- One more win secures runners’ up place: Newcastle v Arsenal
- Newcastle v Arsenal: tackles, fouls, yellows and the impact on league position
- Newcastle v Arsenal the injuries and the form
By Bulldog Drummond
Newcastle really have built up a head of steam of late, as in the last three games they have beaten Tottenham 6-1 (that was the one where they scored five goals in 45 seconds or something like that), 4-1 away to Everton and 3-1 at home to Southampton.
But we might also note that those scores are declining and even Tottenham scored against them. But here is a funny thing – they keep beating London teams… their defeats have come against Liverpool (twice), Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup, Manchester United in the League Cup, Manchester City, and then in the last match a 3-0 loss away to Villa.
However, the media is finally waking up to the benefit of goal-scoring and assisting variety. So while they keep talking about one player having scored 257 goals this season or something like that, Martinelli, Saka and Odegaard have each had 20+ goal involvements (ie scoring or assisting) this season.
And the fact is that if we look at the top goal scorers in the league this season, in the top ten there are three Arsenal players. So in terms of the top ten scorers by team, Arsenal are on 42, Manchester City 35, Tottenham Hots 26 and so on. Figures from the BBC.
| Pos | Player | Club |
Country
|
Goals |
| 1. | Erling Haaland | 35 | ||
| 2. | Harry Kane | 26 | ||
| 3. | Ivan Toney | 20 | ||
| 4. | Mohamed Salah | 19 | ||
| 5. | Marcus Rashford | 16 | ||
| 6. | Gabriel Martinelli | 15 | ||
| 6. | Callum Wilson | 15 | ||
| 8. | Ollie Watkins | 14 | ||
| 8. | Martin Ødegaard | 14 | ||
| 10. | Bukayo Saka | 13 |
Actually in the top ten assists charts Arsenal have four players: Saka, Trossard, Odegaard and Xhaka. And back with the BBC’s commentary, they tell us, “Leandro Trossard has assisted five Premier League away goals this season, more than any other Arsenal player – despite only making his first appearance on the road for the Gunners in February.” But that is just away games. Top of our assist league is Saka on 11, one more than Trossard all season.
So it all bodes well for the future. Players do get injured as we well know and this season with a modest squad the team has survived. With the squad that little bit older next season, and presumably with a few more players joining, the team should be able to cope with the match by match hacking down of players more readily.
According to the Independent;
Ramsdale;
White, Kiwior, Gabriel, Zinchenko;
Xhaka, Jorginho;
Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli;
Jesus.
They aalso say that Arsenal will have a budget of over £150m for transfers this summer.
Jakub Kiwior moved to Arsenal on 23 January this year, making his first appearance against Sporting in the Europa League. He was of course granted the typical welcome that the media always gives to new Arsenal players, with Tallk Sport saying, “Arsenal debutant Jakub Kiwior labelled ’embarrassing’”.
The labelling was done by Dean Ashton, the man who, with eight games to go in the 2021/2 season predicted West Ham would finish in the top four (they finished sixth, that season, seventh the next season and are currently 15th. Kiwior made his first start in the 3-1 win over Chelsea.
The Standard offers us
Ramsdale;
White, Kiwior, Gabriel, Zinchenko;
Odegaard, Partey, Xhaka;
Saka, Jesus, Martinelli.
Sports Mole offer the same as The Standard only with a few positional shifts.
Paul Merson writing in Sports Keeda says, “If Arsenal win this, I think the title race could be back on, as Manchester City have a bunch of interesting games coming up. Both Arsenal and Newcastle have played fantastic football this season and this will be a great contest, but unfortunately, I can’t see Arsenal winning this one. The pressure will be on them and the Magpies are a tough nut to crack at St. James’ Park, so I think this game will finish 1-1.”
So there we have it. But here’s a final thought in case you are tempted to join the “Arsenal have thrown it away” camp. This is where Arsenal stood after 34 games in the past four years compared with this year. Arsenal currently have 12 points more than the best of recent years, 29 points more than the worst. I call that progress.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Arsenal 2023 | 34 | 24 | 6 | 4 | 81 | 39 | 42 | 78 |
| 4 | Arsenal 2022 | 34 | 20 | 3 | 11 | 54 | 41 | 13 | 63 |
| 9 | Arsenal 2021 | 34 | 14 | 7 | 13 | 46 | 37 | 9 | 49 |
| 8 | Arsenal 2020 | 34 | 12 | 14 | 8 | 50 | 42 | 8 | 50 |
| 4 | Arsenal 2019 | 34 | 20 | 6 | 8 | 68 | 43 | 25 | 66 |
Oh yes, and we didn’t use a supercomputer to do that comparison chart. Funny that, what with all these media people have access to supercomputers, but they still can’t put a comparison table together. I wonder why. Could it be because it shows progress?
Brilliant display from the whole team. How did Newcastle get away with so many nasty off-ball fouls?
Referee allowed them to get away with far too much. Guimares a particularly nasty piece of work, Burn a thug, Trippier a bad-tempered little man.
Best performance of the season.
John L,
Newcastle were very physical and yes Cavanaugh let them them get away with a lot. However, in seasons passed Arsenal might have wilted under that kind of physicality, especially in a hostile building. But this iteration of AFC went toe to toe with Newcastle and gave as good as they got. They were focused at both ends and Ramsdale was up to the challenge. Composure up and down the lineup.
We can’t do more than win our games. I thought the referee let far too much go, some of the Newcastle challenges I thought merited yellow cards. Letting the game flow is all well and good but surely the referees must be able to draw the line at some poinT
COYG
Arsenal will finish first or second this season… unless the media persuade the League to find a reason to deduct some points
St.Totteringham Day 👍
Champions League 👍
Runners up 👍
Championship ?
COYG
At times it looked like Newcastle was engaged in professional wrestling on the pitch but as goonersince72 mentioned, our lads stood up to it and gave some back WITHOUT losing our compusure. Ramsdale was up to the challenge that Newcastle presented and Kiwior is progressing nicely, thank you very much.
Alan Shearer is a very bitter man. Never forget 16th May 1998.
Who is the worst referee in the Premier League? I think it’s probably Kavanagh. He was appalling today. Schär didn’t receive his first yellow until very late in the game. He should have been sent off before half-time. I though Joelinton and Guimaraes were both fortunate to escape cards. Kavanagh came very close to losing control of the game in the first half.
Other leading candidates for worst referee must surely be Atwell and Coote.
When Jesus received an elbow in the second half Gary Neville said he thought the player knew exactly what he was doing and the referee did nothing if my memory is correct . So what is VAR doing , isn’t it suppose to help referees ?
Maybe somebody could put me right in my assumptions that if the ref was going to yellow card a player VAR can advise the ref to up grade it to a red but if the ref does nothing VAR doesn’t get involve .
Yes certainly the VAR official can alert the ref to a foul he missed. But maybe the officials had gone for a pint.
Certainly Schar should have been sent off, but then he would not have been able to score the crucial second goal. Some justice after all!
John L
Brilliant display from the whole team. How did Newcastle get away with so many nasty off-ball fouls? Referee allowed them to get away with far too much. Guimares a particularly nasty piece of work, Burn a thug, Trippier a bad-tempered little man.
Certainly Schar should have been sent off,
goonersince72
Newcastle were very physical and yes Cavanaugh let them them get away with a lot.
GoingGoingGooner
At times it looked like Newcastle was engaged in professional wrestling on the pitch.
seismic
Who is the worst referee in the Premier League? I think it’s probably Kavanagh. He was appalling today. Schär didn’t receive his first yellow until very late in the game. He should have been sent off before half-time. I though Joelinton and Guimaraes were both fortunate to escape cards. Kavanagh came very close to losing control of the game in the first half.
——–
I have to admit I tend to agree with all those observations but it’s not how a lot of Newcastle fans saw it at all. They agree the ref was terrible, but in favour of Arsenal.
Apparently we dived around like fairies, feigning injury at every opportunity in an effort to waste time, which we were apparently doing from minute one. Apart from our outfield players going down in a breeze, Ramsdale was by all accounts wasting time from the start.
I’ve been reading their match day thread, link below, and it’s very enlightening to see how the opponents fans see the game. To be fair, overall it’s not that bad. Some fairly balanced takes on the game, but boy some of them really had a problem with the referee and the VAR turn over, as well as our players.
I found it an interesting read and this comment sort of sums up their general take on the match:
Frustrated was the word of the day yesterday..
It’s not possible to add much to the comments and inquests that have been voiced already..
But well done to Arteta. He formed a plan, which was executed perfectly by his team team, to a man.
Every time there was a tackle, any physical contact whatsoever, the arsenal player went down, feigning serious injury, and the ref bought it from minute one to 100. Congratulations to them for quickly realising the ref was going to allow this, and to be distracted by half a dozen players crowding and engaging him. And kicking the ball away at each stoppage.. all of these things over and over again. Yes, we have done bits of this before, everyone has, but on a tiny fraction of the level. Often the ref picks up fairy early on the fact that the fake crippling injury turns out to be nowt. The player was back up and sprinting around every time. This will usually influence the official in how he refs the game as it progresses.. not so yesterday. You have to cut it out or reduce it when the ref gets a grip.
Having said all that, Arsenal did a professional job on us, had that extra bit of quality in possession, and went away with the win. A draw would have been the more acceptable result, but thems the breaks.
https://www.nufcblog.com/2023/05/07/burn-isak-and-wilson-start-against-arsenal/comment-page-21/#comments