Newcastle United stunned a poor Arsenal with a 2-0 win at the Emirates this evening. Here are our player ratings:
Starters
David Raya – 6.5
Handled his distribution well and wasn’t at fault for either of the goals.
Jurrien Timber – 4.5
Struggled to contain Anthony Gordon and missed a good scoring opportunity at the other end.
William Saliba – 5.0
Tasked with managing Isak but ultimately fell short.
Gabriel – 5.0
Had difficulty handling the in-form Isak, particularly for Newcastle’s second goal.
Myles Lewis-Skelly – 6.0
One of Arsenal’s bright spots. He stood up to the challenge and continued to show promise.
Thomas Partey – 5.0
Far from his best, as Newcastle’s midfield dominated the battle.
Martin Odegaard – 4.5
Failed to deliver the creative spark Arsenal needed, leaving the attack wanting.
Declan Rice – 6.5
Arsenal’s best performer on the night. He worked tirelessly to drive the team forward and break Newcastle’s lines.
Gabriel Martinelli – 4.5
Missed key chances, and his lack of clinical finishing remains a concern.
Kai Havertz – 4.0
Missed a glaring opportunity with a poor header and offered little else. His performance highlighted Arsenal’s need for a natural striker.
Leandro Trossard – 4.5
Struggled to make an impact, with Anthony Gordon frequently closing him down.
Substitutes
Jorginho – 6.0
Made a minor impact after coming on, helping Arsenal control possession and increase pressure on Newcastle.
Gabriel Jesus – 5.0
Displayed hunger and energy but lacked the service needed to create clear-cut chances.
Oleksandr Zinchenko – 4.5
His cameo was marred by a clumsy challenge on Joelinton that earned him a yellow card.
Skelly was are best performer for me ,but that’s not saying much .
The need for striker is and as been evident for a while now ,just waiting on us bringing in a LB and GK on the last day of the transfer window.
Arsenal has continued to leave the substsnce and chasing shadows. The system of play or formation is becoming unproductive to teams with Tactical system of play. A team without a central striker will struggle to score when facing opponents that are tactical and flexible in the way the appriach games. Thats why teams have decoded arsenal and render:ed its formation unproductive. We experienced this in Fulham, Brighton and now Newcsatle.
Arsenal should go for a world class striker.to combine with playing from the wings . Otherwise, its going to be same story year on year (YOY).
The problem is that our manager is bias in his selections. He tries to create fantasy instead of understanding player ability.
Trosard is clearly the best finisher in the squad, rather than get him on the ball in the box, you continuously decide to waste him on the wings. Pretending only tall players can play no 9. He plays players he doesn’t like out of position and always tries to adapt them to other positions while trying to play his preferred players in positions where other persons are best suited for.
Partey is the best holding midfielder in the squad.
Trossard is the best finisher in the squad and should play through the middle or if on the wings should not be dropping down too deep to ensure good chance drops to him. I would have preferred the One on one Martineli was unable to dispatch to fall to Trossard, but you have to be in those positions to get the chance.
Apart from Joginho, the other player who has a good through ball in him in the squad is Zinchenko, so when Odegard is having a bad day in the office, you bring in Zinny to unlock the defense with a pass not play him at left back.
The players best attributes are there for all to see but the manager continuously insist on the fantasy world he is living in.
At some point you have to use what you have to get result, as in get the best out of them until you are able to sign players that can implement what you want.
What is the use of getting bad result because you are implementing tactics with players not adapted to it.
The truth is that a striker is not simply the problem. The players are not playing their best in the roles they are asigned to play or how they are told to play those roles.
Our manager is adamant to player ability, only interested in how he wants a role to be played even though it holds the players back.
I didn’t bother watching, but from what I’ve read, Isak showed us what he’s capable of.
How about in future including a rating for the manager – based on team selection, formation, substitutions and excuses!
Latest Arteta excuse (see BBC “It’s tricky, they fly a lot’ – Arteta on EFL Cup balls” !!!)
Just read that myself 😂
Same ball was used in the earlier rounds ,where we scored 11 goals .
Newcastle must have used the puma ball in training 😂
Poor excuse
Worse than that, Arteta is becoming an embarrassment to the club with statements like this. The decline in Arsenal’s reputation and standing over the last couple of decades but then this modern football.
Arteta’s current tactics is stale and predictable and he has no clue on how to change it. May be he is waiting for pep to invent a new tactics so that he copy them.
Let’s be honest we have been poor recently, Partey was played in the mid so no excuses. will we improve if we bought a new striker? Or maybe we need to accept that Arteta can not win anything no matter what.
I really do fear for us on Sunday
Rice and Martinelli were the only players to cause Newcastle any trouble and Partey had his poorest game of the season imo.The thing that concerned me most was the space afforded to Isak in the first half.Given his terrific form of late I would have thought our Manager would have emphasised the need for one or other of our centre backs to pick him up but neither did.Very harsh on Timber , as apart from his goal Gordon’s best work involved him backtracking successfully.Personally I thought Raya could have done better with the shot from Isak which led to the second goal which killed the game from our point of view.Lastly it has to be said that Newcastle were without their first choice right CB and arguably the best central midfielder in the League.
Raya 6.5?? He constantly put our midfield and defence under pressure with some of his suicidal short passes from his area. As for Martinelli 4.5?? He was the only player who at least ran at them and attacked their defence, ok he missed a couple of chances but on a night of off nights for the whole team, he was one of few who at least gave us a glimmer of hope.
Spot on GB.
People forget how much Arteta destroys careers. Pepe, Guendouzi, and Tierney aren’t bad players. Arteta destroyed them. MArtinelli doesn’t become shit overnight. That boy is being overcoached. Asides Saka, who is a generational talent, you can’t pinpoint a player Arteta hasn’t regressed.
For me, if the manager doesn’t win a trophy, he has to go. We have to call it as it is. If Manutd beats us for the FA Cup game, then that should be the end for me.