Draw Premier League: Arsenal 0 - 0 Newcastle | Tuesday 3rd, January | KO: 19:45 BST Sky Sports

This is arguably the most difficult fixture in the league atm so we have to be at our very best. But they're essentially beatable. We're not the same team they slapped 3-0 at the backend of last season. We've taken giant strides since then. Thankfully, this fixture is at home.

Newcastle are a good team but with all due respect, were levels above them.

Their tactics have always been to suck teams in, force them to make mistakes am and then break break forward with pace. But we're a very technically secure team. I back us not to lose possession in dangerous areas tbh.

Prediction

Arsenal 2-0 Newcastle

 

[Aussie_gunner123]

You know who that Newcastle team today reminded me of, Don Revies Leeds side from the 60's with Johnny Giles & Billy Bremner etc. Intentional fouls to put us off our momentum, intentional time wasting, always in the referees face calling for yellows for us then complaing about their yellows. Completely frustrating.

 

[gunner4lyfe]

Think we need to get a tall CF on loan for games like these. Its not a knock on Eddie cuz he had that chance near the end.

 

[EmeryCouldnt]

Haven't you seen Eddie being dragged in the box by a Newcastle lump? It's on this very page!

Oh… no, I’ve missed it.

 

[EmeryCouldnt]

Haven't you seen Eddie being dragged in the box by a Newcastle lump? It's on this very page!

Yeah… I see the jersey pull and horse collar. Borderline incident. Not super clear tbh.

I think the ref was scared to make a game defining call.

 

[1macca1]

You know who that Newcastle team today reminded me of, Don Revies Leeds side from the 60's with Johnny Giles & Billy Bremner etc. Intentional fouls to put us off our momentum, intentional time wasting, always in the referees face calling for yellows for us then complaing about their yellows. Completely frustrating.

If they get two league titles like Leeds did playing like that then I don’t think they’ll mind

 

[bergholt]

Eddie should have gone down that what kane does.

In real time that looked as if Eddie was just pushing back at him tbh

 

[Aussie_gunner123]

If they get two league titles like Leeds did playing like that then I don’t think they’ll mind

You mean wouldn't mind being labled the new Leeds side haha?

 

[Kav]

Our best bit of play was when we played through the lines. This happened in the latter part of the game when our players had a bit more space to move into. Other than that Newcastle did rather well at shutting down our options and double or triple teaming Saka and Martinelli. If only we had someone from midfield making runs to draw out a player or too and make the space.

 

[boxerumble]

Has that post-match analysis happened yet where they call in that senior citizen ex-ref to justify these non calls?

 

[MutableEarth]

Finally watched the 2nd half a little while ago.

Gotta say this was arguably the most intriguing match we've played this season. Newcastle were extremely well organised and I think this was the perfect test for us going into this next stretch of games. Refereeing performance aside of course.

Actually left me with some interesting questions about the team going forward and it's not just to do with the bench either!

 

[Bagels]

Think it’s just how he is as a person for good or worse. Guardiola and Klopp to an extent are the same. Ferguson used to harass the third official constantly.

Arsène was the only manager who used to have any class about him in the touchline

And ironically, there were times when Wenger got battered by both the media and the fanbase for being mellow during draws/losses at times. “He hasn’t even gotten up from his seat” “he doesn’t care we are losing” etc etc. Imagine saying with a straight face Wenger didn’t care when we lost

People will project however they feel towards a manager already, onto their actions.

 

[MutableEarth]

And ironically, there were times when Wenger got battered by both the media and the fanbase for being mellow during draws/losses at times. “He hasn’t even gotten up from his seat” “he doesn’t care we are losing” etc etc. Imagine saying with a straight face Wenger didn’t care when we lost

People will project however they feel towards a manager already, onto their actions.

Love Arsène but he was/is a famously bad loser literally hates it with every fiber of his being.

 

[Bagels]

Finally watched the 2nd half a little while ago.

Gotta say this was arguably the most intriguing match we've played this season. Newcastle were extremely well organised and I think this was the perfect test for us going into this next stretch of games. Refereeing performance aside of course.

Actually left me with some interesting questions about the team going forward and it's not just to do with the bench either!

I’d be curious to hear your thoughts.

I had some big takeaways, but mostly regarding Newcastle tbh. They were obviously playing extremely “negative”, but it was incredibly effective. Not in like for like tactics, but in effect, reminded me of some Mourinho sides. I know they don’t always play this way, and it bothered the living hell out of me, but collectively they executed their game-plan to an incredibly high level.

When a team can be that sound positionally, it is always going to be difficult to score against them. However, we did really well to rubbish any real counter attacking efforts before they could mount them. And we did well to not give up, keep the belief and to continue to try to make something happen.

I feel that it didn’t is in some part down to lack of quality off the bench, but it’s hard for me to get upset about this performance when I actually think we did relatively well against an impressively structured side.

 

[Bagels]

Love Arsène but he was/is a famously bad loser literally hates it with every fiber of his being.

Just shows the extent to which people will project!

 

[CaseUteinberger]

Think it’s just how he is as a person for good or worse. Guardiola and Klopp to an extent are the same. Ferguson used to harass the third official constantly.

Arsène was the only manager who used to have any class about him in the touchline

I personally think that Arteta complaining to and about the officials will help mid- to longterm. Having class and taking the high road gets us nowhere with the referees. I am convinced that the more we complain (fans, manager, players, club officials, owners etc.) the better. Just pile on the pressure at all times. It sure as hell helped the three gentlemen you listed, while Wenger got nothing for showing class and taking the high road.

 

[1macca1]

Their defensive structure reminded me somewhat of how we played against Brighton for much of the first half. I don’t begrudge them the point, we only needed Gabriel’s header to sneak in to claim all 3 though.

 

[rockofcashel]

I’d be curious to hear your thoughts.

I had some big takeaways, but mostly regarding Newcastle tbh. They were obviously playing extremely “negative”, but it was incredibly effective. Not in like for like tactics, but in effect, reminded me of some Mourinho sides. I know they don’t always play this way, and it bothered the living hell out of me, but collectively they executed their game-plan to an incredibly high level.

When a team can be that sound positionally, it is always going to be difficult to score against them. However, we did really well to rubbish any real counter attacking efforts before they could mount them. And we did well to not give up, keep the belief and to continue to try to make something happen.

I feel that it didn’t is in some part down to lack of quality off the bench, but it’s hard for me to get upset about this performance when I actually think we did relatively well against an impressively structured side.

Same.. they're the best defence in the league fir a reason

Thing is.. they'll likely take points off our rivals playing the same way.. which is good

But they'll draw too many games themselves to be a real threat to us

The real title rivals.. and at this stage to me that's just City and United.. will come out to play as well

Then we'll see how good we, and they, are

Other teams will try to play like they did against us.. very few will get away with it for 90 mins

 

[MutableEarth]

I’d be curious to hear your thoughts.

I had some big takeaways, but mostly regarding Newcastle tbh. They were obviously playing extremely “negative”, but it was incredibly effective. Not in like for like tactics, but in effect, reminded me of some Mourinho sides. I know they don’t always play this way, and it bothered the living hell out of me, but collectively they executed their game-plan to an incredibly high level.

When a team can be that sound positionally, it is always going to be difficult to score against them. However, we did really well to rubbish any real counter attacking efforts before they could mount them. And we did well to not give up, keep the belief and to continue to try to make something happen.

I feel that it didn’t is in some part down to lack of quality off the bench, but it’s hard for me to get down about this performance when I actually think we did really well against an impressively structured side.

Newcastle did a good job on the wide men as that's where our bread and butter is. They had Almiron and Joelinton, two of the hardest runners in their team, backing Trippier and Burn for almost the entire game while their midfield sought to break the game up as soon as we got it in the middle. As a result, we didn't really get the wide men into space enough times because they were on our case and made it harder to make the quick switches over to either side. We needed to build from deeper to mitigate this but we'll always seek to push teams back nonetheless so we tried to grind them down. Newcastle are a very good side now and Eddie Howe deserves tons of credit. They haven't even spent money yet!

I thought our biggest problem going forward was the left side. Zinchenko/Xhaka/Martinelli has enough quality to beat most teams but against a well drilled side, you need more synergistic profiles. You could make the same argument for White/Ødegaard/Saka but it wouldn't be as strong as they at least have some chemistry. I saw a take on Twitter that illustrated my thoughts clearly - Zinchenko and Xhaka in the same team on the same side is redundant. This doesn't mean they were bad - I thought Zinchenko was excellent in particular. But Xhaka in those forward positions receiving passes from Zinchenko while Martinelli toils on the touchline isn't as threatening as I'd like it to be. Martinelli got more and more stifled the longer the game went on and he was already having a tough game as it was.

Ødegaard copped a lot of flak but I really didn't think he was that bad, it's more that Newcastle were prepared for him and us in general. If our left side wasn't as nullified he'd probably have had more attacking options. He really needs to do better with goalscoring opportunities though. It's a clear weak point (it's honestly a weakpoint for the team but that's for another day).

I don't really have much to say on our defensive efforts, we did fine albeit with a couple of jitters. It was the attack that intrigued me the most and perhaps made clear that the biggest improvement we can make to this team is not just more wingers but another LCM at some point. Sambi's not the guy and Xhaka has fought his way into my heart but he's the one that sticks out as needing an upgrade next season or at least a different profile (Vieira? Not as powerful but clearly better in the attacking zones).

 

[Bagels]

Newcastle did a good job on the wide men as that's where our bread and butter is. They had Almiron and Joelinton, two of the hardest runners in their team, backing Trippier and Burn for almost the entire game while their midfield sought to break the game up as soon as we got it in the middle. As a result, we didn't really get the wide men into space enough times because they were on our case and made it harder to make the quick switches over to either side. We needed to build from deeper to mitigate this but we'll always seek to push teams back nonetheless so we tried to grind them down. Newcastle are a very good side now and Eddie Howe deserves tons of credit. They haven't even spent money yet!

I thought our biggest problem going forward was the left side. Zinchenko/Xhaka/Martinelli has enough quality to beat most teams but against a well drilled side, you need more synergistic profiles. You could make the same argument for White/Ødegaard/Saka but it wouldn't be as strong as they at least have some chemistry. I saw a take on Twitter that illustrated my thoughts clearly - Zinchenko and Xhaka in the same team on the same side is redundant. This doesn't mean they were bad - I thought Zinchenko was excellent in particular. But Xhaka in those forward positions receiving passes from Zinchenko while Martinelli toils on the touchline isn't as threatening as I'd like it to be. Martinelli got more and more stifled the longer the game went on and he was already having a tough game as it was.

Ødegaard copped a lot of flak but I really didn't think he was that bad, it's more that Newcastle were prepared for him and us in general. If our left side wasn't as nullified he'd probably have had more attacking options. He really needs to do better with goalscoring opportunities though. It's a clear weak point (it's honestly a weakpoint for the team but that's for another day).

I don't really have much to say on our defensive efforts, we did fine albeit with a couple of jitters. It was the attack that intrigued me the most and perhaps made clear that the biggest improvement we can make to this team is not just more wingers but another LCM at some point. Sambi's not the guy and Xhaka has fought his way into my heart but he's the one that sticks out as needing an upgrade next season or at least a different profile (Vieira? Not as powerful but clearly better in the attacking zones).

Even when ASM came on, he was dead on prepared to keep back and stick to their third of the pitch when required. I think the focus on the wings was in large part what allowed Partey to have such a good game, as it did allow him some extra space to maneuver the ball from deep midfield.

Zinchenko for me was potentially our more important player, as he was able to find some very clever vertical passes that broke a line or two on a couple of occasions, and against a structured side those are the moments that can really help to create something as it necessitates some degree of defensive structure breakdown to compensate. We just weren’t able to make much of those moments, which in fairness is still largely credit to Newcastle.

I fully take your point on Xhaka, and agree. I think in a scenario like this, having a midfielder that is good enough on the ball on their own along with the ability to create space for others and themselves with their movement becomes really important. This would also allow some rotation between the LW and LCM, which while sounding strange, with Zinchenko tucking in what becomes effectively an LCM, I believe could help to create space.

I think this is in large part why White/Ødegaard/Saka is not redundant. Ødegaard is effective both on ball and without, and is more comfortable operating on the right wing with the ball than Xhaka is on the left. I just think that as the left side was shut down so hard, the options for Ødegaard and Saka became really limited, and it was almost as if they had to run through a wall to get anything done.

 

[Aussie_gunner123]

Anyone know if there was any particular reason Soares was left out of the matchday squad & the guy from the academy Nathan Butler Oyedeji came in instead? Could Soares be on the way out already or just wanted that extra possible attacking threat to bring on if needed?