Newcastle United 0 - 0 Arsenal: Lack of cutting edge in otherwise good performance

This game was always going to be interesting after the summer these two clubs have had. Both clubs have lost a couple of their best players and both haven't really reinvested the money into strengthening their teams. It would be fair to say that neither were best prepared.

First Half
Arsenal were good in the first half but struggled to create goalscoring opportunities. This wasn't necessarily because we didn't get into good positions, though. Quite often players like Gervinho and van Persie found themselves in good positions to have a strike at goal but either opted to pass it or just couldn't produce anything of quality.

A midfield with Ramsey, Rosicky, Arshavin and Gervinho is a good midfield that has creativity, flair, pace and goalscoring ability but one thing it does perhaps lack is decisiveness. Today we had little trouble in keeping the ball in the Newcaslte half but our decision making in the final third was average, be it the wrong ball being played, or the forwards not making the right runs.

Defensively, Arsenal were sound. Admittedly, an attack of Ameobi and Ba isn't all that dangerous but the defence had good levels of concentration and defended what needed to be defended with minimum fuss.

We were the better side in the first half and better decision making would have seen us score.

Second Half
The second half was scrappy. Newcaslte's midfield got tighter to ours in an attempt to stifle our passing which, to a degree, worked.

We did manage to get ourselves in good positions but, again, a lack of decisiveness let us down. Gervinho, in particular, got himself into good shooting positions but either kept the ball for too long or decided to pass it. Van Persie rarely touched the ball in this half, which sums up how bad the service to him was.

At the other end, Newcastle looked a bit more threatening with Obertan on for Ba. Obertan played in a free role behind Ameobi and did cause one or two problems with his pace and trickery. Newcaslte, though, suffered from a similar problem to ours; they weren't able to create chances of real note.

I predicted about half way into the second half that this was going to end 0-0. Neither team were doing enough to score and the second half basically turned into a midfield battle that neither side won. In other words, it was going to be a bore draw.

Until a certain Joey Barton decided to kick off.

Earlier on in the half, Song stamped on Barton's leg. It should have been a red card and Barton had every right to be a bit miffed. That sort of thing I'm fine with.

But then later on, he got needlessly involved with Gervinho. My first reaction was that Gervinho had dived or, at the very least, went down too easy. The ref didn't give a pen and waved play on.

That didn't stop Barton from feeling the need to have a go at the Ivorian. Gervinho reacted and slapped Barton. That's a red card offence; whether you slap someone, punch someone or poke them in the eye, you can't raise your arms like that to a player. So the ref rightfully sent Gervinho off.

Barton's reaction to it was disgraceful. Clearly he was play acting to make the situation worse, ironically doing the one thing that got him so insenced in the first place. He only got a yellow card, though.

If you want to get really technical, the ref didn't actually stop play and Barton's reaction to Gervinho could actually be considered a foul... but let's not open that can of worms.

After all that, we were down to ten men and Newcastle had a good chance to push on and get the win. They went on the offensive but I thought we defended really well; won our challenges, cleared our lines well and kept the ball well. We even had a chance right at the end when Djourou broke forward, but his pass to Walcott was a poor one and the attack broke down.

I actually think that after the red card, Arsenal were playing for a draw. Wenger bringing on Frimpong and Djourou kind of proves my point. He could have taken a gamble and thrown on Chamberlain and Chamakh, but instead opted to play it safe. Which I think is fair enough, given that Chamberlain would have been making his debut and Chamakh just isn't a threat to anyone at the moment.

Overall, defensively we were very good but offensively there's still a lot of work to be done. Fair result in the end.

Attack needs to improve as a unit
We had this issue in pre-season. Individually, our attack is still very good; full of talent and ability to create and score.

The problem, I feel, is that collectively they don't have a very good understanding. You can see in how the attack moves off the ball that their's something lacking. This, I feel, is because the likes of Ramsey, Rosicky and Arshavin have not played with each other an awful lot. Gervinho is new to the set-up and van Persie is accumtomed to service from the likes of Fabregas and Walcott.

The only way this is going to get better is time playing together. We haven't really got someone with the surpreme decision making of Fabregas, which makes things worse. It's going to take time for this team to adjust.

The Players
Wojceich Szczesny - 7. Very assured in everything he did. This is what sets him apart from Fabiasnki, in my opinion. Every ball that came in, he decsively dealt with. He didn't have to make any saves but he's one of the main reasons for our good defensive display.

Laurent Koscielny - 7. Very good in making interceptions and tackles; one in particular when he cleared the ball away before Lovenkrands could have an easy tap-in.

Thomas Vermaelen - 7. Won a number of headers and had a strong showing.

Bacary Sagna - 6. Solid, hardly bothered.

Kieran Gibbs - 7. A good performance. Didn't make many errors defensively and provided good support going forward. People might dislike his tendancy to go forward, but in this instance he was hardly bothered by Barton and was right in supporting the attack.

Alex Song - 7. Other than the fact he should have been sent off, he had a good performance. Chances are he'll be suspended for three games once the FA review the stamp on Barton.

Aaron Ramsey - 6. Lacked an end product. Had some good touches but his shooting was wasteful.

Gervinho - 7. Had one eventful debut: very lively all game and had the beating of the Newcalste defenders, but lacked an end product. Got involved in a spat with Barton and sent off for violent conduct. Will now be suspended for three games.

Tomas Rosicky - 7. Was good on the ball and was pretty good overall. Like our other attackers, he lacked that end product.

Andrey Arshavin - 6. Bar one or two good moments of play he was fairly anonymous.

Robin van Persie - 6. Often isolated. His touch in the final third also let him down at times, which is rare considering his first touch is often impeccable. Lacked service, as well.

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Johan Djourou - N/A. Thrown on to sure up the defence. Didn't have any defending to do.

Emmanuel Frimpong - N/A. Hardly had to do anything.

Theo Walcott - 6. Had one decent attempt but otherwise not much to talk about.

It's not time to panic
I'm seeing quite a few fans getting worried because of this result. There's little doubt that the result was disappointing but we have to look at the bigger picture here.

It's the start of the season. No team is ever at it's sharpest on the opening day of the season. Just look at Liverpool with their new players and potentially deadly strike force. They could only score once today at home. Just as much as they need time for their players to gell and build an understanding on and off the pitch, our players need time to adjust to life without the most potent creative force in Europe.

The need to strengthen the attack does still exist but I have faith the issue will be addressed. Over time, our attack will improve. There's too much talent there for it not to.

I understand it's difficult to be optimistic but I genuinely believe that we will improve as the season goes on. It is just the opening day, after all.

Clean sheet, its just the first game and hope we can build on this but wenger must work on team morale right now nd we need to BUY BUY BUY! without a doubt

We just lack creativity otherwise our defense was great.

djoe26 wrote:We just lack creativity otherwise our defense was great.

the same thing from last season even when we had cesc and nasri. so that's not the reason....

we're just not decisive and efficient enough in front of goal



edit: i must say defense looked pretty good, so that's encouraging

Man i really really loved the verm+kosc partnership

we really need some players who can kick a balllllllllllllllllllllllllll !!!!!!!!!!!!! stankovic would of had like 3 goals had he been on arsenal...

We looked average to b honest

Lack of attacking midfielder to be honest

Well honestly i thought there were 2 probs today:
1. Midfield wasn't too great today. Don't know how to explain it.
2. Chances were not taken, too many attempted passes in the 18 yard box. And at the end when we wanted RVP to pass to Theo, he takes a shot. Funny.

gunnerlistick wrote:We looked average to b honest

well to be fair we drew new castle who are below average lol so I think we looked below average to be honest.

tsgooner1 wrote:Lack of attacking midfielder to be honest

Have to admit, Rosicky didn't have a very good game today. We can't rely on him to start most of the matches. Some of them sure, but we need another main attacking mid.

lenear1030 wrote:

djoe26 wrote:We just lack creativity otherwise our defense was great.

the same thing from last season even when we had cesc and nasri. so that's not the reason....

we're just not decisive and efficient enough in front of goal

edit: i must say defense looked pretty good, so that's encouraging

I have to disagree with you, we lacked creativity and of course we couldnt shoot the ball yet again. How many times did RVP get to touch the ball?

Alright performance spoiled by the Gervinho thing. Lacked creativity and RVP was poor with his finishing today but the defence was solid, which is something I found to be pleasing.

When Gervinho dived/brought down did the referee wave play on?

Because I seen this tweet:

BobbySoccerRep SoccerReportExtra
by Eboue_Eboue
Ball still in play, Barton man handles Gervinho- why isn't a penalty given?

??

Only thing that was good was defence.
Same crap as last season crossing to nobody, Rosicky+Arshavin are good squad players but should never start.
We seem to have no plan, if we are going to cross we need more than one person in the box. I wonder if these players can use there brain at times.

Also when Rosicky was ineffective should of dropped RVP to SS and brought someone else on.

It wasnt a dive, Gervinho was brought down

RealGunner wrote:It wasnt a dive, Gervinho was brought down

Yes he was brought down and i still dont know why Barton was on the pitch.

ArsenalWenger wrote:Alright performance spoiled by the Gervinho thing. Lacked creativity and RVP was poor with his finishing today.

When Gervinho dived did the referee wave play on?

Because I seen this tweet:

BobbySoccerRep SoccerReportExtra
by Eboue_Eboue
Ball still in play, Barton man handles Gervinho- why isn't a penalty given?

??

You know that makes perfect sense. Unless someone has something to add or correct then yea, think we coulda had a penalty. But lets focus more on our performance and why we looked toothless today and what can done. Coz this match is over and we ain't gettin 3 points.

apparently the officials could not communicate

Because the batteries powering their communications had gone flat

serious or just joking?

El_Gunner wrote:I don't know what to say, i have such a lot of shit in my head right now, but I won't say much.

First of all, "JOEY BARTON" is a total b*tch.

Secondly, why did Gervinho dive. I mean such a bad,bad dive. When you dive at least do it good.

Thirdly, how in God's name didn't "JOEY BARTON" get sent off????? I mean he had no fecking right to go and literally man-handle Gervinho. He provoked Gervinho and tbh, who wouldn't have responded in that matter, when some comes and fecks with you in that matter.

And finally, I know it's the first game of the season, and there's still a long , long way to go. But I juz gotta say this:

We can't play when we don't have Fabregas!

what dive ? go watch the replay ffs

I'm actually happy with a point today, given our defensive grit.

Szczesny = 8 Didn't have much to do, but what he had to do, he did well enough.

Koscielny = 9, Vermaelen =8.5 (lesser for that one hairy moment late in the second half)

Gibbs = 6 Needs to improve. A lot.

Sagna = 7.5 Typical no non-sense display from our unsung hero.

Song = 5. I know he did well by staying back and protecting etc etc, but I do not approve of his stamp, even if Barton is a *&()#&)(#*$*#_$ who thoroughly deserves more of those on his lousy ()#*)($**#_ face.

I do not want to comment on the rest of the players. Same story repeats itself there.

RealGunner wrote:It wasnt a dive, Gervinho was brought down

That's what I thought, but I couldn't tell for sure from the replay I saw.

Anyways defense was great, that's about it.

srigooner wrote:I'm actually happy with a point today, given our defensive grit.

Szczesny = 8 Didn't have much to do, but what he had to do, he did well enough.

Koscielny = 9, Vermaelen =8.5 (lesser for that one hairy moment late in the second half)

Gibbs = 6 Needs to improve. A lot.

Sagna = 7.5 Typical no non-sense display from our unsung hero.

Song = 5. I know he did well by staying back and protecting etc etc, but I do not approve of his stamp, even if Barton is a *&()#&)(#*$*#_$ who thoroughly deserves more of those on his lousy ()#*)($**#_ face.

I do not want to comment on the rest of the players. Same story repeats itself there.

Sorry but I thought gibbs and song played well today. Agree with rest

I am not okay with Gibbs marauding forward so much!! He is a left back!! We'll get eaten alive by teams with good attacks on that flank!! He had a decent game and contributed offensively, but I don't want to see him in the other end of the pitch when we are being countered, for example. I understand our system demands a lot more from full backs, yet Sagna manages to balance the outlooks pretty darn well.

Song - Not changing my view. What is wrong is wrong, even if he had a brilliant performance otherwise. He got lucky today that the ref did not notice, but not every time. He was already on a yellow when that happen, Diaby did the same mistake last year, REACTED. And we know how that came back to bite us *4-4*. As a more experienced member of the squad, I'd expect that from him.

(I know I am being harsh, but then I do not want to get carried away by one good defensive display)