REPORT: Newcastle United 0-0 Arsenal

NEWCASTLE UNITED 0 – 0 ARSENAL

Match Report

Barclays Premier League

St. James’ Park

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Kick-off: 17:30

Arsenal:

Szczesny, Sagna, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Song, Ramsey, Rosicky, Gervinho, Arshavin, van Persie

Subs: Fabianski, Djourou, Jenkinson, Frimpong, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Frimpong, Walcott, Chamakh

Newcastle United:

Krul, Simpson, S.Taylor, Coloccini, R.Taylor, Barton, Cabaye, Tiote, Gutierrez, Ba, Shola Ameobi

Subs: Fortster, Williamson, Gosling, Obertan, Sammy Ameobi, Lovenkrands, Best

So the excitement around our first game was subdued and after that performance and result it proved that there was nothing to get excited about.

Some players that stood out for me were Gibbs, Song, Arshavin and Gervinho. The partnership of Koscielny and Vermaelen looked strong.

There weren’t many chances in this game. But one moment stood out when Gervinho went down in the penalty area, which a penalty was not given. Joey Barton decided to take matters into his own hands, literally, by lifting up Gervinho, only for a scuffle to break out where Gervinho slapped Barton on the head. Barton went down like a sack of potatoes (more like a sack of s***). This debacle ended up getting Gervinho sent off on his debut, a great way to introduce himself to the Premier League. Gervinho will now be suspended for three matches. A real shame because he has looked really good for Arsenal so far, bringing something different and direct to Arsenal.

So a pretty abysmal first game, but a tough place to go and get a win none the less. Travelling Arsenal fans decided to chant “Spend Some F****** Money!” and this is not for the first time.

TEAM LINE-UP: Newcastle United v Arsenal

Arsenal kick-off their season away to Newcastle at St. James's Park. This is how they line-up:

Arsenal:

Szczesny, Sagna, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Song, Ramsey, Rosicky, Gervinho, van Persie, Arshavin

Subs: Fabianski, Chamakh, Djourou, Frimpong, Jenkinson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott

PREVIEW: Newcastle United v Arsenal

Match Preview

Newcastle United v Arsenal

Barclays Premier League,

St. James's Park,

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Kick-off: 17:30

So it begins! (No not the line from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (King Theoden). The new season has finally come around and I am glad it has. Not the fact it's Arsenal playing competitively again, just good to see something to look forward to on the weekend.

Our squad numbers were released the other day and new signings Gervinho, Miyachi, Jenkinson and Oxlade-Chamberlain have been given numbers 27, 31, 25 and 15 respectively. As you can see Chamberlain has taken Denilson’s number and Gervinho has got his number he wore at Lille taking Eboue’s number who isn’t even in the squad,which means he must be about to move. Szczesny has been promoted to number 13 after wearing number 53 last season. Emmanuel Frimpong takes the number 26.

On to today’s game and it’s a tricky one. Newcastle came back from being 4-0 down last season at St. James’s Park to come back in a half to 4-4. You get one off games, so I can’t see it happening this time. If anything I can see Arsenal starting off quickly after a relatively poor pre-season. Maybe because the players have been pushed harder this year in pre-season training, they haven’t had much energy to play in those games, albeit aginst tougher competition to play against too.

Newcastle have had ups and downs with owner Mike Ashley in charge, more downs than ups. The likes of Joey Barton and Jose Enrique, now at Liverpool, haven’t helped the situation up on Tyneside. With no relative form from either team it’s a clean slate to start fresh with optimism for the new season and both teams will be eager to get their first win and 3 points on to the league table.

For Arsenal we have had unrest at our club too. Fabregas looks likely to be off any second now to sunny Spain. Nasri too will follow suit but to a much more cold and wetter environment up North in Manchester (Sky Blues not the Red Devils). If fact the move for Nasri could be a blessing in disguise, as rumoured a straight swap including Nasri for Carlos Tevez could emerge, I don’t believe that story one bit, but I would take that move any day!

Walcott is back in the squad after his injury in pre-season looked like he’d miss the opening game. Our squad looks a little thin in the middle, with Nasri, Fabregas, Wilshere and Diaby all out. This leaves Song, Frimpong, Ramsey and Rosicky as natural midfielders. However the first eleven should be strong enough against a Newcastle side who I think will probably get relegated this season.

The key man today will be van Persie as he has a tremendous goal scoring record away from home at the moment; in fact he can’t stop scoring anywhere. We’ll have to see how this one plans out as opening games of any season, results can be very surprising.

Probable line-up:

Szczesny, Sagna, Djourou, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Song, Ramsey, Rosicky, Gervinho, van Persie, Arshavin

Prediction: Newcastle United 1-2 Arsenal

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Arsenal Name UEFA Champions League Squad

Arsenal have announced the names of who's in the squad for the UEFA Champions League against Udinese.

The players named in Lists A and B will be all be eligible for the Play-Off Round tie with Udinese.

Arsenal.com explained further:

List A for the Play-Off Round is final, although a single change to the squad can be made by Monday 15 August (the day before the first-leg game).

Should the Club progress to the Group Stage of the competition, an updated List A will be submitted by September 1, which will apply for the remainder of the competition.

Under UEFA rules, Arsenal is eligible to register 25 players to List A for the Play-Off Round and an unlimited number of players to List B.
A player qualifies for inclusion in List B if he was born on or after January 1, 1990 and has been eligible to play for the Club for an uninterrupted period of two years or more since his 15th birthday.

A few surprises were that Fabregas and Nasri were included. Although they were included, it doesn't mean they'll necessarily play. Jack Wilshere is in list B, which is another eyebrow raiser, but that's probably because he's injured. Although I'm not even sure on the rules, but we'll have our strongest team possible playing regardless.

Arsenal's Champions League squad:

List A

Manuel Almunia
Andrey Arshavin
Nicklas Bendtner
Marouane Chamakh
Abou Diaby
Johan Djourou
Emmanuel Eboue
Lukasz Fabianski
Cesc Fabregas
Gervinho
Kieran Gibbs
Carl Jenkinson
Laurent Koscielny
Vito Mannone
Samir Nasri
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Tomas Rosicky
Bacary Sagna
Alex Song
Sebastien Squillaci
Armand Traore
Robin van Persie
Carlos Vela
Thomas Vermaelen
Theo Walcott

List B

Aaron Ramsey
Wojciech Szczesny
Jack Wilshere
Benik Afobe
Chuks Aneke
Zak Ansah
Daniel Boateng
George Brislen-Hall
Francis Coquelin
Craig Eastmond
Luke Freeman
Emmanuel Frimpong
Sead Hajrovic
Conor Henderson
Gavin Hoyte
Jernade Meade
Ignasi Miquel
Rhys Murphy
Nigel Neita
Oguzhan Ozyakup
Gilles Sunu
Sanchez Watt
Nico Yennaris

Ryo MiyachI Granted Work Permit

I don't know who's excited at the prospect of seeing Ryo Miyachi play for Arsenal in the league. To hopefully see him do what Cristiano Ronaldo did when he first arrived to the English game (albeit getting kicked to ground on every opportunity, but that was for making defenders look silly). But now we will get to see the Japanese born player this season as Ryo has been granted a work permit to play this season.


This is great news as the player brings pace, skill, and crossing ability as a natural winger. He's only eighteen but I believe he can be a force this season. But I think it's best he gets minutes on the pitch when we're two/three nil up with twenty-thirty minutes left just like Ronaldo used to for Manchester United in his early playing days. Wenger should unleash him to not be frightened to use his skill and pace for defenders to fear him, as any defender hates an attacker, especially with pace, running at them.


From complaining having no wingers in the past, we now have Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gervinho and now Miyachi. It's something we were missing for a while as we had no natural width. We may see an improvement.


Ryo has to await for the formalities of the paperwork to be complete for him to play his first official match for Arsenal.

Oxlade-Chamberlain Becomes Arsenal's Third Signing

Since Gervinho signed, Arsenal fans haven't had much to shout about, shout about being on a positive note. The drab performances in pre-season hasn't filled much confidence for the fans of the club and new blood hadn't been invested since the arrivals of both Carl Jenkinson and Gervinho.

With the Barclays Premier League only five days away from beginning away at St. James' Park on Tyneside, fans' worries grew as injuries to Vermaelen, Walcott, van Persie, Wilshere and those others 'injured' may miss the first game of the season.

We now have a new signing to bolster the squad a bit with seventeen year-old Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (I'm glad it's only Chamberlain on his shirt. Imagine Oxlade-Chamberlain on that back of his shirt!). He has had impressive performances for Southampton raising interest form all the top clubs, however Arsenal prevailed and got their man.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain holding his new clubs shirt

He can play on wither wing and as an attacking midfielder. This is great to hear as we can now put him and Gervinho on either wing and swap around, and now shift Walcott upfront. In Oxlade we have a natural dribbler with pace who get deliver a final ball and finish. A great prospect, as long as Wenger doesn't try to protect him.

I personally would've liked to have seen a more mature player, but I wouldn't be surprised if we pay over £10m (potentially). If he is a player with 'super quality' and can help us push further this season, then i welcome him with open arms.

Welcome to Arsenal FC Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain!

A Divorce Between the Fans and the Club

It seems ever since our move from Highbury to the Emirates, us loyal fans have had a slow divide between the board and manager. It seems the move to the Emirates just came before the economic crisis, which effectively made it more difficult for the fans to afford renewing their season tickets or memberships. The club however never decided to reduce the prices of their tickets for the economic downturn, only until VAT tax went down to 15% that they followed suit.


So the club kept on raking in large amounts of profit whilst loyal fans may not have afforded the price of a day out at their beloved team. In the 2008/09 season, people who had paid to see the likes of Denilson, Song (different player back then), Diaby, Bendtner, Eboue week in week out due to injuries and lack of investment, struggling for a win in every game in the winter period, fans started to raise their voices ever so slightly.


The cracks opened, and with cracks they'll always be more likely to get bigger and more noticeable. Back then we were in our 3rd season at the Emirates and we were expected to be settled by then after the year before we came close to winning the title before collapsing at the end (see a pattern?). The team needed investment for the new season and only Arshavin was brought in as a fix it, and that has been the only marquee signing in a while and he managed to help us secure a champions league spot.


The season after promised more yet again but we failed and the same last season. Every year passing by the team has been known to falter at the last hurdle and the opportunity of buying players with experience has arisen many times, yet Wenger is always after super quality.


What is super quality? The likes of Messi and Ronaldo are super quality. What Arsenal need is a just quality experienced players who know how to play their position and get stuck in. In other words a team player who will give their all. The fans know this and can see where we are going wrong with the players we have and ones we need.


This is why the fans moan and groan along with the ever increasing booing and demonstration/protests. It's not because they hate the club, it's because they care and the fans have become distanced with the disillusioned board and manager who aren't acting quick enough on transfers to secure the players we need. Peter Hill Wood isn't exactly helping matters between the relationship of the fans with the board by saying:




"As Arsene said, we are looking to buy some players but we are not going to do our business in public. They are going to have to be bloody patient – as we are."

“It is frustrating for both the fans and Arsene and the board."




Bloody patient? Manchester United have pretty much bought big signings this summer and they won the league last year with a not so great team and now they'll win it with the likes of De Gea and Ashley Young added.


The booing on Sunday just shows nothing has changed since last season apart from Gervinho giving us something to look forward to until he disappears to the African Cup of Nations. The chanting at Fulham away at the final game of last season, "Spend some f****** money!", shows what we haven't done this summer. All with below bar performances in all our pre-season matches this year, it shows no confidence for the season ahead.


Fans will start and most likely have started (like me) to wisely use their money for more useful purposes rather than on a club interested in making money and bringing in through kids. That project youth is now over and proven unsuccessful apart from Wilshere coming through and we should just go out and buy what we need.


Arsenal is just a frustrating club to support at the moment, and I believe we won't even make top 4 this season if we remain like this. Especially if Fabregas is sold, the last of our world class players would have left. The new Stadium has fed into greed from the board and left us fans separated, with us losing our club we used to love so dearly. Now I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a club we love to hate.