If you want to win the Premier League, then you know it will be tough. This is true for everyone.
But it is especially true for Arsenal.
When Liverpool came to St James’ Park a few weeks ago, Anthony Gordon got himself sent off for a ridiculous first half challenge, and even though the ten-man Toons still battered Pool for the second half and scored two goals to level the match, a last-minute winner gave our main rivals the points.
Against us, however, the barcodes allowed themselves no silly slips. They made it tough. And that is just what we have to get used to. If we wanna win this league then nobody is giving us anything; not the opposition, not the officials (or their VAR henchmen), not the pundits, and certainly not the average fan in the street. Hell, there are plenty of people who claim to be Gooners who can’t wait to stick the boot in.
The only way to respond is with guts, balls, and by taking the bloody points. We did that today, and the entire non-Arsenal football community can put that in their pipes and smoke it – to use a less sweary phrase than many might consider in order.
I’m not in the mood for a blow-by-blow account. Let’s just hit the highlights.
Joelinton took less than sixty seconds to foul Saka in a way that could well have earned a yellow card. I’ve no problem with the ref keeping his cards in his pocket that early, but it doesn’t mean there isn’t a point to take control of the game. Unfortunately, Jared Gillett, the Liverpool fan judged an appropriate person to referee a game between Newcastle and Arsenal, never did. Not that anyone was surprised.
Newcastle fans have a reputation. They are hardcore. They are the salt of the earth. They know their football.
Except, these days, they are trading on old credit. Right now, their club is owned by Saudi Arabia, and instead of showing all that proud Newcastle grit and protesting with the vehemence many might consider this development to deserve, they have rolled over to have their tummies tickled. They have a team who are incredibly physical, and they get a lot of generous home decisions, but when another physical team turns up to challenge them, do they relish the battle? Or do they assume as a matter of course that their own fouls should go unpunished and then cry blue murder whenever a nothing incident results in one of their own supposedly hard as nails players rolling around on the floor?
Of course, they do the latter.
All fans are partisan. We all try to make the most of home advantage. And there is nothing wrong with that. But Newcastle are the team in this league that most pushes the physical edges of the game, and it is also fair that everyone else is well aware of what they are trying to pull when, despite their own robust approach, we see their fans whinge and cry for fouls when their players dive on the floor after innocuous challenges, and conclude that this lot aren’t the hard nuts they claim to be. They are oh so precious. They love to give it out, but they can’t take it take.
Barcodes?
Magpies?
I call them the Pearl-Clutchers.
It’s a moniker they earn every time I see them play. “Hurt opponents; pretend to be hurt” – theirs is the worst creed in football.
They may not like us. But we sure as all hell don’t like them either. Utter shower. And we are both tougher and more skilled.
We were much the better side in this game. We played well and the best player on the pitch was ‘Steal the bishop of Rome, 4,4’. (One for the Morse fans).
I’ve got two issues with the non-penalty. But first… if Pope touches the ball, then, under the current interpretation of the rules, it should be overturned. Fair enough.
However, if the touch on the ball is so slight that it makes no difference to the viability of a goalscoring opportunity, then the current interpretation is blatantly wrong. Pope’s touch does not remotely interfere with Gyokeres’ ability to run onto the ball – it is the contact with Pope’s knee that does that, and thus denies a goalscoring opportunity. It should be a penalty.
Furthermore, yesterday I watched Salah make a handball just before a Pool equaliser. The ball hit his hand. The ball changed its trajectory, and Salah’s hand was knocked forwards by the contact with the ball. But the VAR decided that they could see no ‘conclusive proof’ that the ball had hit his hand. I genuinely don’t know how to respond to that beyond asking “don’t you have eyes?”
So, today, after watching a lot of replays, I think I am minded to accept that Pope did touch the ball (although, unlike in Salah’s case, not in a way that materially affected the subsequent action) but I am really struggling to understand how one of these incidents was allowed to pass on the basis it was ‘inconclusive’ while the other was considered obvious enough to pass the (illusory) ‘clear and obvious’ threshold, and even to justify a change of decision?
With the best will in the world, the decisions are not equitable. I’d have no problem with the decision today, if it fitted in with a recognised standard. But as fans of every club will tell you, they change the way they enforce the rules every week. You just have to hope you support a team that regularly benefits, not one that regularly gets shafted.
In such circumstances, it is a special thing to come away from this ground with 3 points. Despite dominance in every metric, and being much the better side, we were 1-0 down until fifteen minutes from time. And everyone and their dog had their knives out and were circling.
Well, given I’ve said nothing about the events of the match, how had we got here?
Nick Woltemade scored when we got caught cold from a short corner routine. Gabriel realised he was not gonna get to the header and so pretended a touch in the back from the big German was worthy of a foul. It wasn’t. That was a good header and a perfectly good goal. We let ourselves down giving that away.
After a lot of effort, we equalised late in the second half when substitute Merino nodded a whipped Rice cross past the PC’s goalie, who didn’t even make a move to save it. In off the post. Not bad for a player who many of our own fans don’t seem to judge as a player capable of hurting the opposition.
In injury time, after a lot of corners through the game, we finally got one right, and Gabriel headed the winner to send our fans in the gods delirious. I must admit, I rather enjoyed that one myself.
From what I’ve seen so far, I think we are the best side in this league. But it comes down to points. We’ve got to put the points on the board. Today was a day when we could have dropped points but had legitimate grievances (not that anyone would have cared).
If you wanna be champions, then legitimate grievances are worthless. Points on the board are all that counts. We got them today. Let’s hope this is a template for all of our players to recognise what counts, and what doesn’t. As a club, we’ve got to keep our energy for those things that help us win trophies. If today could be a reminder for our fans that any energy spent on anything that doesn’t further our bid for trophies is energy wasted, then all the struggles this afternoon would have been worth it.
They are all out to get us. We have to win anyway. We have to win together.
Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Wow, what’s not to like with this report. There is a lot of no nonsense calling out which I can get behind.
Only a blinkered Spurs fan (my father in law) will say that wasn’t a penalty, or not care that VAR are not following their own clear and obvious rules. Bloody disgrace. I would wager we’d have have won 3 or 4 nil if the penalty hadn’t been chalked off. Still, we won anyway, despite PGmol so that’s what we need to do next time they try and shaft us.
GSD,
I was thinking about how to sum up this game and how I would approach a report on a game like this . I woukd have been delighted to produce a report anywhere near as good as this .
You’ve captured the passion of the game brilliantly . I was seething all through the match after the reversal of the penalty. You describe it much better than Joe Hart did on MOTD . That was a stonewall penalty and one can’t help feeling almost everyone would have been awarded that .
It was our best away performance of the season and a terrific display of courage , determination and skill. We played them off the pitch and prevented them getting away with blue ( or black and white striped ) murder as they did two years ago. Particular props to Timber who was fantastic. Eze was so close to scoring and Declan got two superb assists . Gyokeres worked very hard and should have got the chance to bag a penalty . If we’d got that we’d have won much more comfortably. But we did win and it could be very significant.
Whoa whoa whoa whoa
Mikel Merino
Whoa whoa whoa whoa
Mikel Merino
Whoa whoa whoa whoa
Mikel Merino
Whoa whoa whoa whoa
Mikel Merino
Whoa whoa whoa whoa
Mikel Merino
Whoa whoa whoa whoa
Mikel Merino
Anything else you want to know?
Applause for you from this neck of the woods, too, Dino. You’ve said all that needs saying and said it well.
As a character witness for your view of the overturned penalty, how many times have we seen a foul given in open play when a player gets a touch of the ball going into a tackle but still cleans out his opponent?
Thanks GSD, excellent report on one that
could’ve got away from us but didn’t.
Great and fully deserved win that should
give the boys a lot of heart
I didn’t see the game but have seen highlights galore this morning. You’ve summed up the penalty situations and the emotions it and the ensuing events engendered beautifully. Those highlights seemed to indicate that Eze was outstanding and that seeing him and our captain on the field at the same time was worth the price of the entry ticket and the long haul north. Fantastic three points.
Top report Dino. Sums up the night and the experience superbly. What a performance! PGMO(L) must be deeply disappointed.
Well that was fun after the misery of the last few trips up there.
We celebrated with a Ruby in Wetherby and got home at midnight. Truly great report Dino. More thoughts later.
Cheers Dino, very well phraised report. I’m glad we finally beat these orcs. And it looks Arteta has a new shiny new tool to kill games with the finisher-gun. He aims well with that gun in his hands. What a way to kill the game.
COYG
A great report Dino matching a great performance by the team and by the supporters at the match, who came over loud and clear. The Toon were outplayed throughout the match and without some Hail Mary saves by the Pope, the scoreline would have been much more realistic. “Nice Eddie” didn’t have a clue in Howe to stop our domination.A most pleasurable result.
Cheers, GSD, loved that report and the spirit it was written in.
‘A Ruby in Wetherby’. Sounds good, C100. Well, I have no idea if it’s pronounced Wetherbee or Wetherbye, bit it looks good in print anyway. And I’m sure it tasted doubly good last night!
Magic stuff GSD!
Thanks Dino
A game of strong emotions both high and low and fortunately ending on a well-deserved high.
A nailed-on penalty and a subsequent red card for the keeper miraculously overturned by some invisible muppet. VAR creates more controversy every week than if it didn’t exist. Unacceptable.
The look on El Eddie’s face at the end was, however, priceless.
UTA.
It was cold (9 degrees) and drizzling as we set off from home about 10.45 yesterday. But it soon brightened up as we headed up the A1 and traffic was light. We made good time and got to our parking space about 2.30. Our space was behind the Gallowgate end (part of a block of flats) and was an easy ten minute stroll into St James Park.
There has been much talk about the fact that, contrary to Premier League rules, away fans are situated way up in the upper tier in the Leazes stand. Up, in fact, 12 flights of stairs. I can attest from previous years to the fact that this is a lung bursting climb. These days, walking with a stick, they let me and my son into the single lift, which makes life a little easier. After the friendly experience at Port Vale in mid week, however, we had another experience of over officious stewarding as they insisted on my son insisting he remove the cap of his small bottle of water. Quite how they think he could throw it onto the pitch from 200 yards defeats me. Another example of just making life difficult for fans.
Up in the Gods, on the flight path to Newcastle airport, we partook of a pie and a pint before taking our seats. They have at least improved the upper tier by making it safe seating with rails. The last time I saw us win here (2023 I think), when we scored I almost plunged down several steep rows as everyone around me went mad. It was only the iron grip of my 6’3” son that stopped me making that vertiginous drop. But it’s much better now.
Dino describes the highlights of the game well. In the first half we played our best football of the season to date. Wonderful passing movements, sparked by putting Eze in as the 10. The penalty was clearly a nonsense and vindictive example of the Arsenal hating Darren England re refereeing an on field decision. The moronic Newcastle supporters, who seem to have got much worse since they came into money, didn’t sing songs about their own players, but incessantly chanted “same old Arsenal, always cheating”. Very boring.
Second half and a goal down despite being by far the best team. Just like City last week, we started on the front foot and continued the same way. Arteta shuffled his pack. The Gooners kept singing. Then it came. Lovely cross by Declan fabulous glancing header from Merino. One all.
Oh, Oooh Oooh, Oooh Oooh
Mikel Merino!
As it always does at Newcastle, when the opposition score, the noise level drops by 75%. And in the sixth monitor of injury time, Odegaard swung in an in swinging corner, Saliba cleverly blocked off Pope and Gabriel planted the ball into the back of the net miles below us. Pandemonium.
The Saudi Geordies streamed for the exits. We serenaded them on their way
Same old Arsenal, always cheating!
Come to see the Arsenal! You’ve only come to see the Arsenal!
What a win, what a game and what a performance .
I take the stairs down (the wait for the lift is very long) and we sang all the way down
You’ll fall in love
I know you will
Our number 6 is the King of Brazil!
Our centre half will give you hell
Our wall at the back is Gabriel!
Back to the car, a surprisingly swift exit from Newcastle, a celebratory curry in Wetherby (it’s pronounced Wetherbee Ollie) and home at midnight, after 450 miles driving and a 13 hour day.
A brilliant away day.
Very positive few days, even on a personal note, as seven months later, on a treadmill, I have finally restarted to gemtly run.
Nice one C100, and thanks for the pronunciation tip!
Dino’s passionate report superbly complemented by your on the spot details. Bravi!
As C100’s newly ( by myself) appointed literary agent I can announce ‘ Currying Favour – A guide to curry houses in the North and Midlands ‘ will be in bookshops everywhere very soon !
TTG @20. The Bengal Brasserie in Wetherby was good, but the Bombay Bridgeford in Nottingham remains number 1.
Is there a competition for Curry houses with initials BB? (not deliberately a Serge Gainsbourg reference)
C100@16: Lovely read, and it sounds like another excellent curry to cap an excellent day. ‘Countryman’s Curry Country’ has a ring to it.
BtM@7: I remember thinking that when I was watching the game on TV (which is a selective view, I know) that Eze had spells when he was anonymous, but when he was in the game, he had impact, not least because he does that thing so essential to scoring — get off a good shot. The other extra dimension he brings that I like is his running at defenders, giving an alternative to endlessly passing around low blocks to try to break them down.
Spirited report of a spirited performance! Thanks GSD!
So, after an unusually tough set of opening fixtures, we are second in the table, two points off the top, with the highest goal difference and joint most scored goals. And this is all after playing mostly “cautious” football, as we are tirelessly reminded of. 😂 And rarely playing Martin, Saka and Eze together, mostly because of injuries.
Gabriel’s header was the latest in a match in the league we had ever scored a winner, beating the Reiss Nelson goal against Bournemouth. Big Gabi did what he does so well. But how about that delivery from Martin? The looping trajectory — neither a flat delivery not a long-arc parabola — with the spin and dip and precision to drop the ball right in the perfect zone of uncertainty for the goalkeeper. Just before that there was another defense splitting pass from Ødegaard for MLS. Signs that his full flight creativity is coming back?
That penalty being turned over by VAR was the latest of shocking decisions in a series of inexplicably atrocious decisions given against us (or very explicable if we were willing to apply Occam’s razor). Until that happened the team played exceptionally— cool, calm, efficient, clever, imaginative and full of courage and quality. Arsenal written all over it. 🙂
Eze is exceptionally efficient with the ball on his feet. The chances he fashioned for himself and the attempts he made brought a variety and unpredictability to the attack. Without scoring a goal himself Gyökeres had one of his better performances. The link-up play with back to the goal was very good, as was the press and movement through the channels, which helped in getting Saka and Timber with more space to work on. Timber was superb as well, on both ends. Some of his close controls and footwork in tight spaces would be impressive even if he were a winger.
The well-deserved victory also ensures that Mosquera carries no scars from the game but just a good learning experience. Before that mishit backpass yesterday I don’t remember him making any mistakes. Which is extraordinary for a defender of his age playing in this league for the first time.
The collective celebration by the matchday squad after Gabriel’s header was that picture that works better than many thousand words in describing this team’s camaraderie and trust in each other. Things that cannot be bought but need to be built with patience, tenacity and understanding, and cannot be broken when properly nurtured.
As GSD says — Victoria Concordia Crescit!
Great reports, GSD and c100. Three huge points, fortified confidence, and onward we go.
Ollie @ 22: There are other initials — “The Mangalore Murders” , a very spicy coastal seafood place that plays murder mystery movies on TV screens, “The Gangtok Gang-talks” is a Sikkimese-Tibetan Momo bar which was opened with His Holiness Dalai Lama’s blessings, then of course “The Kolkata-Kabul Konnection” which serves a Bengali-Afghan fusion food (inspired by the years of Afghani fruit and carpet sellers plying their trade in Calcutta) with the beer menu printed in German and sponsored by the Max Mueller Institute.
There is also “The Bangalore Bombshells” which is what I think old Serge may have loved the most. The food (or the coffee) isn’t anything to drive a hundred miles for, but he could sing his “Couleur Café” to the waitresses who one suspects give the place its name.
Good work, Dr @ 26. But now I am hungry….
Thanks GSD, A fine read that pretty much encapsulated my own views in a more pleasant and coherent manner.
Not much else to say but huge thanks to the Arsenal team for their never say die attitude and for changing my feeling crap birthday weekend into a feeling less crap while wearing a big smile and enjoying some lemsip birthday weekend.
Forever Arsenal
Depressed Gooner
Happy Birthday and get well soon . The lads improved things for you quite significantly!
When the penalty that wasn’t happened , Gyokeres was clearly not fouled by Pope – obviously. If you watch the video of the game the ball squirts away from the perfectly fair tackle by Pope and goes to Saka who was in an exceptionally dangerous position . Play stopped when the referee blew quite erroneously for a penalty, and restarted with the ball in Newcastle’s possession , Pope bowling it out . So Newcastle not only avoided a penalty buy Arsenal were prevented from scoring a straightforward goal . Well done VAR
You raise a fine point in your second paragraph Dr Faustus@24.
I recall massed gnashing of teeth, and the occasional suggestion of dubious practices at the PL when this season’s fixtures were announced.
The goonerverse put forward various estimates of how many points we “had” to gain from the first half-dozen fixtures. I can’t summon the enthusiasm to look up what those estimates were, but I suspect that most of the Casandras would have been very content with one loss and one draw. For the avoidance of doubt, I certainly am.
UTA
Here’s Mike McDonald’s thoughts. Spoiler: he think Jared Gillette’s a numpty as well.
DG@28: A belated happy birthday. I hope the boys keep a smile on your face all season.
Dr F@24. Pangloss@30 is spot on about your second paragraph. Our most potent corners are inswingers. We tend to forget how good both Saka and Rice’s are as they deliver them to such a consistently high standard. MØ8’s was up there with the best of them.
I have often wondered how good Rice’s corners would be if he took inswingers with his left foot when he is pressed into taking them from the right when we don’t have a natural left-footer like Saka, Madueke or Ødegaard on the field. Professional footballers should be able to hit a dead ball pretty well with their ‘wrong’ foot. I am guessing Rice’s left-footed inswingers might be more dangerous than his outswingers.
C100@31: Thanks for the link. MaDonald’s observations are as sharp as ever. I especially liked his positive critique of Gyokeres, who is getting better and better with the passing of each game as he gets to know his teammates and they him.
Cheers Dino – and C100 – two very different but excellent write ups.
There has been a lot of desperate reverse engineering and re-interpretation of the rules immediately post match and later on MoTD last night to justify cancelling out one of the most obvious penalty decisions you will see this season.
Joe Hart claimed that it wasn’t a foul because the knee of Pope’s planted leg didn’t make “a forward motion” towards Gyokeres. Apparently the fact that it was planted smack in front of his run seemingly didn’t matter. How often do we hear “if you leave your leg there you’re giving the ref a decision to make” ? And having stopped play to award the clear and obvious penalty, Saka was denied the chance to score as well – see TTG @29.
We were, anyway, far too good for Newcastle. 65% possession, some excellent creative football, 2 great goals and 3 points. Newcastle are an ugly side who got away with plenty, as usual, and came away with nothing.
Thanks for the link and the away day report C100, much appreciated.
Some interesting thoughts from Lewis Ambrose’s newsletter:
“You can find an analysis on how Arsenal approached this one, changing their shape slightly and Raya avoiding the midfield, over on arseblog, so I’m going to use this space for a few extra thoughts that just didn’t really fit in there.
Martin Ødegaard has played 40+ minutes in just one of Arsenal’s six Premier League games so far. I’ve not really seen that mentioned in any of the analysis of the team’s performances to date. He made a difference in this one and he has been the man that makes Arsenal tick for years. This was the best Arsenal have played this season and that was true before the captain came on too, they should only get better when he’s fit again.
Another stat: Newcastle took eight shots, they’ve had fewer in just one home game since the start of 2022/23, and they played around an hour with 10 men in that one. This was an excellent, dominant, all-round performance from Arsenal in one of the hardest places to go in English football.
In consecutive weeks, Manchester City and Newcastle have both committed a little less to their press in order to drop their backline and protect against Viktor Gyökeres’ desire to charge in behind. Against City, Arsenal didn’t do enough to occupy and exploit the spaces that left between defence and midfield, this looked a lot better on Sunday. If this keeps happening, and Arsenal can sensibly vary when they play out (and through) teams and when they go long, Mikel Arteta’s side could be more dominant than ever this season.
On Gyökeres himself, this was his best performance by a mile, he battled away and took much better care of the ball, connecting with team-mates on the break. He won’t ever be an all-round striker but this level of hold up and link up play would be incredibly welcome from an Arsenal perspective”
Howard Webb the man in charge of PGMOL thinks it was ‘ a good use of VAR’ to reverse the penalty decision. May the Lord help us if that is what he truly thinks .
The GHF Predictathon leaderboard has been updated for Matchweek 6. Some spectacular slides this week. You know where to find it…
Torreira (the corn beef man from Frey Bentos) once of this parish playing very well for Galatasary vs the Hub Cap Stealers tonight. HCS 1-0 down so have resorted to bringing on the Ancient Egyptian Relic and their shiny new toy Isak.
If Wirth is worth £116M, Declan is the world’s first £300M man.
In other news, Spuds 2-0 down – apparently they don’t like it up ’em on frigid Tuesday nights above the Artic Circle.
And the beat goes on.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>