Declan Rice

Newcastle v Arsenal Review – An awful day for the Gunners as an early goal wins it for the Toon

(Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Arsenal had to start with Thomas Partey as right-back again as Ben White has still not recovered from his injury, so we were looking a little disjointed as we have in the last few games.

And we could not have got off to a worse start, although the first big chance fell to Bukayo Saka who blasted a shot just on the wrong side of the post after 11 minutes, but immediately Newcastle were back up our end and their move ended with with Anthony Godon putting in an excellent cross for Alexander Isak to leap high behind Gabriel, and Raya could only watch as the ball flew into the top corner of Raya’s net and we were 1-0 down after just 12 minutes.

Newcastle are yet to drop a point from a winning position this season so now the Gunners had a mountain to climb. As expected this was always going to be a physical match and Arsenal were finding it hard to get past the Toon without getting fouled but we kept going forward.

After half an hour Saka put a brilliant cross right in front of their goal but Schar got the first touch and somehow managed to get it over the bar, and just a minute later Merino smashed the ball at goal but there was a wall of defenders blocking the shot.

Arsenal fans did see a little bit of justice when Schar got booked for kicking the ball away a few minutes before half time. Maybe refs have discovered that Arsenal are not the only offenders.

The second half started lively with both sides looking refreshed and keen to score but there were more bookings than real scoring chances. After an hour Martinelli and Merino make way for Zinchenko and Ethan Nwaneri coming on at last, and immediately drew a cynical foul from Willock which resulted in yet another yellow card.

% minutes later Declan Rice came very very close but still no goal for the Gunners, and with 20 minutes to go Timber and Trossard make way for Jesus and White. One thing is for sure is that Rice seems a little off, especially from set pieces which is normally his forte.

Arsenal kept going with a few half chances but the clock kept ticking without any big chances in sight. Arsenal were all over Newcastle but yet again Rice launches an awful free kick which is wasted.

With just a few minutes to go Jolinton tested Raya but he easily caught his header and we were given 5 minutes added time to try and pull one back.

Nwaneri had his first shot but it was way over the target and sure enough Pope winds down the clock with a very slow goal kick. Newcastle were all in defence and Nwaneri made another wild attempt from distance.

Right on time Rice had a great chance to equalise but his header was way off target. Not a good day for Ricy Baby and Arsenal have lost 1-0 to Newcastle for the second game in a row.


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72 Comments

  1. We won’t win EPL this season. Better focus on UCL and Nwaneri should play while Odegaard is still injured

    1. @Gai better to focus on top4. On UCL if we get to semi-final it would be a great feat for the Boys. I am unsure imo Arteta has enough experience to compete against top Europe coaches.

      From what I have seen in our few games in the absence of injured Odegard, Arsena’s play is built around the captain and Saka. Unfortunately the coach is yet to find solution to our lack of creativity. Also our center back duo of Saliba and Gabriel seem to have been found out or they have lost their grit and motivation.
      Overall, Newcastle ground has never been an easier place to grind out good result for big teams

  2. Absolutely GAI,1 point in 3 matches?Let’s forget about the Epl and focus on other cups.
    As long as we finish in top 4 coz this season is gone.

  3. It is not rocket science. We should have bought Victor Osimhen in the summer. 80m pounds would have got him. We are a joke now.

  4. I think questions should be raised as to sack MA at the end of the season as, lets be honest, weve been quite terrible all season.

    1. Yet only a few months ago Arteta was awarded the second biggest contract for a coach in the EPL (after Pep’s) at a reported £16m a year. That is based on expectation, Pep’s is based upon what he’s achieved. That’s the big difference.

      1. Thank you. Mikel has not earned that night of a contract and we have now screwed ourselves if we ever sack him 👏 well done Arsenal.

  5. Maybe that was why Nwaneri was left out in previous weeks. No question on his ability but lack of experience and chemistry with the first 11 means he cannot be used in high pressure games.

    Then again, I feel like we were tactically poor. Newcastle packed their midfield in numbers which killed our standard brand of creativity. Still wonder why no one is brave enough to try a more direct approach. The crossing bit in the last 3 minutes were great but too little and too late to change anything.

    1. Irrelevant,

      You say that Nwaneri’s lack of experience and chemistry with the first 11 means he cannot be used in high pressure game.

      Well he won’t will he if that genius (Arteta), keeps leaving him on the bench. It’s really hard to play from the bench isn’t it!.

  6. All the damage was done in the summer transfer window. Letting esr viera nketiah and nelson leave and only bringing in a past it sterling, madness

    1. This has happened often with Wenger too. Where we just needed a few additions to take us to the next level. But we always followed it up with a summer of either no spending or poor recruitment. Seems like we’ve fallen into the same pattern. It was laughably obvious the end of season run Havertz had would not sustain us for the entirety of next season. So we sat on our hands and did nothing. BIG mistake. And it’s not to disparage Kai, but he’s not a striker that can get you 20+ goals and a title throughout an entire season. He’s simply not. It’s fair to ask the questions now about Arteta’s time here. It’s been 1 FA Cup and 1 Community Shield. That’s something AW could’ve accomplished if we had kept him around.

      1. If Wenger spent all that have been spent since 2018, no way Arsenal wouldn’t have won the league. I am hundred percent certain about that. This is not saying that Arteta hasn’t done great in terms of the league placing in the last couple of seasons. Besides, Wenger wasn’t going to be the manager forever.

  7. The purpose of a striker is to score goals. Every club must have a striker. We don’t have a striker and we won’t succeed. We have a lot of midfielders but always we are buying midfielders even if it’s the rejects from other teams. WHY???Today everything was poor.

  8. One point from the last nine in the EPL is pretty awful. I don’t think it’s over (yet) for Arsenal in the title race but it’s certainly not looking good.

    Arsenal had a real opportunity to put the disappointing games against Bournemouth and Liverpool behind them, but they were worse not better. After all, Newcastle were OK, but nothing special.

    Arteta needs to do something quickly – I’m not quite sure what though – or this could turn into a very unfortunate November.

  9. Arteta out. It’s solely on the gaffer. Had the chance to in the summer to improve the team and bought trash. We needed any attacker be it a left winger or a cf and he bought a donkey left back and another midfielder who can’t create. Loaning out Viera was baffling when we had no Odegaard cover. I was his one of his biggest supporters and he’s let us down. Why wait till the end of the season get a new gaffer in now.

    1. Add Sterling to that too, Merino who is a fake top player & Smithrowe gone for what reason when Vieria was gone too!!

      1. Calm down you’ll have a heart attack😊, City and Liverpool are both losing at present, anything can happen!

        1. But GB, it doesn’t matter that City and Liverpool are losing, when we F##k up all the time. We are not good enough!!!!!!

      1. There are people at the club who are paid millions to know who and act on that. Liam does not get a share of those millions does he Ralph?

        So if Arteta decides tomorrow that he no longer wish to work in football Arsenal will operate without a manager?

  10. 2 bottled premier league runs with over half billion spent and nothing in return in 5years…

    Auba won that cup for us in the Pandemic era, mikel then forced him out too with his novice bs!

    He has had his chance, he’s not winning the league this year again and it’s 2nd Nov. Times up very soon and the way we’re playing and other teams are playing we will come full circle with Mikel and fail Top7.

    Come back in May and quote me on this, he has ran out of ideas and it’s only going to get worse

    1. Our goal difference says alot.Our attack is impotent and we lack creativity in midfield .
      We failed to address this in the summer. We really needed a serious upgrade upfront but it never happened. This is what we reap.
      We will be losing matches by narrow margins because as much as our backline is good, teams know that they just need to score one and pack the bus.

  11. 1 shot on target says it all , like headless chicken’s trying to create a chance.
    Seems we’re not sure what way to play.
    Can see the confidence is draining away.

  12. Obviously EPL is out of our reach! The best we can get is top four if we improve our style of play. We have largely been our biggest enemies: sitting back to defend when you have one goal advantage is, to say the least, stupid. If we had not been timid, we could have beaten Man city and Liverpool. How can you defend one goal? As it is now, we can only try to minimise the damage and finish third. I don’t see us doing better than that.

    1. I hope I am wrong in my conclusion. What needs to be done in January is to get an accomplished striker if we need to regain lost form. Our biggest challenge now is scoring goals.

  13. I wonder if those assistants advise him at all. Steutenberg and the rest.

    Surely, the Kroeke’s need to start asking questions if things don’t change soon enough.
    They’ve invested enough time and resources to still be witnessing this kind football at this point.

  14. Completely devoid of any inspiration going forward. When we did bring on Nwaneri we didn’t use him enough. Trossard and Martinelli were completely ineffective, I have now officially given up on Martinelli.

  15. Probably THE worst performance of the season. But maybe symptomatic of our football. Arteta has not managed the situation of the last few weeks very well. The big one for me was and is moving our best midfielder to RB. Messing about with Haverz and Trossard. Both have looked like they haven’t a clue what they are doing and when. Simple changes were required and a wholesale mess up has resulted in our demise. The FACT we haven’t a proper striker limits our play tremendously and it is showing big style. Our style is slow and predictable and we can not put a ball into the box early or mix it up. I am afraid Arteta is being found out, big style. He has no plan b and doesn’t deal with adversity very well. Newcastle were far better than us today. WHY?

    1. Don’t tell me its players missing. We have a strong squad and have top players. He just hasn’t used them correctly. This is down to Arteta.

    2. Spot on about Partey!

      I know Arteta has had to shuffle things around due to injuries and suspensions, but you shouldn’t move your best midfielder out of position at any cost.

      Rice was amazing last season, but he’s really dropped off, and Merino needs way more game time to get up to speed, and moving Partey to RB just compounds our midfield problems.

  16. Anyone think we’re winning EPL in the next couple of seasons? Just curious. Maybe we need to start asking some questions. How much longer are players like Saliba and Saka going to stick around too if we are winning nothing.

      1. Arsenal have almost no history in Europe, and until that changes, I don’t think even a league title would be enough to keep Saliba.

  17. Arteta has certainly gone from hero to zero after today’s result. Only a few months ago fans were lauding Arsenal for giving him a huge new contact, second only to Pep’s in money. Things looked pretty good overall then.

    Now, after one point from nine and poor performances in recent games, he’s certainly not on fan’s Christmas card lists anymore.

    There is no alternative but to press on and hope Arteta can turn things around. I’ve a feeling he’ll have to earn every 1p of his new contract.

    1. Bottom line is that we are a very ordinary team without Odegaard, once he is back we will improve. That said, in the meantime we have to blood Nwaneri because we can’t rely only on Odegaard.

      1. JBG5, if that is the case, then firstly you have to blame Arteta and secondly, if we are so reliant and fickle on one player out, we will never win anything.

        1. I don’t disagree. The fact that we sent out Viera on loan and sold ESR, would indicate that Arteta thought we had sufficient cover for Odegaard and that Nwaneri is ready to play in his stead. I don’t think Viera was a big loss, but here we are without a creative spark in the team.

          1. JBG5, i think the one person in this, who sets the team, sets the style and set the tempo, is Arteta. We are very negative and slow in the way we play and it has been this way for a long while now.

  18. We fully deserved nothing from that game considering the performance, but it’s painfully obvious that the injuries, the half-fit players that are starting, and those three early sending offs are finally catching up to us.

    I thought we performed very well against Liverpool, but that was sandwiched in between 3 horrible performances against Shaktar, Bournemouth and now Newcastle.

    If City win, which they should do, I cannot see us catching them even with a fully fit squad, let alone the injury ravaged one we have at the moment.

    Our next two games are away at Inter and Chelsea, and the wheels could well and truly come off after that. Equally, it’s a huge opportunity to boost our confidence if we could beat them both.

  19. Arteta has a tactical masterplan that is unbeatable. Unfortunately his tactical genius only works when everything goes according to his plan. And in football nothing ever goes according to plan the whole season.

    There must be a plan B. He should trust his whole squad not only his preferred eleven.

    We need a striker. Havertz has never been and will never be a striker. Are there any signs of 20+ goals we were promised by Arteta fans?

    We need to see real ruthlessness now not the imaginary one we are always told about by his fans.

    We failed to win the title when we were leading by 8 points with a month to go, will we be able to catch up to Man city and Liverpool who most likely will be 8 and 7 points clear this game week?

  20. Playing partey at RB sums up our lack of proper planning for injuries. Couldn’t timber play there and use zinc at LB? Strikers were available for arteta to recruit but he believes in the false 9 madness by thinking harvetz can play the role efficiently.. a pipe dream. Season is over before it even began. There will be no where to hide for arteta at the end of the season. Getting Ivan toney to lead the front should have sufficed.

    1. He had no need at all to play Partey at RB. No need at all. Schoolboy error. He made it last season and he has made it this.

  21. poor poor poor nothing seems to work today, so many second balls lost, zero creativity and too slow passing. we will have a good run, but all this is squarely on Arteta.

  22. If Eddie Nketiah , Smith Rowe and Nelson were given as much game time as is given to martinelli surely they would have improved a lot and most definitely be in the first team.

    Shame really.

    Arteta spent all the money given to him this summer on defenders yet he still uses TP5 as right back , a thing he should ONLY EMPLOY in emergency cases.

    Odegaard is out injured and Bam , no creativity no goals , havertz has to always come deep cos no one is pushing the ball up the field. Even saka isn’t playing particularly well without odegaard. Meanwhile we sold and loaned out our supposed creative players in Smith Rowe and Vieira only to bring in a Merino who in my opinion is too slow and doesn’t know how to play the no.10 role.

    Can this season still be salvaged , well it’s not in our hands cos we are doing everything possible to throw it away with the way we are playing.

  23. This game was very similar to the fulham game last season, we were terrible and never looked like threatening to score. Arteta will get some heat for that as his decision making was really bad and he never figured out a way out of newcastle gameplan.

  24. 3 things
    1. MA is screwing up tactics/lineup
    Partey for example should be in midfield not RB
    2. MA should have got an all and out striker in the summer and not let go of ESR in my opinion
    3. We do have injuries and miss Odergaard greatly so that affects us too

  25. Now over positive Arsenal fans, are you now seeing why I say a lot on these forums why we won’t win the league.

    Just like last season, we only had one effort on target all game. As a team Arsenal should be totally embarrassed.

    The team just don’t have any creation, and people will say well we’ve been missing Odegaard while I agree with that, it makes it all the more frustrating to see Arteta continually leave Nwaneri on the bench who is a creative player. His age shouldn’t come into it, what’s the saying, if your good enough your old enough.

    And Arteta, also claimed he played Partey at right back because he had no right back, well unless I was imagining things, wasn’t White on the bench.

    And before anyone says that he wasn’t fit enough to play the whole game, then I say to them he shouldn’t have been on the bench then. As far as I’m concerned, if your in the match day squad, your fit to play, end of story.

    It really doesn’t say much for a team, when they rely so heavily on one player as we do on Odegaard. That just tells me that the Manager and the club haven’t prepared the squad properly in case of important players missing. Because lets face it, you know that there’s a good chance that It’ll happen.

    So, come on fellow Arsenal fans, save yourself the disappointment and except that we are not going to win the league this season, and focus on the two cups. That’s the only real chance of possible silverware this season.

    Then Arsenal need to get serious in the transfer window for next season, if they want a genuine chance of challenging for the league.

    Except the inevitable, its the hope that kills you.

    1. You certainly make a very good point regarding Ben White and, furthermore, moving our best performing player this season into the RB position makes no sense whatsoever.
      I don’t believe we rely “completely” on Odegaard however, as our results prove.
      We may not be playing as good football, but that’s not what your saying.
      I refer you to city115’s result today against Bournemouth and their injury list, comparable to ours and with the same result.
      This season has not been kind to us, what with the injuries and refereeing decisions… especially when one looks at where the injuries and red cards have weakened us.
      Timber, Califiori, Saliba, Zinchenko, Tomiyasu from our defence, while Odegaard, Merino and Trossard from the midfield have given MA such enormous headaches from game to game, as one after the other players are dropping like flies and, one might say, being introduced back to quickly.
      There is no doubt that this season is going to be a real challenge in the PL, with chelsea, villa, forest, city 115, brighton and pool pushing us all the way.
      Come tomorrow evening, we could be 7th!!
      Hard times ahead, but there can be no excuse for giving up and MA needs to start earning that incredible reported salary he’s just been awarded.

  26. Today was a terrible day? Yes, while the previous one was very good, and even before that with Bournemouth exciting. Championship you want? If these owners leave yes, that is never. Also Arteta proves every year that he can’t do more Monotony that makes the players useless. I wonder how with such curses they have him as a class coach. Mercy!!!

  27. So disappointing. On the day that City finally lose we don’t take advantage. I’m not as pessimistic as some, neither Liverpool nor City are playing that well but we do have to concentrate on winning when they slip up. Liverpool are taking advantage of the long term injuries plaguing both us and City at the moment, they don’t look that impressive to me. Three quarters of the season to go yet!!!

    1. Chronicle,

      There’s nothing irrational or pent up in my opinion.

      I do what a lot of Arsenal fans refuse to do.

      And that is to see the team for what they are this season.

      There not very good are they! And a lot of that is down to the genius that is Arteta.

      Some of his team selections are both pathetic and confusing all in one.

      But don’t worry Arteta lovey’s I bet the genius has some thing up his sleeve.

      Maybe he should consider playing Win the dog. (Has anyone else noticed the irony of naming the dog Win). Win what!

      1. Yes, there are plenty of irrational opinions. Given the injury situation and fitness issues the team selected to start was understandable. There was nothing unusual about the team set up given Arteta’s preferred setup and available players.
        Some of the recent performances and results highlight that we have limited creativity when Odegaard is absent. We also have a striker deficit which will need to be addressed.

  28. Given the new standard being set at the club by Mikel, I can’t see our bad run of form dragging so too long to derail our title ambitions. Things will click soon enough, sooner than expected. Narratives change so fast in football hence the negative reactions towards the team after three winless pl games. “Title bid over”? I’m struggling to keep a straight face. 😊

  29. Taking into consideration

    1) Why play partey at RB when Ben white is on the bench, I can’t accept that cus timber was available, MA should have played Zinchenko as a let back or kiwior, and push Timber to RB.

    2) playing your best midfielder Partey in the absence of our captain MØ out of position is killing the team.

    3) why did MA not use Zinchenko to play the inverted LB….
    Sometimes the manager need to play is old tactics in previous seasons since there’s injury in the team.

    4) Most of our defeat is cus by the manager believe it or not.
    Look at the games we’ve loss previous seasons and tell me MA is not the cause.
    5) I’m a fan of MA…. I just want him to succeed bcus it’s not funny to see another coach, coming in to win the premier league for Arsenal Fc after the works He has put in.
    Nothing spoil
    @Nigerian gunner

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