Main Page

Quick Links
   Fixtures
   Reports
   Players
   Transfers
   Rumours
   Table
   Stats
   Reserves
   Academy

The Rest
   Archives
   Club info
   Fanzines
   Last Season
   SJP
   Unlikely Lads
   A-Z Index
Season 2021-22
Arsenal (a) Premier League

 

 
Date:
Saturday 27th November 2021, 12.30pm

Live on BT Sport


Venue:
 Emirates Stadium

Conditions: Buffeted

Programme: £3.50
 

Arsenal

 Newcastle

 

2 - 0

 

 

Teams

Goals

Half time: Gunners 1 Magpies 0

56 mins Nuno Tavares pushed forward in the centre of midfield before laying a pass off Emile Smith-Rowe out on the left hand touchline as Arsenal kicked towards the North End of the stadium.

He quickly moved the ball forward to Bukayo Saka as Ryan Fraser moved in; Saka then circling back before laying the ball to Smith-Rowe, who pinged a low ball into the box where Tavares had arrived.

His touch and swivel was crucial - turning to play the ball into the path of the onrushing Saka, who had outstripped Emil Krafth and was able to smoothly side-foot home beyond Dubravka. Jamaal
Lascelles stood infield, claiming a non-existent offside instead of trying to intervene. 0-1

66 mins With Newcastle players still aggrieved about the non-award of a penalty, Arsenal went up the other end and struck again. Ben White found Takehiro Tomiyasu, whose chipped ball to the right hand side of the box set up Gabriel Martinelli to volley home with his second touch after arriving from the bench, Dubravka seeming to hesitate before coming off his line. 0-2

Full time: Gunners 2 Magpies 0

We Said

Eddie Howe said:

"I thought it was a good performance, especially the start.

"We were good for the first half an hour. We came under pressure. The game was decided in the incident with Callum Wilson and the penalty - a tough call against us - then they scored in the aftermath.

"I don't know why Callum would go down - he was one on one, a great chance. Games swing on those moments. It feels like those big calls have gone against us.

"
(It was a) Great save (from Aaron Ramsdale to deny Jonjo Shelvey). I thought it was in.

"The pleasing thing today is how we started and finished the game. We created chances. Ramsdale has played well. We weren't clinical, but at least we were creating chances.

"The players have been very responsive. They have given everything in the two games. I can't ask more than their best.

"
We just have to look at the first one (Tuesday's home game against Norwich City). Momentum in football is so important. We need to get that win as quickly as we can.

"It is great to be back. You don’t enjoy losing. Managing and being out there in action is what it’s all about."

They Said

 

Mikel Arteta said:

"In the first half we took the game where we wanted but without being a real threat and understanding how we needed to attack that
[defensive] block.

 

"We lacked some composure in the final third, we could have played the final ball better, the shooting - I don't know how many times we shot without hitting the target at all.

"In the second half we changed a few things. Our rhythm, our purpose was much better and we started to generate chances. We managed to score two and obviously the game was in control."
 

Stats


Newcastle have now failed to win any of their opening 13 Premier League fixtures, extending their worst-ever sequence from the start of a season.

In terms of remaining winless at any time in a season, today's defeat saw the current crop Magpies match the barren 13 match Premier League run of the side between December 2007 and March 2008. The worst PL run is 14 matches, "achieved" across two seasons from April to September 1999.

Since a 1-0 success in November 2010, we've visited Arsenal on 11 occasions (ten in the PL)....and lost the bloody lot. Eddie Howe has now lost each of his six games there whilst in charge (five at Bournemouth....)

The last Newcastle player to score here was Ayoze Perez in December 2014, 567 minutes ago in Premier League games (687 minutes when adding in last season's FA Cup visit that went into extra time).

Jamaal Lascelles and Matt Ritchie both collected their fifth bookings of the season and miss Tuesday's visit of Norwich City to SJP. Callum Wilson remains on four yellow cards but still needs to evade further sanction in any of the next six PL games.

Magpies @ Gunners - PL years:

2021/22: Lost 0-2
2020/21: Lost 0-3
2020/21: Lost 0-2 (FAC)
2019/20: Lost 0-4
2018/19: Lost 0-2
2017/18: Lost 0-1
2015/16: Lost 0-1
2014/15: Lost 1-4 Perez
2013/14: Lost 0-3
2012/13: Lost 3-7 Ba 2, Marveaux
2011/12: Lost 1-2 Ben Arfa
2010/11: Won 1-0 Carroll
2008/09: Lost 0-3
2007/08: Lost 0-3
2007/08: Lost 0-3 (FAC)
2007/08: Lost 0-2 (LC)
2006/07: Drew 1-1 Dyer
2005/06: Lost 0-2
2004/05: Lost 0-1
2003/04: Lost 2-3 Robert, Bernard
2002/03: Lost 0-1
2001/02: Lost 0-3 (FAC)
2001/02: Won 3-1 O'Brien, Shearer, Robert
2000/01: Lost 0-5
1999/00: Drew 0-0
1998/99: Lost 0-3
1997/98: Lost 1-3 Barton
1996/97: Won 1-0 Elliott
1995/96: Lost 0-2 (LC)
1995/96: Lost 0-2
1994/95: Won 3-2 og(Keown), Beardsley, Fox
1993/94: Lost 1-2 Beardsley

 

Waffle

Following his release from COVID isolation a day earlier, Eddie Howe was at the Emirates on Saturday to witness the task that lies ahead of him from pitchside for the first time.

That may have been a new experience for the Head Coach, but for the away support this was only too familiar: United suffering an eleventh successive defeat and failing to find the net for the seventh time in a row.

The fruitless hunt for a clean sheet anywhere in the league this season also continued; Howe's attempt to stem the tide resulting in a recall for fit-again Martin Dubravka, Emil Krafth and Ryan Fraser - the latter pair replacing Ciaran Clark in central defence and Jacob Murphy at right wing back.

That the remodelled side made it to the interval without being breached was as much due to Arsenal's sluggishness and profligacy as our solidity - in particular a glaring 41st minute chance that should have given Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang a goal against Newcastle for the sixth successive game.

Nuno Tavares crossed for Emile Smith-Rowe to head goalwards from point-blank distance, but although Dubravka pushed the ball out it fell straight to Aubameyang, who somehow hit the post when it looked impossible to miss.

Reaching half time scoreless was welcome, but hardly cause for confidence, given that we'd achieved first half shutouts on each of our previous three visits here before conceding soon after the restart.

That would become four on 56 minutes, when a becalmed United fell victim to a Saka punch; a neat build-up allowing the lively
Londoner to fire home.

And ten minutes later the defeat was confirmed by a second home goal - Saka departing with a thigh strain but his replacement Gabriel Martinelli gracefully volleying in his first goal of the season after just 93 seconds after arriving.

Mikel Arteta's side then gradually eased up and allowed United to spend some time in the opposition half; Allan Saint-Maximin with a few runs and Jacob Murphy twice sending balls across the box that reached nobody.

A disappointed Howe took some positives from the performance but his team were always second best in this contest and beaten comfortably by the end.

In our eyes Krafth is just a Swedish version of Ciaran Clark and Fraser did nothing that Murphy or Manquillo wouldn't have emulated. His call to reinstate Dubravka was the right one though; the Slovakian making a couple of decent stops in addition to the Smith-Rowe header from point-blank range.

Retaining his place in the side, Jonjo Shelvey was responsible for the two most dangerous shots of United's recorded five on target - the first of which was struck from long distance and tipped onto the bar by Aaron Ramsdale.

Much post-match comment was devoted to a trio of penalty claims by United; shirt tugs on Fabian Schar and Saint-Maximin and a barge by Gabriel that sent Callum Wilson sprawling immediately before Arsenal made it 2-0.

Amid accusations of bias that had surfaced in the opening minutes of the game when multiple calls went in favour of the hosts, referee Stuart Attwell waved away shouts and VAR official Darren England was equally unmoved.

Coming at the end closest to the away section, the Wilson one looked dubious in real time but calls for the others to be given were led by the TV watchers.

The nagging feeling that the home side would have been awarded at least one of those spot kicks though was only partly negated by the late appeal that Lascelles survived when shoving Martinelli.

Yellow cards for
Matt Ritchie and Jamaal Lascelles means that both will now miss Tuesday's must-win visit of Norwich City. Given the shortcomings of both today though in a collective defensive display that left much to be desired, those two enforced changes may not be the worst situation to be in.

Jamal Lewis appears to be an obvious selection against his former club on the left, while it remains to be seen whether the as-yet unexplained exile of Federico Fernandez that pre-dates the arrival of Howe comes to an end.

No points and no goals is par for the course at this venue of course; privately we'd worried that Arsenal's eagerness to atone for their 0-4 loss at Liverpool may have resulted in us being comprehensively beaten.

As it is, hopes of mounting any sort of serious attempt to get out of danger rest on beating Norwich City and Burnley at SJP in the next week. Anything else threatens to leave us cut adrift, given that a failure to land six points will mean that the Canaries and/or the Clarets will have boosted their tallies.

We learnt nothing today that we didn't already know: the problems Howe has inherited lie deeper than merely getting players to have their dinner together. Getting into good habits and including discipline and morale are worthwhile, but trying to build something with sub-standard parts is doomed to failure.

Biffa


Page last updated 21 June, 2022