Both Teams Need the Points As The Magpies Come To Town
Dec 15th, 2017 by 'holic
A Saturday 3pm kick-off awaits the Gunners and Newcastle United this weekend, and I will miss out as I have an old friend’s birthday to celebrate shortly after the match finishes. It is a big match for both teams. The Arsenal need the points after being held in consecutive matches at Southampton and West Ham following the defeat by Manchester United. The Geordies can hear West Ham and Crystal Palace picking up some momentum and are in danger of dropping into the relegation zone.
Arsenal are without Aaron Ramsey and Theo Walcott in addition to the long-term absentee, Santi Cazorla. Jack Wilshere, restored to the starting line-up at West Ham, will be assessed before the manager makes his final decision on the team. If Skhodran Mustafi has fully recovered will he be returned to a back three? Sead Kolasinac will probably return at the expense of Ainsley Maitland Niles. Unless the versatile youngster, challenger for the man of the match award at West Ham, switches to the right-flank to afford Hector Bellerin a rest.
Hopefully Jack is passed fit to start alongside Granit Xhaka and linking up with Mesut Ozil as the creative hub of the team. It is likely that Alexandre Lacazette will return to the side with Alexis Sanchez joining him in attack. Arsene Wenger summed up what was expected of his charges,
“Maybe we have to speed up our passing and have more penetrating runs in the final third to create more chances. Maybe we need support for our central strikers in the box as well.”
The three points could be valuable. The three teams a point ahead of us are all on the road. Burnley and Liverpool travel to Brighton and Bournemouth respectively, while the neighbours face a daunting challenge at the Emptihad. More importantly though we need to recover positivity and confidence ahead of a big week with the Carabao Cup quarter-final on Tuesday and the visit of Liverpool on Friday night.
Newcastle’s squad is down to the bare bones after Shelvey’s red card against Everton on Wednesday night. Former young Gunner Isaac Hayden could be set to benefit as a result. The big striker Mitrovic is also missing adding for the team who are not quite averaging a goal per game in the Premier League. It is sobering to see that their tally of sixteen goals is just four less than us. (Edit, thank you TERS, I was looking at our goals conceded. We have in fact scored 14 more than them.) This match is a great opportunity to add to that total. The Geordies have just a solitary point from their last eight matches.
The ‘holic pound
I have to be a little bullish about this one. I am on 3-0 to the Arsenal at 15/2. Newcastle are vulnerable right now and we must take advantage of that fact.
So, to those going I hope that we produce a result that will make a chilly Saturday more bearable. The rest of us will hopefully find ways and means of watching how the match pans out, I’m sure.
As ever, have a great one Gooners.
45 Responses to “Both Teams Need the Points As The Magpies Come To Town”
Old friend’s birthday? It’s Jesus’s birthday next week, H. 🙂
Newcastle haven’t won a game since forever, so it looks nailed on for a defeat 😉
Have faith, Cynic. Three nil to the Gunners.
Should be more than three, in all honesty.
Is he having a party, Cynic?
The first game I get to make all season H and you are not there???
Something I’ve said???
?
Same rules as always. Which Arsenal team is going to show up? It needs to be one with a lot more pace and be a lot more decisive than the one that turned up midweek. We need more cutting edge and more width.
The Geordies will come to defend and look for a point. We need to tear them a new one. End of really.
I sincerely hope that LJW is fit to play. I’ve obviously missed something with Theo? Why is he not available?
If anyone is about pre match then it would be good to catch up in the Tolly.
I hope he is, H, his parties are usually nails.
Theo and Ramsey out injured in December. Who would have thought it?
I’m going tomorrow and your preview has got me much more enthusiastic than I was before Holic. I’m sure we will win and I’ve made Lacazette my Fantasy League Captain , a certain portent of disaster .
We have tge ability to go on a strong run now but it is vital we beat Liverpool .
I hope LJW plays and I’d be a bit experimental and pair him with AMN who did well at Left back on Wednesday.I’ve lost patience with Xhaka and Coquelin isn’t the answer. Time to step up lads!
Nice preview Guvna. Here’s hoping we start quickly, take a Scrooge-like approach to seasonal gifts and develop a taste for high scores. I think AMN would be a perfect MF partner for LJW in place of an unimpressive Xhaka and hope we stick with a back four but playing CBs at CB and a LB of your choice at LB.
If we can’t win this against a demoralised Newcastle outfit then we won’t get and don’t deserve a top four place.
COYG
Holic, Newcastle have scored 16 goals, yes, but we have scored 30 so far, not 20. You scared me so much with that, that I had to check!
Speaking of Issac Hayden, I leave the following article for the doctors in the bar. It made for an interesting read:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/dec/15/isaac-hayden-newcastle-arsenal-flamini-premier-league
If Wenger tries to thread his way through a massed defence
get ready for a quick NU breakout. In Gayle they have a
marauding speedster who caused Pool heartbreak when
the reds were closing in on the epl.
The problem with the fm is his emphasis on attack without
shoring up the defence.Since the fab 4/5 left, the defence has
been in tatters season after season.
Until the fm gets his defence in shape,get ready for more
disaster.
From an initial point of view, an LJW and AMN pairing in midfield works for me too.
I hope we might also pair AL and OG together up front. Goals will surely follow.
4-1 to the Arsenal.
UTA.
Which Arsenal gets picked to play will be more important than which Arsenal turns up, imo Steve. AW’s increasingly whimsical selections of late make predictions little more than guesswork.
Rambo and Theo crocked and Jack having to take a fitness test … who’da thunk it. 🙁
Bath, last drinks … Franklin Engleman*? I’ll see your ‘Jingle’ and raise you Wilfred Pickles!
* It’s Engelmann, btw. 😉
Don’t think we will start Jack twice
in 4 days.
Hopefully Kola and Laca back
Cheers Holic,
and TERS @9 – surprising and worrying in equal measure.
Here is a quote from that Guardian article –
“Hayden tells the story of his Arsenal debut at West Bromwich in September 2013 and how, after Wenger had named him in the squad but excluded him from the team shape drills, he assumed he would be a substitute. When he got to The Hawthorns, it was the kitman, Vic Akers, who told him he was starting. Wenger then dropped another bombshell; he would be in midfield. He had been used purely as a centre-half in training and, even after the game, in which Hayden played well, the manager continued to push him as a defender.”
So the kitman, not the manager, tells a young player he is making his debut, out of position in the Premier League. That is the worrying part.
The surprising part is that in 2013 they actually did “team shape drills” before a match. I can’t honestly recall it showing.
The whole thing sounds terribly haphazard, from the approach to a young player needing to make an impression on his away, and later home, debuts, to the initial injury assessment, treatment and diagnosis – which appear unfortunately to have been undertaken in that order.
More recently we have seen Maitland-Niles and Reiss Nelson introduced to first team action in unaccustomed positions. We see Ramsey used centrally and wide right, similarly Ozil centrally and wide left: Abou Diaby spent as much time trying to play left wing as he did in the middle: ditto The Greatest Striker That Ever Lived: Francis Coquelin was thrown into defensive midfield as a panic measure in an injury crisis – and so on and so on …….
Wenger says today that we can’t compete with Manchester City because we have ideas but they have ideas and petrol.
He is right, of course, but there seems to be plenty of room for us to buck our ideas up a bit.
Interesting article thanks TERS.
Arsenal starting XI: Cech, Bellerin, Koscielny, Monreal, Maitland-Niles, Xhaka, Wilshere, Iwobi, Ozil, Sanchez, Lacazette.
Laca back for OG but Ash MN keeps
his place in the same defence.
Jack does play again as does Iwobi.
Ash MN keeps his place in the same defence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjw3O7XiyDA
🙂 Cynic
Seems odd to me too, leaving a
left back on the bench.
Good to see AW rewarding AMN and LJW for their good performances against Wet Spam.
I suppose so bt8 and I hope they
both play blinders!
I’d still have picked Kola though
It doesn’t seem to be the good
Arsenal today 🙁
I suppose it’s a bit early
storming from Ash!
About fuckin time Mesut
Ozil!!!!
brilliant!!
Luuuverly!!!
Bellerin’s crossing and pass weight is shite
steady on Isaac, leave those ankles
alone
seems to be the same as the
first half. Another goal would
be handy.
Or instead we could fuck around
in our area
Time to bring OG on,
alexis or iwobi off
What Alexis brings to this team these days is a mystery to me
Osaka is Iwobi still on the pitch?
Not now he isn’t.
Not his day or Laca’s either.
We still need a goal
Had to score
Does anyone keep statistics on “at’em” shots? Aresenal must lead the league in that department.
Alexis just doesnt involve Laca that much
Scary defending again. Came close to conceding on more than one occasion.
I stand corrected, his sliding block was great ?
Alexis and Sanchez give away the ball so often, it is scandalous.
Very unconvincing performance but three points in the bag thanks to Ozil’s well taken goal.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
3 points, a great goal and another
clean sheet.
Back up to 4th for now.