Arsenal v Newcastle: the team and league positons AFTER the game.

 

 

 

• Injuries, yellow cards and recent form
• Arsenal v Newcastle: the referee who just doesn’t oversee home wins
• Newcastle United’s weakness revealed and what they could do. Arsenal v Newcastle United.
• Arsenal v Newcastle: the tackles, fouls and yellow cards compared
• Suddenly the media blames the referee – although not an English referee

Earlier in our series on this game we pointed out the difficulties that Arsenal will face with the particular referee who has been appointed to this game.    But if Arsenal can overcome his desire to give games to away teams, and failing that a draw, then there is the fact that Arsenal will have not been beaten following a European game in midweek for 20 matches, which is quite something.

However, the Arsenal defence is always willing to concede the occasional goal it seems, having not had three games in a row in the league without conceding for over a year.

And then there is the issue of Saka – if he scores again that will be a goal in five consecutive league games.  The last person to do that was Olivier Giroud (thanks to the BBC for finding that one).    Trossard has also scored in his last three league games.   

As for Newcastle, a win would give them five consecutive wins in a row in the Premier League for the first time since 1994.

So that’s the background, but now let’s round this off with some basic facts and the team.

Arsenal have scored the second-highest number of goals in the league so far this season.  Newcastle are in fourth position in the scoring league, five goals behind.

That makes the clubs sound very close to each other, but there is a big difference between the two in terms of defence.  Arsenal have conceded 22  goals – the lowest number of any Premier league club this season, and Newcastle have conceded almost double that number (41) and have the 10th worst defence in the league, equal with Chelsea and Fulham.

As a result of these numbers, Newcastle have the sixth-best goal difference in the league with a score of +12 goals in the GD column.   Being sixth-best sounds rather good, but in reality, they are not quite so well off, since Arsenal have a goal difference three times as good (+36).   Arsenal are second in the goal difference charts, just two behind Liverpool who have played a game more.

As for the team the Standard offer us

Raya;

White, Saliba, Gabriel, Kiwior;

Odegaard, Rice, Jorginho;

Saka, Havertz, Martinelli

Three Added Minutes however have something of a variation with Thomas Partey AND Gabriel Jesus starting

David Raya;

Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Jakub Kiwior;

Declan Rice, Thomas Partey Martin Odegaard;

Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli.

90 Min however stick with the Standard’s approach and that does seem to be the general consensus.

Overall Newcastle are 18 points behind Arsenal.   Obviously, other teams are also playing across the weekend, but in general terms no matter what the result here and what Manchester City do, Arsenal will either remain third or move up to second.

A defeat for Newcastle could, with other matches going against them, see them drop to 11th.  A victory on the other hand could see them rise, at most, one place to seventh.  They might however be eighth and thus in theory just outside the European places which they expected to be taking by storm this season, but the gap between Newcastle in eight and Manchester United in sixth is, before this weekend’s games seven points – although Newcastle do have a better goal difference.

The table before this weekend’s games…

 

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Liverpool	26	18	6	2	63	25	38	60
2	Manchester City	25	17	5	3	58	26	32	56
3	Arsenal	25	17	4	4	58	22	36	55
4	Aston Villa	25	15	4	6	52	33	19	49
5	Tottenham Hotspur	25	14	5	6	52	38	14	47
6	Manchester United	25	14	2	9	35	34	1	44
7	Brighton and Hove Albion	25	10	8	7	48	40	8	38
8	Newcastle United	25	11	4	10	53	41	12	37

 

There is an index to all our recent series on the home page.