Not sure about that. If the petrodollars end up bringing the beautiful game to Tyneside, I think we'd rather play that style than what we saw tonight.
Can't say for sure without seeing the flow of play, but given the style of play on offer from Newcastle, maybe try Vieira on for Xhaka just for fresh legs and to change things up. I concede, however, this points to the Gunners' comparable lack of depth compared to Citeh.
Hard to believe that less than 18 months ago, NUFC had arguably the most porous defense in the Prem. It was ugly, brutal, but effective again against us today. Why did VAR and the center official not review that handball in the box at the end?
The formula is to not lose to Top 4 opponents and pick up max points against the pretenders. Mission accomplished
Yeah that's what I would have done too, except after I posted it, Xhaka became incredibly influential in the match lol
I think we are quitely going through a rotating injuries for the last couple months, the team has largely been picking itself. This game would have loved a Nelson.
I think we can still be frustrated about the fashion in which that happened--this wasn't an even match, Newcastle saved a point through cynicism and poor officiating IMO. The silver lining is that you're right, winning a point with Nketiah leading the line is probably a good result. But Eddie is not good enough to be doing it against low-blocks which is very concerning
This was pretty clearly true for every big game we played last season--notably away to Spurs where the team totally lost its composure. In retrospect we can see from All or Nothing how much Arteta amped them up for that one and the other big matches
Yeah - it was a stone cold foul, thus penalty. Guess VAR wasn't paying attention? No case against it being a foul.
100% a penalty on that shirt pull by Burn, but 0-0 is a fair result otherwise. Really wish Nketiah had done better on that last chance - his first touch got a little too far away from him (as it usually does) and it limited his shooting options. Need an upgrade.
I basically agree. But I also think Eddie has stepped up well in these 3 games he's been asked to. And he's trying to play more like GJ did. It's just that his ceiling, at least in the short term, is just not high enough for the rare and huge opportunity we've created for ourselves this season. So yes, another forward who would allow us a different/better CF would be welcome.
I think that a different profile of player to go along with him may have yielded different results. We're fairly young across the front line. Those guys are learning in real time to counter what defenses are going to throw at them. This is likely a different type of game if we were not top of the league playing a team chasing us.
He's trying his best, and that's good enough against West Ham and Brighton. It's not enough for the top 6, and 3 of our next 5 are against that contingent. I won't fault his work rate in this stretch, which is an improvement on how lethargic he looked off the bench for most of the season.
The reason I disagree is cause we only lost 1 big game this season and that was United, but I won't argue your point as it is your opinion and I respect it. Let's see what the rest of the season brings.
Disagree, he did as well on that chance as anyone could have, if anything his first touch was very good. Pope is a good keeper.
Zinchenko has been good for the most part but we have been winning early on for most of those games. He was playing in the 80th min like we were 2-0 up. A change of tactic with KT coming on was badly needed imo