There’s no way to sugar coat it today. There is no way to dress up yesterday abysmal Arsenal performance. There is only the truth that needs to be spoken and sadly what you’re going to read for the next 1,000 or so words is that of a disappointed Gooner with very little positivity.
Arsenal’s defeat at St James’ Park – their third in the last four going up there – was thoroughly deserved. Arsenal were out-fought, out-thought, out-gunned and outplayed. They were second to almost everything on the night and there isn’t one player who played in red and white yesterday who got minutes up there who could say that they had a good game. We got stinkers from almost every player and Arteta too must shoulder some of the blame today too, because his set up was just wrong from the off.
The line up he picked included Thomas Partey at right back and whilst of course we have to admit that we don’t know the physical condition of Ben White, I think there were other options that we could have gone with rather than him out of position. Partey himself didn’t play that badly, but it was his poor header in the middle of the pitch that led to Newcastle’s winning goal in that first half.
You have to say that Newcastle were excellent and it was a superbly worked goal. They moved the ball quickly, Gordon put in an inch-perfect cross and Isak’s header was a bullet. Not a lot Raya could have done with it but perhaps one of Saliba or Gabriel could have been closer? Maybe. Maybe it was just one of those inch-perfect goals.
What you can do if you are Arsenal is react. That goal was conceded within the first 15 minutes, so Arsenal had 75+ to show a reaction, to put Newcastle under pressure, to deliver the goods to get us back on track. But the Arsenal players offered little. Last season the talk was about how we were the best out of possession team in Europe. Yesterday we got none of that. Newcastle hassled and hurried us when they were off the ball. They pressed and that battled. And our players had no idea. We didn’t move the ball quickly enough, we played with a lethargy in possession and we didn’t chase the spaces to put Newcastle under pressure. Newcastle popped the ball around us like we were a rudderless late-Wenger side.
It was embarrassing at times.
Embarrassing because we’ve been told – and tell ourselves – that this Arsenal team are in a title challenge. Not now we aren’t. Talk of the title needs to be shelved completely. Because unless we get out of this funk that, let’s face it, has been with us for at least a month now, we are going to be out of any reckoning by the time the Christmas period comes around.
I was really surprised at how slow we were with the ball. It was like we had no idea what to do just because Newcastle held a relatively robust shape. We just horseshoe passed ourselves to death all afternoon. Martinelli looked like a lost boy. Saka was doubled up on and kept quiet all afternoon. I barely noticed Havertz on the pitch. But the midfield was just off. I thought Merino was meant to be a duel merchant? How many duels did he win yesterday? It doesn’t feel like many, that’s for sure.
The passing was weird yesterday too. Balls being massively overhit from Merino, Rice, Partey, Saliba, Gabriel, etc. All of them were at it. But there was one player who stunk the place out more than most, which was Leandro Trossard. He was selfish with a couple of chances in the first half when a better option may have been to shoot. He mishit passes again and again, he ran into blind alleys and when you add that to the Bournemouth performance, as well as being average on a few occasions recently, it feels like he is on borrowed time in terms of a starting place in this team. Odegaard can not come back quickly enough, I tell you that much.
But Odegaard alone doesn’t salvage that game yesterday. Even if he was fit and pressing like he does, the rest of the team would have let him down, because we were just so flat. It didn’t look like an Arteta Arsenal and you have to say Howe got his tactics spot on. What’s maddening though is that this was a carbon copy of what happened last season. Arteta seemed to have no idea of how to answer when Howe just rolled out the same approach for the second year in a row:
- Commit and press bodies high up the pitch when Arsenal have the ball in the back line and particularly with it at Raya’s feet
- Double up in wide positions on the wingers
- Force them to go long into the centre halves to win the aerial battle with Havertz isolated.
Two year’s in a row. Six points gained for the home team. Just so, so, poor.
Arteta tried to change it, but the subs offered little. Nwaneri showed a little bit of a spark, but by the time he was on Newcastle were in shape and able to react to his cuts inside. At least the kid showed a bit of spark though. That’s more than I can say for the rest of his teammates. Zinchenko came on and almost immediately lost the ball carelessly. There was one Newcastle chance that he gave them on the counter attack just because he misplaced a pass about five yards in front of him. This guy is supposed to be on the pitch to give us more control in possession, yet he’s struggling to trap it?
It was just all wrong yesterday. But the fact that the team just seemed like they didn’t want to fight was the most worrying thing. It was like they were devoid of ideas. It’s not as if they had all played in midweek – many of them hadn’t even got on the pitch at Preston, or at least they only played a half or less. So fatigue is not an excuse I want to countenance today. It was mentality. Those Arsenal players just didn’t want it enough. And that is the biggest worry of them all.
I’ll leave it there I think. Back tomorrow with some more thoughts. On the Same Old Arsenal pod this afternoon. Let’s see if I’m still as angry as I was post game yesterday and first thing this morning writing out these thoughts. If you want to you can join us here.
Totally agree with your post. It was a poor watch yesterday. Saliba hasn’t been the same since the Madrid rumours, Rice looks like he’d stink out the current West Ham, Nelli still head down all the time, Havertz just doesn’t have the acceleration of a top quality 9 and yesterday we needed a 9 who could get in behind coz he wasn’t going to beat Burn in the air. Trossard is just woeful at the moment. Merino is still settling in but he needs to more more dominant. Arsenal just aren’t a good watch currently. We lack genuine pace along the front line. Best we can get is top four unless something miraculous happens.
Agee with your post – all very sad – but for me Martinelli lost control of the ball before the first goal and momentum from that led to the goal. He is becoming a nuisance doing this again and again. He had 3 Utd players hustling him but his head down messing around is not the solution. He does this so often and teams must surely be targeting this behaviour. He is a real liability right now I’m afraid.