The five dangers Arsenal need to be aware of ahead of Newcastle clash

Newcastle have seen a turnaround in their fortunes over the last few weeks and while I am firmly of the belief that we will beat them, we have acknowledge that they are a dangerous team to be playing right now

They have won five, drawn two and lost just twice in their last nine Premier League games, both against London teams West Ham and Tottenham, and in that sequence, they beat Man City 2-1 and in a remarkable comeback, beat Everton 3-2 when 2-0 down at half time.

Another little factor to consider is that our record in the Premier League is only slightly better over the last nine games, six wins, one draw and two losses.

Now, there is context, Newcastle losses were away, so were ours but we are at home tomorrow night and that is a significant difference and overall, our home record is formidable compared to Newcastle’s away record this season.

Anyway, these are the five dangers I think we should be aware of.

Rafa Benitez

The man is bloody good, he knows his stuff, he gets his teams well organised and knows how to frustrate the opposition, he may not be on the field of play but his effect from the sidelines is a huge danger to us and Unai Emery needs to be ready to counter any changes or tweaks that his fellow Spaniard makes.

Jonjo Shelvey

Do not laugh, he is a top-class passer of the ball, he may not have the full strength of character to control the middle of the park but if we allow him space to utilise his passing then we will regret it, we have to close him down, simple as that.

Salomón Rondón

He may not be the most prolific of strikers but you have to take on board the team he plays for and their early season form, he has scored nine goals this term, one less than Rashford of Man Utd and Tottenham’s Son and if he is given the slightest chance he will take it, Man City know that full well.

He has also made the most assists for Newcastle, five in total.

Frustration

Frustration can be the biggest enemy if we fail to break Newcastle down early and that is a possibility, they have had 12 0-0 draws at half time, then frustration can set in and when that happens you become vulnerable and are susceptible to a sucker punch.

Miguel Almirón

Almiron has just had six Premier League games since he signed for the Toon in January but we can already see what he is capable of, Newcastle have won three and drawn two of those six games and that is while he is still finding his feet, the Newcastle fans already love him, he is very creative, has an eye for goal as his time with Atlanta in the MLS showed, he has clearly made a difference and if we do not nullify him then we will have problems.

That is it, the five dangers I personally see, I am sure there are more and your comments are welcomed.

2 Comments

  1. Another concern now is the timing of that article on the Mirror, with them highlighting how N. Warnock says that big six teams get preferential treatment from refs. They ask allot of others the question, are refs biased towards big six sides, right before we play New and with us not having big six teams left in our fixtures. It’s bad timing, I hope refs don’t go out of their way to prove it wrong with us becoming the test case. I think it’s just that a big team can punish more easily if they get a favorable decision and they can come back more often from a wrong one compared to a smaller club.

    It wouldn’t be fair for a ref to hurt us by going out of his way to prove this wrong. We won our matches mostly by open play goals and have had our difficulties in defence, if they want to hurt someone it should be one of the sides that relies on gaining many pennos along the way. Like City, Liv, or Tott, they got a lot of decisions. Us, Manu and Che, the former big three, we aren’t getting s**t.

    1. I just realised, this all came about because of Che. f**k it, I stand by what I said, compared to the others, one decision is just a bad call, and we’ve seen every team on receiving end.

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