It’s going to be a toughie, but a positive result would keep us up there chasing 4th place for another week although I personally feel that it is beyond us and that we’d do better to concentrate on consolidating our current 6th place standing.
As has been discussed, Arsenal have hit a hot streak and are scoring goals while Newcastle are struggling in terms of picking up wins. It will be a home banker in the eyes of many, but it was last season also and we won so you just never know.
For more back ground and information on the match such as team news, previous form and analytical stats regarding the match take a peek at my match preview by here or NUFC stats’ fantastic ‘Stat Attack’ by clicking here.
Now it’s time for the players to do the talking. Team news is below and will be updated accordingly so now all you have to do is sit back, try and relax, and watch in while Newcastle set about getting some points at a ground which, over the years, has hardly been favourable to us.
Howay the lads!
Arsenal: Wojciech Szczesny, Bacary Sagna, Laurent Koscielny, Thomas Vermaelen, Kieran Gibbs, Alex Song, Mikel Arteta, Tomas Rosicky, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Robin Persie.
Subs: Lukas Fabianski, Johan Djourou, Andre Santos, Aaron Ramsey, Yossi Benayoun, Gervinho, Marouane Chamakh.
Newcastle: Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon, Gabriel Obertan, Yohan Cabaye, Cheik Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez, Hatem Ben Arfa, Demba Ba
Subs: Rob Elliot, James Perch, Danny Guthrie, Dan Gosling, Haris Vuckic, Shola Ameobi, Papiss Cisse
Toonsy – I don’t think we look knackered. We look as if we lack confidence and belief that we are good players, capable of keeping possession for a worthwhile length of time. We will never win anything when we can’t keep possession. Also, until we learn to get tight and man mark at the back, we’re going nowhere.
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
Moreno @294
He tries and has good workrate but I will say it till I’m blue in the face or the cows come home. He isn’t good enough if we want to be anything other than mid-table. He doesn’t have the control to keep the ball or do anything much in the final third, or link with forwards. His decision making is poor. This is aside from his defensive frailties. I do respect the lad for his contribution and he has been a bargain for us to get us to where we are after Beye left but he has taken us as far as he can and it’s someone else’s turn, nee shame in that. Same applies for Williamson at this level.
DJG(Quote)
is no 1 else fed up guti he offers nothing and his kicking is so weak, i no people go on about his defensive work, but he sits deep and invites the full back on. Hes as weak as williamson imo in terms of the team. Would love to see fergie get a start.
alex(Quote)
Carr and co must be looking at 2 or 3 fullbacks and either a new RB or a LB and switch Santon even better, Tavernier as understudy, he looks a promising young player.
DJG(Quote)
Yeah some players seem really knackered. especially Cabaye I think his last performances are really really disappointing. Today I was so surprise that the guy was lost in the game, he lost all the duals even defensively, he seems to be as stressed as Williamson with the ball, no confidence. I think the only players who seems to don’t want throw the ball when they have it was Benny and Tiote today.
And yeah even Jonas help defensively I think most of the goals we concede comes from the left and we seem always in danger. In the first goal we concede, we were so naive like kids. Santon and Jonas was just out of the game with a simple combinaison of pass.
And even if Benny tracks back I think its completely useless, because If need to give him a rate for his defensive play is -5 over 10 , I think even a players of the 7th league can eliminate him, so play him in the hole and avoid him as most the defensive task. He just must track back to block some space like tonight.
HBA39(Quote)
To be fair we were good today, they simply were better. We kept them contained until the very last. Poor decision making at the final throw-in hurt us but I can’t complain as the score was a fair reflection of the match.
Proud of the boys and happy with the tactics. Hope Tiote isn’t injured.
griff(Quote)
I mean for example if you look at Santon at RB, he would get tackles in and close down, he would link up with the right winger and midfield, he would beat a man and get to the by-line or whip a cross in. Simpson does non of this and our attacking down the right is pretty much non existant for the past umpteen seasons, even though Carr was pretty poor he could still attack and do Right back stuff better than Simpson.
DJG(Quote)
said to my mate when simpson took throw in,that it was pure stupidness ,every one knows, put it in the corner and waste time.He must have been told that countless times,after the game pardew said he was injured,but we had used all our subs,so what the f**k was he doing up there in the first place,and as i said in the previous thread its pointless starting williamson.He’s too much of a liability now,may as well play colo on his own in cd and tiote just in front of him.with an extra midfielder at least we will start with 11 men instead of 10
mg man(Quote)
I thought we defended well. There’s no shame in pushing Arsenal to the brink given the form they’ve been showing lately.
It was an interesting surprise that Pardew pulled – Obertan central, HBA on the right. So much for him not experimenting.
On a tangent (bedcause I don’t want to dwell on the disappointment)… Given the number of goals scored in added time maybe there’s a need for some transparency in time-keeping – perhaps a clock in the stadium that stops at the refs signal and starts again at his signal so everybody can see what’s going on. Or maybe take it out of the refs hands altogether and have an official time-keeper.
brisvegas(Quote)
I see Neville identified Simpson as at fault for their goal, but I blame Guthrie. Absolute disgrace!
All our lads, except Guthrie, broke their necks to get back. Guthrie had ten yards on their goalscorer, could see where the danger was at the back post, but did nowt to cover Simpson whom he could see was out of the game. He hasn’t got the excuse of being out on his feet either. Coming on as a late sub, he should have been full of energy. He’s played **** since he’s come in after getting dropped. Inexcusable!
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
to me it seems like we’ve played the last 4 or 5 games with 2 defenders krul and colo,big dave harped on about, it as did troy and many others it was absolutley ridiculous not to sign a centre half in janurary,.and its gonna cost us big style.
mg man(Quote)
*total mind block how do you spell that month that starts with jan 😳
mg man(Quote)
I’m going to bed. I know I can’t avoid that sinking feeling when I wake up tomorrow and remember this defeat. After that, I will obliterate it from my memory. Well everything about it except Guthrie’s laziness. He’ll have to do a lot to make up for that in my eyes. I wouldn’t play him again this season if I could help it.
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
MG – do you say “pelanty” like Waddle?
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
I Now dispise spurs, liverpool, sunderland and arsenal until RVP gets his pay rise at man city then it will be them!! I think we are two players away from being a great team. Douglas or Vergonhan and another player that can pass in midfield and keep the ball to relieve pressure. I thought that game should have had Haris vuckic instead of obertan!! would have giving us so much more control in centre midfield and can do something wen on the ball. Ben arfa was unfairly criticised on this tonite aswell. Obertan cannot believe he made it as a pro. we got ripped of for 3mill and pardew wants to make it work but really should consider it as a loss…. sooner marveux comes back the better!!
ben(Quote)
Certainly I am pleased we did not capitulate even though we were under pressure. I believe though that was more about Arsenal missing claring chances that defencive robustness on our part. On the negative side We created next to nothing.
What is also surprising is the number of negative comments about Golden boy Cabaye. What surprises me is how long it took you all to see just how useless he is.
Offers nothing upfront, and yet while sitting so deep fails to strengthen the defence.
I advocated from the beginning of the season that he is offering nothing to the team neither attacking nor defensively. Time for Ben Arfa to replace him behind the strikers with Obertan and Jonas on the flanks.
Sits so deep
Michael12(Quote)
You need to ask if we are getting the best out of Cabaye. Where did he play for Lille? Was it as part of the front 3? It may be that we need to look at trying this 4-2-3-1 formation sooner rather than later. Play Guthrie with Tiote in the CM and push Cabaye further forward with HBA behind Ba and then Jonas.
Simmo and Willo have had their time. Saylors injury has been a massive blow. I hope Raylor is fit for the next game to play LB and move Santoon to RB. Worrying that Santoon was replaced by Perch though. Maybe Perch can play CB with Collo, we need to counteract Holt better this time. Holt gets physical but Willo is all arms and just hauls folk down.
Does Pards have the balls to drop Simmo and Willo? Not sure.
Raffo(Quote)
http://www.footballfriendsonline.com/blogs/2012/3/12/newcastle-ready-defender-move.html
Apologies if this has already been mentioned. Rumours I know but I wouldnt be too fussed to see this happen. Also not bothered if Simmo doesnt sign.
Raffo(Quote)
Time for Pardew to start kicking some arses and stop defending pathetic performances, if he is ok with that last minute schoolboy shambles defending and the unprofessional manner in which they failed to see the match out then there is something sadly wrong.
Robert(Quote)
Gutted about last night although I was expecting to get a bit of a beating, hanging on until 95th minute and then conceding from our throw in near there corner flag was gutting
Guthrie could have def done more to get back and cover, he’d only been on 15 mins so can hardly blame tiredness
Think everyone else gave their all, lets face it we do not have the class of player that Arsenal do
wtf was going on between Krul and RVP, understand Persie was giving it some but surprised Krul reacted ….. must have been pretty bad tho doubt it’ll ever be made public (no doubt Newcastle will get fined and RVP a pat on the back from the kin F.A)
stevep(Quote)
Why blame Guthrie? Danny dee nowt only had to throw the ball down the line instead of inside, idiotic and suicidal.
Robert(Quote)
Robert.. Simmo was actually one of our better players all night. he only got done at the end because he was injured. After HBA, simmo was the next best player on that pitch.
People like to concentrate on one thing during a match and don’t take into account the previous 94 minutes.
Nobby(Quote)
I do take into account the previous 94 minutes, which is why one act of complete stupidity is all the more galling, all that effort wasted because of a player with a football brain the size of a split pea.
Robert(Quote)
Just LOL @ slating Cabaye again. Yeah he’s been off the boil since the Man Utd home game, that much I know. But to talk about him like he hasn’t contributed at all this season is the opinion of a moron.
We will never get back to how we were playing in the first third of the season until we get a replacement CB for Williamson. It’s no coincidence that we have been poor since Saylor became injured, and have reverted to hoofball.
How will our central midfield pairing make an impact while never having the ball played to them?
EvilFranky(Quote)
i recon simmo will stay with tavernier as his understudy ,i hope simmo does stay the lad has made some great goal stops!!!!.willo seems to be struggling a bit cant wait for tayls to be back!
stevo(Quote)
Still gutted though I think Guthrie could have and should have done much more, but I wouldn’t blame just him. For me the worst players were Willo who never tries to stop a ball coming into the box unless he can get his head to it, and Cabaye has once again added absolutly nowt to the team what exactly is his role in the team ? as he doesn’t offer owt going forward and nowt at the back.
Big Dave(Quote)
Meant to add I know Benny lost an odd ball cheaply but he added more to our game, and has once again showed that he can create a chance and score in a heart beat, that no other player in our team can do.
Big Dave(Quote)
What do people want from Cabaye? Do they want him to grow 30ft so he can pluck the ball from mid-air?
The fact is that when he and Tiote have played – our first choice – in the middle, we’ve lost three games – Chelsea, Man City and last night 😕
toonsy(Quote)
DAVE @327 i agree plus imo we defo need a big hard c/h to command the back a samba type player willo just doesnt cut the mustard at this level 😡
icedog(Quote)
In defence of Willo and Cabaye, at least they put their all into it. Pity Guthrie didn’t. And not for the first time has he failed to bust a gut to get back, and we’ve condeded a goal from where he should and could have been. Unforgiveable in my book. He should be banished.
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
ime not running players down but to me cabye,tiote,santon ect look cream crackered imo
icedog(Quote)
B&B – You’re pissing against the wind mate. Cabaye is the scapegoat this week so Guthrie’s lack of effort and unwillingness to track back is being ignored.
toonsy(Quote)
just one of those games.. Arsenal are a good team with pacey players and were at home. You would expect them to come at us and they did.
I think we were defending with all our might and had a couple of lucky escapes) but I can’t fault the effort put in, at the end of the day they just out classed us when it mattered..
Move on and we can still have a good end to the season..
lee(Quote)
i’d say wrong tactics by pardew. Should have played more of a possession game than allowing arsenal to keep hold of the ball all evening. I personally feel when its going towards a stalemate its better to go for three points with the possibility of getting none than going for one point with the possibility of losing. Look at swansea and how well they do against big teams.
Haider Agha(Quote)
I don’t believe that last goal lost us the game (obviously it did but i’m thinking outside the box 😆 )
The first goal cost us that game. It was absolutely atrocious. Gutierrez switched off at kick off. Willo got turned inside out by rvp. Disgusting. An absolute shambles. We sat back and defended after that… it was too early in the game to be that negative.
I actually like obertan in the first 30 minutes and then he disappeared. I did actually like him in that central role though. H emissed a sitter of a bass to HBA at the edge of the box and passed behind him. disappointing.
When perch came on for santon I’m sure most thought ‘huh… why.. wtf?’ But me and the father-in-law were watching the telly and said at the same time in a ‘jinx’ moment….. “Good tactical decision that like”.
Santon was getting done time and time again by Walcott. I think i counted 5 occasions that walcott got behind him. As good as Santon is going forward he needs a bit more time to change to read the english game. Perchy had a good game when he came on. I can remember only one mistake as he man-marked walcott effectively for most of the second half.
Willo…. struggling to think of a positive.. errrmmm… he headed a few balls out the box. most of which went to an arsenal player 🙁
Nobby(Quote)
Toonsy @ 328 – Ahhh some common sense! It’s exactly what I said in my post earlier. We will never get the best out of the likes of Cabaye when we play hoofball.
So all his work was basically trying to get the ball back from a good passing Arsenal side…difficult for any team in the league never mind us.
Our goal came from ‘carpet’ football, I don’t understand how anyone else including Pardew can’t see we are a better team when we play like that.
Benny would have turned Gibbs inside out all night.
EvilFranky(Quote)
Simmo had a good game… apart from he should have booted it out at one point but decided to pass to someone else (i think it was HBA) and he got dispossed. bad crack. I don’t blame him for the second goal… yes it was a poor throw in ( deep in their half i might add) but if that’s the cause of the goal then you may as well blame whoever won us the throw in in the first place.
Guthrie to blame for that goal… where the hell was he? ❓
Nobby(Quote)
And on a sidenote I heard Arsenal fans want Benny and i wont be surprised if wenger makes an offer, his love for fellow frenchmen is undeniable.
Haider Agha(Quote)
I think we played a good game last night and there is a **** load of positives to take from it. We were never going to win that game ( although i thought we might when we scored). I feel we were the better team until their first goal.
I like obertan in that central role.
I like the formation.
Our goal wasn’t a ‘solo effort’ from shiny balls ben arfa. It went>>> Tiot-Ba-Obertan (with a quality first time pass)- HBA-brilliant bit of skill-goal.
It was some brilliant passing football, we need to learn how to do it for 90 minutes (or 98 😆 )
Nobby(Quote)
Toonsy I never ignored Guthries faults and I said that in my post above but he wasn’t totally at fault, you could say if simmo hadn’t have played a stupid throw in the problem would never have occured.
And no im not using Cabaye as a scapegoat either and no I don’t want him to grow 30 ft tall, it seems that Cabaye should be free from stick but I don’t agree with that, if he doesn’t offer much to the team which im not the only one to mention it, will then he should expect stick imo atm he has replaced Nolan except he doesn’t score tugboats goals but he adds as much to the game.
Big Dave(Quote)
Dave – Im not saying Cabaye should escape criticism. Just a look at the whole picture before criticism. Its not like he done a Guthrie against Wolves, who fluffed the pass whenever he had the ball, more the fact that our midifield, including Tiote, was completely bypassed. If the ball is being played over them they can’t do a great deal about it. They were back helping out but ball travels faster than man and when our defence are just hoofing it clear to Ba it doesn’t matter if he wins it because the midfield are too far back still and by the time they’ve caught up Ba has lost the ball and were back under pressure again.
Its purely down to Williamson. Saylor would play the ball to midfield and allow them to build but Willo is unable to do that. We really miss him.
toonsy(Quote)
Toonsy the think that gets me but is that Cabaye is a french international, and we know he is better than Guthrie but he’s not showing it to me anyway, Tiote seems to try to attack more and he is the DM, I just want him to try more because atm there isn’t much difference between him and Guthrie, I seen Cabaye fluff it a few times in our own box and we were lucky we never got punished more.
I do agree about Willo the guy has turned into a ticking time bomb, and I have watched the ball coming in to our box several times and it seem that Willo wont even attemp to put a foot or leg out to stop it.
Big Dave(Quote)