St James' Park played host to a tale of refereeing decision and poor discipline as Newcastle hosted Arsenal. The hosts had new signing Florian Thauvin was in the starting line-up after a goal and 3 assists in Newcastle's 4-0 win at Newcastle in midweek. Arsenal have won in all of the last 7 fixtures against Newcastle and had Koscielny back in defence alongside Gabriel whilst Walcott replaced Giroud up front and Ramsey moved into CAM as Oxlade-Chamberlain was started due to the knee injury Ozil suffered.
Arsenal showed their game plan in the opening 2 minutes as they were quick to break after Haidara's loose ball which the Ox collected and played a one-two with Ramsey on the edge of the box but Ramsey's pass was over-hit. Arsenal continued to threaten in the opening minutes but Newcastle defended well and on 7 minutes Haidara found Thauvin who's cross was collected well by Cech. Walcott had his first chance on 10 minutes when Bellerin hit a first time pass towards the Englishman however he wasted the opportunity as he should have really looped the ball over the on-rushing keeper Tim Krul who saved well. On 12 minutes it was Bellerin who threatened again and Arsenal should have had a penalty when Thauvin clearly made contact with the Spaniard causing him to go down but nothing was given. Analyst Howard Webb believed the decision to not give a penalty was wrong. 16 minutes in and the home team were reduced to 10 men when striker Aleksander Mitrovic was given a straight red for stamping on Coquelin's shin leaving referee Andre Marriner with no choice but to send him off. His disciplinary record already must surely be worrying for his manager. The best chance of the half came on 32 minutes when Sanchez let fly from about 30 yards and his shot was parried by Tim Krul right into the path of Arsenal forward Theo Walcott who somehow managed to put the ball over the bar. Just 7 minutes later there was a piece of incredible defending from Newcastle defender Mbemba to deny Alexis Sanchez a chance after the Chilean was picked out by left-back Monreal. Arsenal maintained possession for the majority of the first half but were reluctant to play the ball into the box due to the lack of height in the Newcastle box which limited their opportunities however when they did create chances, the Newcastle defence did excellently to put their bodies on the line in order to protect Krul.
HT - Newcastle United 0-0 Arsenal
Newcastle started the second half with more lack of discipline as Vurnon Anita and Giorginio Wijnaldum picked up their 4th and 5th yellow cards in the 48th and 49th minute respectively. Despite fighting bravely against the 11 men of Arsenal, the deadlock at St James' Park was eventually broken on the 52nd minute courtesy of an own goal from Newcastle captain Fabricio Coloccini. Cazorla's shot from the edge of the box was blocked before Ramsey's shot on goal was saved well by Krul and as danger seemed to be averted, Oxlade-Chamberlain fired the ball into the danger area and in an admirable attempt to block the ball, the captain ended up getting the decisive touch in putting the ball past his own keeper. Credit to the home side though as straight after conceding they did look threatening but struggled to create any real chances. Alexis Sanchez should have found the back of the net after 58 minutes but Tim Krul stood tall and denied the Chilean from grabbing his first goal of the 2015/16 campaign and just 4 minutes later the Ox should have added to the scoreline after Arsenal spread the Newcastle defence at last after Monreal overlapped Sanchez and picked out Ox but the attacking midfielder couldn't make a solid contact on the ball and the Gunners wasted another chance. After 66 minutes the away team showed their quality after beautiful triangle football from Ox, Ramsey and Cazorla forced Krul into another save but the Dutch keeper was equal to it. Then on the brink of 70 minutes Giroud replaced Walcott and just after that Anita was replaced by Ayoze Perez as Newcastle tried to salvage a point. Giroud almost made an instant impact as with 14 minutes to go, he beat Sissoko in the air and tried to find Sanchez at the back post but Perez blocked the shot well. Sissoko was then replaced by Newcastle's top scorer last season Papiss Cisse and this substitution saw Newcastle enjoy their best spell of possession however they failed to test Cech and the last 10 minutes didn't really see any notable chances as both sides defended extremely well. In the middle of this period Thauvin was replaced by De Jong and Oxlade-Chamberlain was replaced by Arteta. However a worry for Arsenal fans and manager alike was that the Ox looked in real discomfort when coming off so there could be a potential injury there. In the last action of the game man of the match Aaron Ramsey played a through ball to find Olivier Giroud who really should have scored however he tried to be cheeky and loop the ball over Krul but the Dutch keeper was even to it.
FT - Newcastle United 0-1 Arsenal
What we can learn from this game is that Newcastle have proved again how good they are defensively as they were unlucky to lose this game in the way the goal went in however they caused their own problems due to their lack of discipline and if their to have a good season this year their players are going to have to keep their heads for the full 90 mins. When Mitrovic returns from suspension, he's going to have to be more cautious when going into tackles however he should continue getting stuck in but he just needs to learn when to go in for a tackle and when to not but that all comes from experience and he'll learn from his mistake today. For Arsenal, with their lack of clinicalness in the final third shows that a striker is needed and fans will be hoping that Wenger will be dipping into the transfer market and signing a clinical finisher as Arsenal will need one if they're to challenge for the title this season. Arsenal played better today however they are still capable of doing so much better and hopefully they'll send their game to the next level soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment