NEWCASTLE V ARSENAL

Worth noting that half the first team didn't even feature for this one, so there's that aspect to it as well. But dear me our second string is dire..

 

We have a **** quality squad, Rafa has done a very good job. You brought the worst Arsenal side to St James' in living memory, though.

Normally it's admirable to blood youngsters, but yours are not ready, or not good enough. Add to this, Mustafi making the same errors again and again, no cutting edge, and the team effectively faking possession stats by your back 4 passing it between themselves aimlessly and without threat.... That was just not Arsenal.

Obviously, your focus is elsewhere, but today should not be a surprise. I actually thought in patches today, Arsenal were better than in some of the other recent games which you've won.

 

Have no problem with Newcastle so it's nice to see them dodge the relegation battle but I don't think we did them justice today with the team and the performance we put out. We will be better in the future... hopefully.

 

Fair play to Toon, fully deserved the win over us today. We were gash, but don't take anything away from newcastle. You fought, we didn't so we can't have any complaints.

 

On the flip side, it's nice to see that Kane fella back amongst the goals for Newcastle. Always thought he would be quality.

 

Undoubtedly, I said on our thread we had to take the chance today, we will never be afforded that opportunity again! I can't see Wenger seeing out that contract, not winning the Europa would convince the board to cut the ties.

It'll be interesting to see who is in charge next year, and who that person brings in. Couple of areas to strengthen squad wise, and older heads to be sold?

 

We need a massive clearout, starting with the manager. Hopefully some new coaches, a defensive coach, a new goalkeeper, 2 new centre halves, a midfield enforcer and 2 world class strikers. Sounds far fetched but such are the problems at Arsenal that mass changes are required. And we need to get rid of a lot of dead wood.

The way I see it, it's actually a win-win. If we lose in the Europa league, Wenger goes. If we win, we have a trophy and CL so it's not all that bad.

 

The thing that I can't get my head around is in several of these away games, which we've ended up losing/not winning, we've actually been in the lead. But as soon as we concede a goal, we completely fall apart.

Watford 2-1 Arsenal - winning and then lose.
West Brom 1-1 Arsenal - winning and then concede a last minute penalty.
Bournemouth 2-1 Arsenal - winning the game and then lose.
Swansea 3-1 Arsenal - winning but then concede and the capitulation ensued.
Newcastle 2-1 Arsenal - winning again, looked in control but then we go on to lose.

To have not obtained a single away point in 2018 is criminal. 3 away wins ALL season. 11 losses so far and we have Man United away shortly...

How can our heads completely drop like this every single time? The players seem utterly clueless in knowing how to get back into a game.

I know we've not been great away from home generally for the last few years, but sheesh. This season we have been epically bad. Even I didn't expect us to be so abysmal.

Ah well, I think we all know all our eggs are in the Europa League basket anyway. I'm not overly bothered about the loss per se because we have nothing to play for domestically. What is concerning me is this pattern emerging where we can't seem to buy an away win against teams who, respectfully, we should be beating with relative comfort. What hope do we have against Atletico if we are going to crumble when a side puts the slightest hint of pressure on us?

If we perform like this against Atletico, Wenger may as well leave before the season ends. Because we won't stand a snowball's chance in hell on that showing.

 

If you win the Europa, do you think next season, which would 100% be Arsene's last, will see a change in relationship with the fans? It would be like the end of a legend, whether you believe he passed his peak a few seasons back or not.

Romantically, as a neutral and given that Arsene has undoubtedly given a lot to league, that would be a better end to his tenure. Is the current relationship too strained though?

 

Oh and I've lost my patience with Mustafi now. I don't care if he performs like Beckenbauer from now until the end of the season, he needs to be sold.

If we are truly aiming to be a top side over the next year or so,, Mustafi is not the solution.

Too inconsistent. Too weak. Not brave in tackling. Doesn't dominate in the air. Leads on the front foot too often without anticipating the opposition. Takes too many touches. Out of position too often. No spatial awareness. Easily turned.

Does he actually do anything right?

When Dwight Gayle is winning aerial duels against you, you clearly cannot be a very good centre-half.

It's unfortunate we don't have anyone that's better than him in the squad right now because I would seriously advocate benching him.

Strikers must be chomping at the bit when they see his name on our team sheet...

 

This

If Wenger announces that next season is his last, I think fans and players will get behind him and want to give him a good send off. The toxic atmosphere at the moment is pulling us apart and it's clearly affecting performances.

 

If he wins the Europa League, my gut feeling is he will stay for another season (though I want him to leave regardless of whether he wins it or not). Which is the risk a lot of fans (not all) are willing to take. As much as we feel Wenger's time at Arsenal is finished, we still want to see the club win trophies. The prospect of winning silverware outweighs the desire to see Wenger ousted from the club (although, again, not all of us feel this way). Our European trophy cabinet isn't exactly beaming, so to win the Europa would be a nice change, even if it doesn't have the prestige of the Champions League.

From my own personal perspective, whether we get back into the Champions League next season or not, it doesn't really matter because we are still going to face the same issues that we've been suffering from for many years now. Very little will change if Wenger is in charge next season, if anything, the situation may deteriorate. So whilst he may win the hearts of some fans for winning the Europa (if he does it), the majority still feel like he won't be able to address our current shortcomings because he's been unable to do so for the last 7-8 years.

Should he miraculously get past Atletico and win the final, that would be the perfect way for him to leave. On a high and no haranguing from the fans, who grew impatient with him a long time ago.

 

We were dire today and no one was good enough - wtf does Wenger see in Iwobi as he is ****ing useless.
No creativity and not enough desire and that is our lot for the PL and we will probably finish below Burnley

 

About all the Wenger comments above...

To be honest, I’m still not convinced the board won’t give him another contract at the end of next season. And I’m serious about that.

This is why saying things like him having “one great final season next year” or him “losing the Europa would mean he would leave” have too many assumptions. I think one thing is for sure - he will never leave willingly. I don’t care if we go down, he still won’t leave. And our board for whatever reason seem to be in love with the guy, despite him no longer even being a financial advantage anymore.

Thus the only likely time Wenger will leave is if his contract is up. (But like I said above I wouldn’t rule out him getting another extension...)

 

The problem away from home is that teams do not surrender the midfield to us like they do at the Emirates. Look at the team sheet today and there are 4 players that will not contribute to winning the midfield; Willock, Iwobi, Aubamayang and Lacazette so we are playing 2 vs 5 in midfield. As soon as Newcastle competed for the midfield they were all over us. Quite frankly Xhaka and Elneny did better than they had any right to.

I guess teams defending with 8 against us for so long has somehow warped Wenger's mind and he doesn't think we need to win the midfield any more. This is just stupidity on his part, and I wouldn't normally consider him a stupid man.

I don't know how everyone at the club has let him get into this mindset. We should be punishing these teams for trying to press us, but we don't have the midfielders able to do that. This is such a diversion from the days when we used to play Ramsey, Parlour and Ljungberg as a wing forwards.

Back in the day our shape was always spot on, these days we have dreadful shape, and it looks like the other team have a couple of extra players.

 

It is not our heads dropping, it is the home team coming out and attacking us. If they drop back into a back 8 like they used to, we can score against them and stop the counter-arrack, but if they go toe to toe with us they are going to beat us.

Really these managers that don't attack us from the start are just idiots. We are there for the taking.

 

It's actually sad how easy it is for teams to beat us. Where I previously used to absolute loathe losing, I now feel completely desensitized when we do. Because I expect it.

 

I don’t think there’s ever been a more clear time that a team (and manager) is at the end of an era. Ever. Yet somehow things are continuing (and probably will continue the way they are). The players look like they arnt really bothered. Wenger looks like he has realized he can’t do much to change things. And of course there’s an overall apathy around the fans too.

 

Sorry I just don't agree. That goal was all Cech's fault again. Any other goalkeeper and the commentators would be asking how he got beaten at his near post. Again we just have one defender and he has two players running full tilt in at him.

A player is always going to be able to run across the front of him and get to the ball first, If he moves to that ball before it is played, Perez lets it run, and the player behind him has an open goal.

He played that as well as he could. Look at it again.

What is he going to do?

And what the **** is Cech doing? I don't blame Mustafi for letting Perez get to that ball, a 10 year old goalkeeper could have stopped that. It is a nice height and not hit very hard at all.

 

Pretty sure I came on here when you bought him and warned you that he got 3 managers sacked at Valencia, the first thing the present guy did was sell him and now they are up the league again.