruption of referees and officials. I accept that their competence in officiating has definitely gone down at least one notch if not 2 notches.
I have always advocated a greater number of officials on the field to make co-ordinated decisions (I would say 6 instead of 3 in addition to the side line official whom we refer to as the 4th umpire) and let the game flow with VAR being used for more important decisions like career threatening reckless tackles and goal line technology which can be extended to the whole boundary of the football pitch.
IGL, glad that you agree with most of my post, let’s look at the referee disagreement then.
Let me make it clear that I have no evidence of individual referees cheating or being corrupt and I have NEVER said that they are cheats – but the PGMOL and the individual referees, by not being held accountable, not allowing their decisions to be questioned and, when, due to media pressure, having to admit a mistake has been made, very very rarely face any punishment whatsoever, are allowing the game to become corrupt. That is what I believe and it all started when the PL was formed and Mike Riley ensured his PGMOL was protected from any scrutiny whatsoever.
They PGMOL are, in actual fact, policing themselves and that is the finest example of corruption you could ask for – just ask the actual police force!!
For Ken
I agree self policing can definitely create a protectionist policy rather than being objective where refs can be the victims of inadequacy at some level and in turn leading to us fans being victims .
Ken, we didn’t lose this game because of VAR or cheating Refs. While tight and while their was 3 calls that went against us, there was no vehicle or reason to cancel the goal. We dont have line technology for ball out, i personally feel Gabriel wasn’t fouled, as shown on Sky, he stooped to head the ball. Some obviously may disagree on that but some say foul, some dont, so not 100%. And as the offside rule goes, Gordon was not offside at any point. What was poor, was Gabriels attempt to clear the upfield pass and kicked thin air and Rayas loss of focus and poor finishing. We as a team never looked like scoring and we made quite a few school boy errors in the second half. I do think the ref missed Brunos forearm on Jorghinos head, which should have been yellow. Which if seen would have seen him sent off in the second half. The ref didn’t see it and VAR dealt with it correctly, they dont do yellow cards. Ultimately we had too any ineffectual players on the pitch and could not muster a scoring chance. That is why we didn’t get anything out of the game. Newcastle played to their strengths, we didnt, that is it.
Rayas poor positioning, not finishing.
What i will also say, is that Arteta wanted Rice and tapped him up very early. What a really magnificent buy and giant Rice is in many ways. Well done Arteta. Arteta also wanted Mount for Xhakas role, that was never on because of Mount but as soon as Haverz became available to us Arteta wanted him for that role. That was a poor decision. We are paying for that decision now.
So the biggest signing was once again a success but the cheaper Havertz without time to comment is the issue. Awesome. Top take. What Arteta signings did you get right commenting like this? Ramsdale? White? Gabriel? Zinchenko? Tomiyasu? Timber? Partey? Rice? Jesus? Trossard? ¿??????
Reggie, violent play is a straight red and Bruno did just that.
I’m amazed that you are saying it was a yellow, when it clearly shows he intentionally elbowed him. Of course, Havertz should also have been sent off and I have no problem in saying that.
Gabriel, as MOTD proved, had two hands pushing into his back, so there’s the answer, it should have been disallowed.
I believe we played very well overall and Newcastle didn’t bully us, as was their intent from the very first minute.
The one glaring example of what we require though, is a CF who, while working his socks off, can find spaces to threaten a goal, or even score!!
Ken, if he elbowed him it would have been red but it was his forearm. There is a difference believe it or not. Dermot Gallagher whom i have a lot of time for explains very well why the goal was allowed. He says it how it is. You still may not like it but i suggest you read what he said. Unless of course, he is corrupt🤣🤣🤣 sorry just a bit of fun.
Reggie, he used part of his body, off the ball by the way, to foul the player.
Believe it or not, the forearm can do as much damage as the elbow, hence it was violent play.
I have no idea what Gallagher said, but watching him referee in the past and listening to his peers such as Dean, I prefer to read my referees book that still has the basic rules for a referee to abide by.
Yes ken but because he didn’t “elbow” him thats what made it a yellow not red. Yes fair enough, but i believe Gallagher says it well and explains. There are many incidents that can or cant be changed and he explains them very well and subjective. If you dont like him, that fair enough.
Striking an opponent is violent play and is a red card offence.
He should have been sent off.
You don’t know what you are talking about. Why wasn’t he sent off then? And dont give me cheat BS. By the letter of the law, Haverz was a yellow and so was Guimarez.
David Raya might have made a mistake but I also think his mistakes are biased and exaggerated because we have the luxury of Ramsdale. So that’s not exactly objective!!
Then we had way too many very uncomfortable backpasses that naturally exposed him. Could it be we didn’t quite control the midfield?
With so many backpasses, he did very well I think ….. it could have been a bumper harvet of errors.
Rice was a one man midfield. He covered everywhere.
See comment and apology below, I posted it by accident when trying to copy my comment from another article. @admin maybe can delete for me?
When our manager says it’s a disgrace and that they’ve been having discussions with pgmol for months prior and you don’t see the issue your lost. Genuinely.
Angus, for goodness sake stop making it so personal!!
You defend MA, no matter what the situation.
Was he wrong bringing on Odegaard against WHU when the game was already lost, only to have to drop him through injury four days later?
You list players who MA has signed, but I don’t see Mari Pablo, Willian or Cedric amongst others on that list… why is that?
As for being in discussions with the PGMOL for months, that obviously has had little effect, wouldn’t you say?
If need to talk about waste of money, let’s talk about Newcastle who have billions and spent millions but couldn’t play proper football with Arsenal. That’s the great travesty in this match. Schaefer, Joelinton, Lascelles and Guimaraes punched, elbowed, kicked, shirt pulled and physically threatened their way to victory while the rest of their young teammates sat, learned and applied accordingly. They came in to wrestle and injure Arsenal players but ended up crying for red card when given slight treatment. Ball of line, deliberate head punch and offside position couldn’t prevent a goal against Arsenal. Because apparently ‘Just kick them, they don’t like it’ mantra is back against Arsenal.
Arteta must trust his bench more and give them opportunities so that they have match fitness and they are in sync with the other players when called in. We blame Vieira, Trossard, ESR, Elneny etc but these guys rarely play. Any player need minutes to give positive performances.
I also wonder why we can’t play the left footed Kiwior at left back instead of Tomiyasu. Let White and Tomiyasu battle for the right back position.
Trying Martinelli as a 9 might not be that bad at all as he has an eye for a goal and is fast. Everytime he has come through the centre he has looked dangerous. Nelson can play in his position and can also swap with Saka.
Is Elneny that bad he can’t play in Partey’s position instead of the slow Jorginho.
We don’t seem to be promoting any juniors to the first team since he came on board. It’s a buy buy policy. We have Azeez and Patino who looked decent but never given a chance yet we buy finished articles like Jorginho and Havertz. For the past 4 years we don’t have any juniors permanently promoted to the first team.
He sold Martinez and replaced him with Ramsdale, sold Torreira who did much better than Jorginho has done for us, loaned out Tierney when he is clearly our best left back, sold Mavropanos and replaced with a not better Kiwior and White for huge amounts.
Recruitment must focus on squad improvement and depth which didn’t happen during the last transfer window. If he doesn’t want Tierney how does he buy Timber a right footed full back to play him left back.
Agree with the fact it all buy buy buy.
Arteta hasn’t promoted a single academy player to the first team permanently.
Another cause for concern. Even his great mentor Pep has promoted a couple of players, look at the likes of Cole Palmer and Rico Lewis.
I’ve mentioned this before on this platform.
I was born into a family of Arsenal supporters from my grandfather, father and the rest of my family. Having supported the club for almost 70 years I find that I am unable to watch a game now due to all of the histrionics, cheating (yes, diving is cheating) and the diabolical refereeing decisions. VAR is another kettle of fish and, in my opinion, is ruining the game. The underlying reason for this is simple, money. There is too much money in the game and not enough pride in playing for a club. This last debacle against Newcastle United is a classic example, but don’t blame it all on the officials. What is Arteta doing with David Raya and Kyle Havertz? Raya regularly makes mistakes which cost goals and Havertz is another Xhaka but without the footballing talent. The guy was a no hoper at Chelsea and he remains so. Poor signings and team selection will not help in winning the EPL.
How true, I have also supported from the 60’s and can’t watch the game now because of all the histrionics with players screeching and rolling around clutching any part of their body after a tackle. I was watching an old Big Match Revisited the other day and Frank Stapleton got absolutely clattered by some big oaf of a centre half and you know what he just got up without making a fuss. As for VAR, yes back in the 60’s and 70’s refs made mistakes but because we didn’t have Sky showing hundreds of replays of the incident we just got on with game. If players and managers hadn’t argued so much about ref’s decisions VAR would never have been brought in.
Somebody was debating in an earlier thread that because Bruno used his forearm and not his elbow it wasn’t a red card. It doesn’t matter what part of the body you use, head, forearm,elbow, foot, surely it’s violent play and merits a red card. It was off the ball as well so must be deliberate.
Yes, Raya made a bit of a fluff for the goal but can we not blame him for every terrible performance by the team? We were shocking yesterday, and awful referring aside didn’t deserve anything from the game.
Newcastle are a very physical side and the most cynical in the league but once again Arteta came up wanting and demonstrated his incredibly limited range of coaching. There’s no Plan B just Plan A with different players!
It’s the same problem we fell into with Wenger, where he refused to adjust in-game because of principles or something. WE ARE SO SLOW AND PREDICTABLE! He takes off Eddie and pushes Havertz up front again. Because one striker was working so well for the rest of the match?
I’m getting sick of watching this Arteta side play. It’s not the players, It’s Arteta. He’s arrogant and inflexible and shows no ability to adapt to in-game circumstances. I didn’t like him as a player and I don’t like him as a manager either.
RAYA is not and wont be an upgrade on Ramsdale just in Artetas mind.Again Nketiah will never be a top 6 striker just in Artetas mind.For Harvertz i even dont know who scouted him for us when we had just blundered with the joginho signing..will take another 3 years for Artetas arsenal to win a trophy.