Newcastle United 0-2 Arsenal (07/05/2023)

[Yorkie]

Arsenal's quality shone through mostly out of possession for me. They made it incredibly difficult to get the ball forward in a meaningful way; really effective doubling and tripling up on our dangerous players, seemingly without sacrificing the rest of their defensive shape, which is good going. The shithousery and game management counts towards how good they were too, as it does with us when we're at our shithousing best. It's essentially a tactic. 

 

I think you have to give credit to Arteta, he's clearly got them incredibly well drilled and is getting the best out of his very best players. 

[joeyt]

Odegaard was the best player on the pitch I thought

[BlueStar]

This been posted yet?  Supposedly Gooner was in the family area, pissed up and hoying bottles about, so not just as simple as finding a rival fan in the home end 

 

 

[arnonel]

Reflecting...

We hit the post twice, had a few other clear cut chances, including a point blank header. We matched a team battling City for the title. 

Not the result we wanted, but it could have gone another way. This, one year after a relegation battle. Im still impressed

 

 

[NE27]

I look at the man u game, the Brighton loss, and I feel better about our chances.

 

We unfortunately didn't take our breaks against arsenal and against good sides you get punished. But we gave a fairly good account and fashioned enough chances for me to be buoyant still.

 

On to Leeds and hopefully 3 points in the bag to give ourselves some breathing space. Being chased can be used as motivation to get the job done.

[Stottie]

I thought Arsenal's last ditch defending was top notch, Murphy's chance was deflected, the Bruno penalty shout was a block off a well-worked corner, the Willock first half chance would probably have been blocked if not sent close to the keeper as it was, and the Willock second half chance fed by Isak down the left was also blocked. The only clear chances we got were the Schar header and the Isak header, which was a delicious dink to a late-arriving runner.

 

Wilson wasn't allowed into the game, had no efforts on goal, and only touched the ball twice in their box in 77 minutes.

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

Considering they were often doubling up on Isaak it doesn't seem as though Wilson offered much (aside from playing willock in 1st half). 

 

 

[Yorkie]

On reflection this was an awful lot like the Man City game. Competitive against a far better team with missed chances, before a second goal kills it. Even the goal times were almost identical.

[joeyt]

It's so refreshing to know we're going into every match knowing we can give the opposition a good game and play decent football alongside it. We've had years of rolling over to the top teams or not turning up against teams around us in relegation battles

 

It's probably only Villa away this season where we've been completely off it

[The Prophet]

 

[toon25]

We're desperate for a consistent cutting edge, like. Easier said than done, I know, but a lot of the draws we've had this year have been owing to a lack of being clinical when it matters.

[Wilson]

We put 6 past spurs, 4 past everton away who've just took the piss out of Brighton. 

 

I'd say we've got a pretty 'consistent cutting edge' (evidenced by our position/goal difference/W column) but it's never going to happen every single game, we hit the post and had other chances, it was just one of them days. 

[El Prontonise]

2 hours ago, Wilson said:

We put 6 past spurs, 4 past everton away who've just took the piss out of Brighton. 

 

I'd say we've got a pretty 'consistent cutting edge' (evidenced by our position/goal difference/W column) but it's never going to happen every single game, we hit the post and had other chances, it was just one of them days. 

 

 

Exactly, that's football.  Too many people think it's a science.

[LionOfGosforth]

I was absolutely on the floor on Sunday night, just wayyyy too invested in the final outcome of this game to see straight. I waited 24 hours and watched it again, stripped of the emotion of watching it in the moment, and feel a lot better. Fine margins, they were slightly better, had a little luck at key times and definitely more ruthless in both boxes but the difference to us from a year ago is stark and it's only getting better.

 

Then I watched Brighton yesterday and felt even better. Even the brightest, most tactically astute minds occasionally get it wrong, or have not quite the right game-plan or their team just flat-out gets outfought or outplayed. 11 humans against 11 humans and if you're not quite at it 100%, or it doesn't quite run for you on the day, it can go wrong. Onwards and upwards, we very closely matched a team that has been, for 3 quarters of the season anyway, the best in the league.

[relámpago blanco]

I think the thing is the better managers will be able to manage our press. Quality always shines though over a period of time and we have some real gems but a few that aren't up to the task.  If we get than pen and their heads drop we might have won that though. It's always fine margins at this level.

[Yorkie]

Just now, relámpago blanco said:

I think the thing is the better managers will be able to manage our press. Quality always shines though over a period of time and we have some real gems but a few that aren't up to the task.  If we get than pen and their heads drop we might have won that though. It's always fine margins at this level.

 

I even think if the incident just didn't happen at all, there's a chance we take the lead and then who knows. It affected each team's respective mentalities in completely the opposite ways. So annoying. Ah well. 

[The Prophet]

6 minutes ago, relámpago blanco said:

I think the thing is the better managers will be able to manage our press. Quality always shines though over a period of time and we have some real gems but a few that aren't up to the task.  If we get than pen and their heads drop we might have won that though. It's always fine margins at this level.

 

With the current quality of player definetly. Liverpool have shown though that a well coached high press with high quality players can be devastating.

[LionOfGosforth]

1 minute ago, Yorkie said:

 

I even think if the incident just didn't happen at all, there's a chance we take the lead and then who knows. It affected each team's respective mentalities in completely the opposite ways. So annoying. Ah well. 

 

Another, probably unintended, symptom of VAR. Was pointed out in the match thread, Arsenal undoubtedly benefitted from the stoppage incurred by it, we totally lost composure and momentum and it goes back to the overall point of fine margins at this level.

 

Something that the coaching staff might well discuss this summer is managing new situations brought on by our progress, like being in a high pressure top of the table game and facing delays and disruptions and trying to improve our mentality and handle frustrations.

[relámpago blanco]

10 hours ago, The Prophet said:

 

With the current quality of player definetly. Liverpool have shown though that a well coached high press with high quality players can be devastating.

Yes I agree, I just mean we'll need better quality over longer periods of time and can't just get through with intensity

[TK-421]

"Arsenals Masterful display of Dark Arts"  
 

 

[r0cafella]

6 minutes ago, TK-421 said:

"Arsenals Masterful display of Dark Arts"  
 

 

I know some people enjoy it, but this side of the game is so tiresome and boring to watch. I hope it’s clamped down on at some point by either stopping the clock or punishing players who magically recover as soon as the depart the pitch. 

[LV]

8 minutes ago, TK-421 said:

"Arsenals Masterful display of Dark Arts"  
 

 

So when Arsenal do it it’s Masterful…

[Sid]

Newbie here, long time lurker but it's taken ages for me to sign up. Arsenal bossed us like we have bossed so many teams this season, that little bit sharper to the ball, passing sharper too. We can hardly complain about their time wasting.

 

I thought it was a hand ball and a penalty to us early on, but my missus( who knows way more about football than me) says no.

 

Still been a great season, not so long since we were " doomed" to relegation.

 

Happy days.

[Cf]

In many ways this match was the poster child of why xG is a useful metric as it's easy to imagine rewinding time, replaying the game, and having the result go the other way. The 2 minutes shot an inch to the side, reaction time or the arm a millisecond different, schar gets even the slightest angle on the header, etc. 

 

Was one of those games where all those tiny little things went against us. 

 

Both teams seemed evenly matched to me. We both played good stuff and we both created chances. Against 2nd in the league and the team that has lead most of it that's probably the most you can expect. Such a game on the day is often going to come down to a certain amount of variance/randomness. 

 

That's what xG is there to try and calculate. In the long term what would this result be. Now there can be discussions on how you calculate this metric but for this game we were ahead. And having watched the game it's easy to see where our goals could have come from. 

 

Essentially I'm not worried. Always look for improvements of course but in terms of this game we were just on the wrong side of variance. It's easy to feel negative but in an alternative universe we're much more positive despite in each case the game plan and team being exactly the same. 

[The College Dropout]

On 08/05/2023 at 08:26, Heron said:

Wasn't a pen. Wasn't our day.

 

They came here to cheat and frustrate and did so to good effect. The referee allowed them to do it too. Overall though - they showed why they're 2nd and we're 3rd. Only them and City have came here and been able to play it out from the back under pressure and as a result were able to open us up. Our high intensity press prevents lesser sides from doing that. Have to say hats off, move on, and put it right in the next game.

 

Thought our fans were excellent though

That's my fear with Brighton. They will pass through the press.