Arsenal 3 - 0 Newcastle United: On the brink of 4th yet again

Another good win tonight, tempered slightly by how overwhelmingly apathetic Newcastle were. This was as routine as routine gets. The first twenty to thirty minutes saw little in the way of chances for Arsenal who struggled to play through Newcastle. They set up to not concede and narrowed down our passing options by pressing us when we had the ball in our half, similar to how Wigan did so in the FA Cup semi-final, and it wasn't easy for us to create that one good chance.

But as I've always said, you've got to find other ways of breaking sides down and one of those ways is through set-pieces. We're not regular exponents of set-pieces, both direct and indirect, so it was a nice surprise to see us score from one tonight. Cazorla's delivery was spot-on, as was Koscielny's run; the same can't be said for Newcastle's defending. We were actually a consistent threat from set-pieces in the first half, stemming from Cazorla actually getting the ball past the first man and into dangerous areas.

The second goal was scruffy. Giroud had been trying to get in behind Newcastle all half and when he finally accomplished it, he didn't take his opportunity well, nor did he do well with the follow up. The ball came out to Ozil, who was offside, and he almost sheepishly put the ball into the empty goal.

In the second half, more goals were there if Arsenal wanted them. Newcastle didn't seem to care much and if Arsenal pushed for it, they could have scored two or three more. But as has often been the case this year, Arsenal decided to not go all-out for goals, instead preferring to control the remainder of the game. Giroud got his goal when he got on the end of Ozil's cross and that was that.

Fourth is pretty much in the bag now. If Everton lose to City on Saturday, which is likely since City are now back in the title race, we won't even need to beat West Brom on Sunday to get fourth. Regardless of the Everton a result, a win for us wraps everything up with a game to spare. It's all ending in a massive anti-climax and I'm now wondering what all the fuss was about after that Everton defeat. With a major cup final to come, it's a fantastic position to be in.

Of course, I don't want to put West Brom down as an automatic win, and we'll need to avoid complacency. Everton could win against City and all it'd take is for us to slip up against West Brom to set-up another nervy final day. So it'd be best go get 4th wrapped up, then take extra care of our players to ensure they remain fit for the cup final.

I'm confident we won't mess up from here, but if we do, well, we'd deserve the Europa League.

Nice and easy win. Nothing much to say. 4 points gap over Everton and just need a win against WBA or Norwich.

Ozil was class. MOTM probably.

happy st totteringham's day everyone!!!!!!

Giroud setting a new PL record for offsides Still, his persistence paid off

Really, really easy win.

Lads still had to score the goals and they did.
Well done, and on to the next one.

https://vine.co/v/MvtxpxQnFmO

"come at me Haters"

comfy win
4 chances created from set piece and A Goal
  

http://www.fourfourtwo.com/statszone/8-2013/matches/695251/team-stats/3/1_PASS_1102#tabs-wrapper-anchor

Wish Rambo and Poldi could add to their Goals

https://31.media.tumblr.com/323156000a214326a9c6fe5a8e0c2447/tumblr_n4rguefj851s87ddmo1_500.jpg

waiting for Kos to score that Trophy-winning Goal...

Great match, imperative we go to the final with this attitude.

By the way, Özil was well onside for the goal, as you can see, a defender was basically on the line as Giroud took his second shot:

https://vine.co/v/MvtPm7OpAuZ

Yeah but he was behind the keeper.
Rules say keeper is last line of defense, no?

http://i.minus.com/iYTaknv3iv5WI.gif

imagine these driving runs from deep next season when his supporting cast consist of some attackers with pace to get in behind.........  

El Gunner wrote:Yeah but he was behind the keeper.
Rules say keeper is last line of defense, no?

As I understand it, the keeper is just like any regular defender and the rule states that offside occurs when there is not more than one defender between the passer and receiver of the ball so whether the defender was behind the keeper in that line of thought is irrelevant.

I could be wrong but if the keeper made everyone behind him offside then that would make for blanketing the entire penalty box by just running up to clear a cross.

Sina wrote:http://i.minus.com/iYTaknv3iv5WI.gif

imagine these driving runs from deep next season when his supporting cast consist of some attackers with pace to get in behind.........  

Reus and Walcott instead of Giroud and Podolski please.


The offside rule (from my understanding) is unless you are behind the ball you need two opposition players between yourself and the goal. One opposition player is usually the goalkeeper but in Ozil's goal, the GK was in front of Ozil with only one other player between Ozil and the goal. Therefore it should have been offside.

Silver has the right of it. You need two players behind the ball to be onside and this can be any two players, be it keeper and last defender (the most common pairing) or two defenders.

GoonerJay29 wrote:Silver has the right of it. You need two players behind the ball to be onside and this can be any two players, be it keeper and last defender (the most common pairing) or two defenders.

Forgive me, I may be confused here but there were two defenders behind Özil, the only difference was that the keeper was a yard ahead of the defender in discussion.

MJGunner wrote:

GoonerJay29 wrote:Silver has the right of it. You need two players behind the ball to be onside and this can be any two players, be it keeper and last defender (the most common pairing) or two defenders.

Forgive me, I may be confused here but there were two defenders behind Özil, the only difference was that the keeper was a yard ahead of the defender in discussion.

EDIT: I see now that the keeper was well ahead of Özil, I'm going to look at it from another angle to be sure as the one I posted isn't the clearest.

This is the angle you want; as Giroud takes his second shot, Ozil is offside:

Yeah clearly offside.
Thanks Silver and Jay for the clarity on this issue.

Good game, but I just dont understand why we dont punish teams. I hope City win so we can give some young players more game time in the last 2 games and rest some players.

Giroud made a mess out of Ozil goal, should have put it away at least the second time, he cant mess up big chances like that.

Giroud on Ozil:"I have a good understanding with him on the pitch and I think we can see it. It's always easy to play with him"

I am sure Ozil is happy with the goal.  

Only 3 ? I am disappoint.

Had it not been for a fantastic game from Krul, the score could have been so much worse

Good write up, Jay.

So, 4th again (probably). Will be interesting to see what Everton turn up against Man City, given they know a draw or win will be handing title to their greatest rivals, Liverpool.

Expecting City to win. Should that happen, we can rotate for final 2 games - West Brom and Norwich - with Sanogo, Jenkinson, Flamini etc getting game-time.

If Man City win, I'd like to give Akpom and Bellerin some playing time, not necessarily from the beginning.

we can still play a part in relegation battle though
would love sending Norwich down[fulham still need to win at least one of their two games though]

I'd like to finish with 79 points, a 6 point improvement on last season even if our position ends up being the same. Progress is progress. But definitely rest key players if 4th is sealed.

Star something like:

------------Szczesny
Jenkinson---Vermaelen--Per---Monreal
-------Flamini----Kallstrom
-----------Rosicky
Cazorla-----Sanogo-----Podolski

We'd be starting 4/11 of those to most likely play in the final. Throw on Zelalem/Chuba/Eisfeld/Bellerin or whoever else later to ensure those starters aren't too tired. Really hope we can have a relaxing final day.

Great thing City play before we do.

The final is 6 days after the final game of the season. We won't need to rest players.