Match Day Thread Newcastle United vs Arsenal - Matchday Thread

with all due respect, I dont really look at your squad and think its full of leaders.

I think its about quality and time. Elneny, Cedric, nketiah, are definitely not good enough for where we want to go. The rest are all incredibly young. The reality is we just need more transfer windows to bring in more quality. And yea, get rid of the players out of contract because I would say we dont want them here as much as they dont want to be here.

 

We've long debated the wisdom of having Lloris as captain but at the very least he is universally and unquestioningly respected by the entire squad. I'm not sure Arsenal have many players like that, if any. Then there are big characters like Hojbjerg, Kane, Romero and Dier - they might all not be world beaters in their positions, but they are confident, very vocal and work damn hard game on game. That's already a huge plus.

 

Ultimately, we had a small squad, chose to not strengthen in January and took a gamble on the fitness of a few key players and it backfired.

We made a big mistake not bringing in a single player in January and we should have definitely looked to replace Aubameyang with a striker.

I know people are saying we’ve made progress and I think we have made a slight bit of progress but ultimately, to get this far and not reach the goal we wanted, it feels like abject failure.

We’ll never get an opportunity like this again.

 

He can do a job with workrate and enthusiasm but technically as a player.. soo far below the required level.

 

If the stories are to be believed, it was Arteta's decision to get rid of Auba in January.. He did that and did not bring anyone to replace him.. Let us see what happens from now going forward. Even when we have spent, I believe we have spent wrongly!

 

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You lot really are trying to set us up for a last day Spursy special ain’t you? ****ing hell.

Hand on heart thought 4th and 5th were decided the moment we bottled the Brighton and Brentford games, yet now you lot go and do this.

Depending on which way you wanna look at it, this has either been the best or worst top four race in history, because neither club has seemingly wanted it.

 

We were ****ing abysmal last night, but let's be honest, it's not the first time this season we've put in a performance like that.

Against Brentford on the opening day, against Forest in the cup, against Everton at Goodison, were similar performances where we created nothing and just let the oppo roll us over. It's happened far too often this season

And despite that we'd given ourselves a golden opportunity for top 4 and blew it. I can't criticise the attitude of our players against your lot, because the ref completely ****ed that game for us, but last night was a ****ing abomination and I hope the players are hurting bad today, because they deserve it after that **** show

Anyway, whilst I can't really see it happening, it would be absolute bedlam if you lot somehow manage to find a way to **** it up on the last day.

 

Blame Rob Holding for your capitulation at ours, easily one of the most idiotic displays of defending I’ve seen and being a Spurs fan I’m well equipped with knowing what idiotic defending is. None of your key players turned up either, same for last night and same for when we came to your place - though I maintain that having Nuno back then put us at a severe disadvantage, lol.

Said on Prem board earlier in the season that it was basically a battle between North London to see who could “out-****” one another. You lot just took a late lead but we have the chance next week to return top. I’m well aware though of the chance we’ve been given, said this last night, lol:

 

Rob Holding should have known better when he was on a yellow, but that first yellow was BS anyway, as was the Pen, as was the free kick that led to the corner for your 2nd, as was Son not getting a red for elbowing Holding.

Anyway, last night was different, total ****, nobody turned up.

All we can do is summon the Gods of the Spursy to help us out now.

 

The first yellow was because he gave away about four previous fouls, ref even told him that so he got done for persistent fouling.

He should’ve gotten a red or second yellow earlier though as he kicked Son in the back when Son was on the floor. Ben Davies’ yellow was also a joke. Though when he did get that yellow he managed his game, Holding just got even dumber.

The ref gave (or didn’t give) dubious calls for both sides. Difference is our players still showed up - and they ****ing had too - yours didn’t, same for last night.

Nah the footballing gods owe us a bit of good fortune these days, the Spursy ones need to take a back seat.

 

Well no they did want someone.. they bid £68 million for Vlahovic to be fair.

 

Arsenal haven't played well in the 17 games since we lost to City in January. That absolutely knocked the stuffing out of us after we'd gone on a good run after our horror start in August. We still put some wins together after that City game, but they were all scraped wins by a goal, very rarely anymore than that.

17 games before City:
P17 W11 D2 L4 F36 A17 GD+19 Pts 35

17 games since that City loss:
P17 W10 D1 L6 F23 A21 GD+2 Pts 31

We've been really quite poor for so many games this season it's actually mildly incredible we've even managed to even finish 5th. And a shambles on United that they finished behind us.

 

Arsenal have made some progress this season - I think that’s not a debatable point.

But whether it’s sufficient progress or the progress we wanted is another question.

I think at the start of the season, a lot of us would have been relatively content with a 5th placed finish considering there was meant to be a four-way title race supposedly. But with the way the season has gone, ending it like this feels like a massive anticlimax and it’s hard to be positive about any incremental progress when we had such a big prize on the line, in our hands, and have to settle for the lesser competition.

We really need to have a good Summer transfer window and start next season hitting the ground running because I get the feeling that, if we have another season like this, not only will there be pressure on Arteta, but players like Saka and Martinelli will potentially look to leave in the Summer 2023 transfer window.

It’s just mind blowing how often we are architects of our downfall.

 

I'm worried that the only reason we've been able to get ahead of other sides this season is because we've played less fixtures. And yet here we are, burnt out and with a paper thin squad. I'm not sure we're equipped to deal with the rigors of Europa League football if we can't even handle playing one game a week.

 

This

Our young players are rightly hungry for success. I think playing European football next season will be enough for them, but they, along with the whole club will need to see more progress next season and that is again, getting back into the CL. Otherwise, like you say, players like Saka will seek that out with another club.

We need to make sure that we properly strengthen in the summer (1) To be able to compete across the PL and EL (2) To have depth in the squad to cope with injuries. Because we've seen this season that whilst we have a decent first XI, any injuries or suspensions absolutely bend us out of shape and significantly weaken us.

Gabriel Jesus looks like he might be coming, and I whilst I know you don't really rate him, I think he will add a lot more dynamism to our forward line and he can score goals too. If he is a replacement for Lacazette, then it's an instant improvement. We then need to add another striker, I'd love us to go all out to get Darwin Nunez, but without CL I think we'd probably miss out on him. I wonder if it would be worth putting a cheeky bid in for somebody like Ivan Toney, who has proved he is a handful in the PL and would make a great target man.

Youri Tielemans would be a great signing in MF if we can get him. Xhaka and Eleney can do a job, but we lack a proper artist in there and Tielemans reminds me a bit of Santi Cazorla. He wouldn't come cheap, but that is the type of calibre of player we need to be signing.

We then also need another fullback, because Tierney is injury prone, Tavares is hit and miss and Cedric is not the standard we require. We've been linked with Aaron Hickey, and from what I've seen of him he looks really composed on the ball, is good in attack and can play with both feet, so would be versatile on either flank.

 

Agree with everything you said, but the priority needs to be a world class center forward. I think we are the only club to really have no quality in the forward line, and we don't score very many goals from midfield as it is. Saka and Smith Rowe have done reasonably well but if we're going to progress we need at least two world class strikers and maybe one backup, if Nketiah and Lacazette are leaving.

 

I hear you, and I get that, but in fairness, a lot of the underlying metrics and stats do point to us having a clear improvement compared to last season.

And in general, going from 8th to 5th is improvement (although we shouldn’t have been finishing 8th anyway), but like I said - whether the progress we’ve made aligns with our expectations is certainly questionable.

Next season, I fully expect us to have a deeper squad because we’ll be in more competitions, and with Europa, you can get away with fielding second string teams in the group stage. But we really need to kick on next season.

KSE have backed Arteta to the hilt and if next season ends in failure, I don’t know where we go from there.