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

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)

What are ya'll saying... Rosicky wasn't that bad, most of the time when he got the ball he always wanted to open up the play and make something happen with a slight change in pace, and he always lifted his head to look for passes that were on.

El_Gunner wrote:What are ya'll saying... Rosicky wasn't that bad, most of the time when he got the ball he always wanted to open up the play and make something happen with a slight change in pace, and he always lifted his head to look for passes that were on.

Individually, Rosicky Ramsey and Song had good games in the midfield. But as a unit, there was a lot left to be desired. Wilshere can't get back fast enough.

Gibbs can't fecking cross, he shouldn't dwell forward that much.

El_Gunner wrote:What are ya'll saying... Rosicky wasn't that bad, most of the time when he got the ball he always wanted to open up the play and make something happen with a slight change in pace, and he always lifted his head to look for passes that were on.

I am sorry but he didnt do well today or maybe iam expecting too much from him. But one thing is for sure we need another player.

tsgooner1 wrote:

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 agree, I thought Gibbs played equally as well today as Sagna, I'd give both a 7. Song played well in the first half, the whole defensive side of the game was good today, although he shouldn't have stamped on Barton. We still need a CB though, and after seeing Koscielny and Vermaelen thriving with each other then Scott Dann would be ideal if they continue playing with each other as it effectively freezes out Squillaci.

On the attacking side, we were very poor. Gervinho, Arshavin and from time to time Rosicky were the ones who played decent in the attack but they weren't good enough either. We need more in the attacking department.

Gibbs can't fecking cross, he shouldn't dwell forward that much.

I was not at all impressed with Gibbs' forward runs, but the attack was pretty isolated at times. We were more worried about keeping form than rushing forwards which is fine by me in these sort of matches.

Rosicky was great linking up but lacked that killer edge we needed to score.

Ramsey was Ok, nothing special.

Song apart from the stomp, had a BOSS game. Same goes for Kos, Verm and Sagna.

Walcott was horrible today, IMO Arshavin did a lot more than him.

VP was very isolated.

walcott wasnt fit enough. I dont blame him. He couldnt run and thats saying something.

But it tells u how weak our bench was.

We need to buy a creative midfielder first, and then a CB.

If fabre- nevermind...

Gibbs was great today..
Ramsey was nowhere to be seen.. Arshavin also pretty average.. Rosicky was ok.. He got some through balls..
Defence was great.. Sagna as usual great.. Verminator and Kos did well.. I expected the usual end with 10 men which didnt fortunately happen and we earned a point..
Gervinho disappointed me.. I am watching him for the first time.. He crosses were too weak.. He managed some runs but it ended purposelessly.. I think he is too tired after the international duty..
RVP was also missing something.. Good performance from Song.. But he always picks his regular yellow.. And he was lucky to stay there..
*
And about the red ? Again f*kin Barton.. But lets be content with the fact that may be Song would have got red early.. again poor refereeing..

we will see how the vermaelan kosicenly (attack the ball tactic) works with intelligent forwards, lets just wait and see.

Walcott was good right when he came on, but was anonymous 5 minutes later. I never wanted Arshavin to come off to begin with either.

Don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but I only personally know one other Arsenal fan in the area I live in. My Facebook wall is just covered right now with idiots saying stuff like "Ur team is a joke lololol," "when Man U get Sneijder, they will win the EPL by 20 pts., Arse are not even a rival any more," and "Cahill is your only hope buddy haha." I mean if you're going to criticize my team, at least try to say something half intelligent

The good thing is we did not lose the game, the reffs are frakking blind and hate Arsenal. I thought we played good, this is the first game, we can get only get better.

Why cant we shoot when in the penalty area, stop frakking passing. We need 2 midfielders, Hazard and Jadson would be perfect.

Did we miss Diaby and Denilson today?

Eman wrote:Walcott was good right when he came on, but was anonymous 5 minutes later. I never wanted Arshavin to come off to begin with either.

Don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but I only personally know one other Arsenal fan in the area I live in. My Facebook wall is just covered right now with idiots saying stuff like "Ur team is a joke lololol," "when Man U get Sneijder, they will win the EPL by 20 pts., Arse are not even a rival any more," and "Cahill is your only hope buddy haha." I mean if you're going to criticize my team, at least try to say something half intelligent

Don't listen to them, they have no brain, we tied away from home with one man down, and we should have had a penalty.

The Verminator wrote:serious or just joking?

Serious it was mentioned on Talksport who were doing the commentary

THEY LACK CONFIDENCE simple summary of todays performance, all the summer transfer speculation has affected the players and they not up to their best. i hope this problem is fixed sooner

the only person taking a shot from outside the box was sagna and van persie in 90th min.

Raptorgunner wrote:

Eman wrote:Walcott was good right when he came on, but was anonymous 5 minutes later. I never wanted Arshavin to come off to begin with either.

Don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but I only personally know one other Arsenal fan in the area I live in. My Facebook wall is just covered right now with idiots saying stuff like "Ur team is a joke lololol," "when Man U get Sneijder, they will win the EPL by 20 pts., Arse are not even a rival any more," and "Cahill is your only hope buddy haha." I mean if you're going to criticize my team, at least try to say something half intelligent

Don't listen to them, they have no brain, we tied away from home with one man down, and we should have had a penalty.

True. Good result taking that into consideration..


Special mention to the smart substitutions from Wenger which ensured that point..

[If Ramsey had stayed on instead of Djourou, he'd've made that pass and Walcott would have buried it.]

Nevermind, happy with a point.

usman111 wrote:THEY LACK CONFIDENCE

CHAMAKH WAS PLAYING?!?! How did I miss that!!

Okay. Bad Joke.

chamakh is as usefull on the bench as on the pitch so sometimes its hard to tell if hes on or off the pitch. arshavin always shines for a minute or two atleast

Hello again Arsenal fans:

-I know what you are thinking. Believe me, its not that bad.

I'll make it short, Arsenal dominated in every aspect as this is the first game of the season as chemistry will be off.

Possession was good with some great incisive passes as simply Gervinho lacks chemistry with his team-mates. RVP seemed kind of alone up front as the team could have compensated for that by pressing forward and getting men into the box.

The absence of Wilshere was apparent as too many passers were in there as more runs and box-to-box play was needed to compensate for the lack of movement.

-Simply, the final 3rd needs to be improved.

-Did anyone notice how much better the defense was today? Cause I did.

Updated the first post. Sorry it took so long.

Arquitecto wrote:Hello again Arsenal fans:

-I know what you are thinking. Believe me, its not that bad.

I'll make it short, Arsenal dominated in every aspect as this is the first game of the season as chemistry will be off.

Possession was good with some great incisive passes as simply Gervinho lacks chemistry with his team-mates. RVP seemed kind of alone up front as the team could have compensated for that by pressing forward and getting men into the box.

The absence of Wilshere was apparent as too many passers were in there as more runs and box-to-box play was needed to compensate for the lack of movement.

-Simply, the final 3rd needs to be improved.

-Did anyone notice how much better the defense was today? Cause I did.

These are pretty much my thoughts as well. Except I typed a shit load more.

It's important for us not to get too carried away with this performance; good and bad. The defence was very good but at the same time Newcastle's attack was pretty bad. Offence definitely need to improve. Their's time for this to happen.

We do need depth, though. Gervinho will now miss the Liverpool, United and Swansea games and Song will too in all likelihood. No Cesc or Nasri, Wilshere's fitness up in the air... yeah, definitely need some extra reinforcement.

usman111 wrote:THEY LACK CONFIDENCE simple summary of todays performance, all the summer transfer speculation has affected the players and they not up to their best. i hope this problem is fixed sooner

we had the same lack of confidence last year before the transfer speculations....



i'd love to see our guys come out with mentality and demeanor that speaks "we're out here to kick some @ss, and we're not fooling around." it seems as though the mentality is still not strong enough

Agree with all of you


The problem with the Fans atm is that they still remember the last 10 games of the last season. it was the 1st match of the season, it wasn a cup final or something

The plus point is that we were excellent defensively. We conceded 4 goals last season, we conceded 0 this time.

Lets hope wilshere is back for next match. HE IS HUGE.