Arsenal 3 - 0 Newcastle United - 30/08/08 - post match reaction from page 28

[Slugsy]

We were up against class opposition today but I thought Taylor was rubbish and he is not the answer in the CD. 

 

Might point out that while we had injuries we actually had what potentially at this stage was our first choice defence and midfield starting today - bar Barton.  Which is a depressing thought.

 

 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Could any defence in the world really have conceded less than 3 against the way Arsenal played today?

 

I think when you have that many players comfortable on the ball, confident, in form and playing world class football, you just win. And by a lot. The biggest problem was that when we got possession we were lacklustre and gave it straight away again, inviting Arsenal to play.

[TRon]

Fair enough lads. I'll be interested to see the Opta stats on the amount of shots Taylor blocked. I counted 3 in the second half where he sprinted out to a shot and blocked it from a corner.

 

And fair play not many people will have seen football played with that fluidity of passing and movement at high speed so that's a slightly unfair comment i feel.

 

I've just txt my mate that i feel this year we're going to improve on last year, possibly significantly (signings depending) whereas Arsenal will achieve about the same as last year in terms of position in league and cup attempts. So, in a perverse way, i'll likely be happier than arsenal fans at the end of the season.

 

 

 

I see Taylor making those blocks which in one way show great commitment and bravery, but in another way make you wonder why he's not closer to a striker and is looking like "last man standing" so often. Taylor isn't good at man-marking IMO, for a CB that's not a weakness you can carry.

 

The blocks he made were when nasri, fabregas and vela when he dropped off were runing at the defence from deep. You can't manmark CMs as a centre back, it's not right. truth be told Guthrie and Butt should have been chasing back making tackles but htey weren't. I'm not saying Taylor's perfect, or even good (i think Bassong's going to be better at CB than him, but given 5 yeasr of further education his best footballing years from 27-32 will be good ones i feel, very good ones).

 

I'm saying Taylor did at least as well as Colo today, who stepped out to make so many challenges and missed them. If you go high up the park to win a tackle, you have to make it. Colo didn't plenty of times and left holes in behind. But he's new, and he'll learn. He was clearly tired and stretched his calf out on the 78 min mark. Also, Colo daudled on the ball at one point and adebayor almost got in when it needed a quick pass back to shay or a clearance. I'd love to have heard the comments on here if taylor or (dare i say it) bramble would have done that.

 

Colo does step out to make challenges, and that takes anticipaion and a good reading of the game. I wouldn't say he missed many, but he has looked like getting caught a couple of times when he thinks he has more time than is safe. I would agree with HTT though, that the defence was probably exposed a bit today, the Arsenal midfield were allowed far too much room. They certainly didn't allow us much.

 

 

[Fatwax]

First game we've failed to score in all season. As long as we put in a shift against the teams we're expected to I'll be happy this season.

[Guest s0ftcore]

Given - 7; one of our better performers today. Real shame about the 3rd goal

 

Beye - 5; did not have a good game today. Lacked aggression.

Taylor and Colo - 6; they did what they could but it cannot be helped when they don't have a midfield to protect them. Eg: Colo pushes up to close down forward because fucking Nicky Butt is still strolling back

Enrique - 6.5; did not put a foot wrong and offered more width when he pushed up to combine with N'zogbia. Hope his injury isn't anything too serious.

Bassong - 6; did well but didn't offer much going forward.

 

Jonas - 7.5; our best player. Actually tried to do something. Very assured on the ball and not afraid to run with it. Very clever as well, everytime he went down he seemed to win a freekick. However, not as good offensively as in the Man U/Bolton games. Lack of support from Beye?

Butt - 4; rubbish. He pushes up and leaves the midfield too open. For a player with so much 'experience' he lacks tactical discipline.

Guthrie - 5; better than Butt but to blame for the 2nd goal. He was tracking back then he just slowed down. Like what the fuck? Unacceptable.

N'zogbia - 5.5; quiet day at the office. Unlucky with the penalty.

 

Owen - 5.5; couldn't do much without any service. Only had 2 half chances and a real shame Shola got in his way. 1-1 would have been a totally different game

Shola - 1; won a few headers. Other than that, the worst player on the field. I don't blame N'zogbia for the penalty because Shola let Adebayor pass him like he wasn't there. Sadly, there's somebody worst than him named Alan Smith and thank god he didnt play today

 

 

Rob Styles - 0; what a fucking bias cunt. The penalty was dubious and the million freekicks he awarded against us was a joke.

[Consortium of one]

Arsenal's play in the box was exquisite and was made possible because they won the midfield.  Butt was horrible, IMO, and way out of his league in this game.  Zog's was ineffective tracking back, Guthrie was over run at times (though no fault of his own) and I thought Jones was MoM.  He has a great workrate and has a good head about him.  He made some canny passes that went whoosh over Ameobi's and one or two other heads.  I thought the team played rushed early on aqnd had they been able to score wen the tempo slowedcould ave made it more interesting.

 

Nasri is a little punk and I'll be watching him.

[Mick]

Butt is a f***ing dreadful player.

 

Agreed, he was terrible, out of his first 6 passes 5 went to a player in Red.

[Coxaux]

Thought we were outplayed by a better team today, simple as that.

[Liam Liam Liam O]

Given - 7; one of our better performers today. Real shame about the 3rd goal

 

Beye - 5; did not have a good game today. Lacked aggression.

Taylor and Colo - 6; they did what they could but it cannot be helped when they don't have a midfield to protect them. Eg: Colo pushes up to close down forward because fucking Nicky Butt is still strolling back

Enrique - 6.5; did not put a foot wrong and offered more width when he pushed up to combine with N'zogbia. Hope his injury isn't anything too serious.

Bassong - 6; did well but didn't offer much going forward.

 

Jonas - 7.5; our best player. Actually tried to do something. Very assured on the ball and not afraid to run with it. Very clever as well, everytime he went down he seemed to win a freekick. However, not as good offensively as in the Man U/Bolton games. Lack of support from Beye?

Butt - 4; rubbish. He pushes up and leaves the midfield too open. For a player with so much 'experience' he lacks tactical discipline.

Guthrie - 5; better than Butt but to blame for the 2nd goal. He was tracking back then he just slowed down. Like what the fuck? Unacceptable.

N'zogbia - 5.5; quiet day at the office. Unlucky with the penalty.

 

Owen - 5.5; couldn't do much without any service. Only had 2 half chances and a real shame Shola got in his way. 1-1 would have been a totally different game

Shola - 1; won a few headers. Other than that, the worst player on the field. I don't blame N'zogbia for the penalty because Shola let Adebayor pass him like he wasn't there. Sadly, there's somebody worst than him named Alan Smith and thank god he didnt play today

 

 

Rob Styles - 0; what a fucking bias cunt. The penalty was dubious and the million freekicks he awarded against us was a joke.

 

Agree with most of that.

[TRon]

Thought we were outplayed by a better team today, simple as that.

 

I don't mind being out-classed. I don't like being out-run and out-fought which we were mostly. They looked much hungrier.

[Mick]

First game we've failed to score in all season. As long as we put in a shift against the teams we're expected to I'll be happy this season.

 

The daft thing is that if we'd had something up front we could have possibly scored 3 ourselves.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Nicky Butt is a good footballer with good technique and a good football brain, but physically and I don't mean in terms of strength but genuine athleticism like agility, balance, stamina and pace, he is very weak and he's not the most skillful either which combined hurts us and for him to be of any effect and value the game has to be going a certain way and the team have to be playing a certain way too.

 

In space and with time with the game at a low tempo or slow pace he will pick out a pass and look very tidy as he did at times today but when asked to create something or make quick, short, sharp passes and then move to recieve the ball back or to create space or openings for a team-mate in a higher tempo or quicker match setting, he just doesn't have the skill and athleticism so he can become bogged down and with it, can drag our play down to that kind of level too.

 

Against a slick Arsenal engine room Nicky Butt is going to get the run around and Newcastle as a team is going to suffer at both ends, as we did.

 

For me he is the odd man out and I like him and he deserves massive credit for turning his career around at Newcastle but the time has come for something else in midfield, for Butt to make way for good. He will serve as a useful squad player of course but as a first-team player in such a key and critical area of the pitch and moreso our side his selection represents exactly the same as what playing Ameobi up front does - not good enough.

[James]

All the media focus will be about how brilliant Arsenal are when Fabregas is fit.

 

I thought we'd only get 1 point this month when I saw the fixture list. 4 points is very satisfactory, and I reckon quite a few managers would love to swap our results with theirs.

 

We've now got two weeks, and this can bring closer the return of many missing names, plus maybe some new arrivals. A few nicer games coming up.

[Guest s0ftcore]

We got Hull next at home and I hope we go with all guns blazing. They lost 5-0 at home to Wigan FFS!

[Coxaux]

Some quick match ratings:

 

Given - 6

 

Beye - 5

Taylor - 4

Coloccini - 6

Enrique - 6

 

Jonas - 6

Butt - 4

Guthrie - 7

N'Zogbia - 6

 

Ameobi - 4

Owen - 5

[ElDiablo]

Probably a fair result, they could have got more and we should have had one where Jonas crossed it and either Owen scuffed it or Shola blocked the shot. Guthrie was our MOM for me, constantly wriggled out of sticky situations when he literally had noone to pass to, really think he'll look twice the player should Butt be replaced. Jonas had a few naive moments trying to dribble out of situations when he should have just got rid, but once again he battled back well and looked out most threatening player. Coloccini did well, Taylor Ok apart from a few times when he just let players run and run while he just backed off further and further. Shola, waste of space apart from a few flick ons. Owen was neat and tidy but didn't ever look that threatening. Zog was shit.

 

Given seems back to his best. 

[Liam Liam Liam O]

All the media focus will be about how brilliant Arsenal are when Fabregas is fit. Ashley going for a piss being a massive snub to Keegan.

 

I thought we'd only get 1 point this month when I saw the fixture list. 4 points is very satisfactory, and I reckon quite a few managers would love to swap our results with theirs.

 

We've now got two weeks, and this can bring closer the return of many missing names, plus maybe some new arrivals. A few nicer games coming up.

[Colocho]

Some quick match ratings:

 

Given - 6

 

Beye - 5

Taylor - 4

Coloccini - 6

Enrique - 6

 

Jonas - 6

Butt - 4

Guthrie - 7

N'Zogbia - 6

 

Ameobi - 4

Owen - 5

 

Aye, far better than the previous set.

[TRon]

Nicky Butt is a good footballer with good technique and a good football brain, but physically and I don't mean in terms of strength but genuine athleticism like agility, balance, stamina and pace, he is very weak and he's not the most skillful either which combined hurts us and for him to be of any effect and value the game has to be going a certain way and the team have to be playing a certain way too.

 

In space and with time with the game at a low tempo or slow pace he will pick out a pass and look very tidy as he did at times today but when asked to create something or make quick, short, sharp passes and then move to recieve the ball back or to create space or openings for a team-mate in a higher tempo or quicker match setting, he just doesn't have the skill and athleticism so he can become bogged down and with it, can drag our play down to that kind of level too.

 

Against a slick Arsenal engine room Nicky Butt is going to get the run around and Newcastle as a team is going to suffer at both ends, as we did.

 

For me he is the odd man out and I like him and he deserves massive credit for turning his career around at Newcastle but the time has come for something else in midfield, for Butt to make way for good. He will serve as a useful squad player of course but as a first-team player in such a key and critical area of the pitch and moreso our side his selection represents exactly the same as what playing Ameobi up front does - not good enough.

 

Pretty much word perfect

 

 

[Wullie]

Other than his failure to track Eboue for the second goal, which I hope he got a bollocking for, I felt quite sorry for Guthrie. Picked up the ball loads and had to keep skipping past players and playing one twos just to try and find someone in a bit of space. Butt desperately needs replacing before the window shuts.

[Coxaux]

Was a strange game in that a lot of players didn't do anything particularly long but didn't do anything right either.

[Kaizero]

We got Hull next at home and I hope we go with all guns blazing. They lost 5-0 at home to Wigan FFS!

 

They also beat Fulham, who in turn beat Arsenal, who in turn beat us.

 

Football works in mysterious ways.

[Guest optimistic nit]

don't think we were shit today, arsenal were just much better than us. we couldn't defend against them or break them down, there were no bad individual performances (bar butt and ameobi, although both of those did some good).

 

Jonas looked his usual self, although he couldn't break them down once he go into the final third. nzogbia did ok, but he again was just not as good as their right back.

 

Guthrie was probably our best player, maybe after jonas, his distrobution was good, technique was good, although once he got the ball around the box, he just would not shoot. no idea whether he was at fault for the goal.

 

colo and taylor looked solid when we wern't being raped by arsenals passing game, although we were being raped fairly often.

 

why was enrique taken off and was it a pen? looked ball to hand to me.

[NG32]

Was a strange game in that a lot of players didn't do anything particularly long but didn't do anything right either.

 

Just got passed off the park mate, doesn't help when Shola cant pick up a man, hold the ball or pick a decent pass to retain possesion.

 

never mind, its out the way now.

 

 

[ElDiablo]

why was enrique taken off and was it a pen? looked ball to hand to me.

 

Whoever it was had their arm out, could clearly see it from where I stood. Apparently Butt hit the bar as well? I wasn't looking and just saw it get cleared out