Newcastle United 1 - 2 Arsenal

To sum up the game using one tired cliche: it was a game of two halves.

Arsenal could have been, and given the quality of the chances on offer, should have been out of sight by half-time. Giroud scored twice but both came from set-pieces. The chances made from open play were all squandered, with two falling to Welbeck, who's end product is completely deserting him right now, and the other to Ramsey who thought today would be a good day to fall back into bad habits and take too many touches of the ball.

One of my more common criticisms of this Arsenal team is it's lack of ruthlessness. With the way Newcastle were playing in the first half, it felt like any decent ball in behind would open them up but Arsenal either simply lacked the right final pass or tried to overcomplicate it in the final third. Typically, this often came from Ramsey and Giroud trying intricate one-two's on the edge of Newcastle's box, and a stubborn refusal to play a first time cross.

Still, 2-0 at half-time was a good scoreline and something to build on. However, I don't think anybody anticipated what would happen in the second half.

Newcastle came out a completely different team; Arsenal, for those first five minutes, looked like they were still in the dressing room. Some very lax defending, where Coquelin allowed Cabella to drift in behind him and somebody didn't track Sissoko into the box - gave Sissoko the chance to get a goal back early on, and from there it was completely one way traffic. Newcastle were the first to everything and our defence barely held together under the pressure.

Our situation wasn't helped at all by an inability to keep our composure and play accurate passes in midfield. Coquelin and Flamini were the worst culprits for this, and for the first time in a while I genuinely missed Arteta. Ozil, too, was a miss. In this situation it's very useful to have a couple of level-headed players on the field who know how to keep the ball and calm things down.

Our ability to get up the pitch and relieve the pressure was hindered by mid-week's exertions in Monaco, and so, around the 60th minute mark, Wenger brought on Flamini and Rosicky for Cazorla and Alexis (both played 90 in mid-week) and looked to defend what we had. That's always a risky move to make because of the amount of pressure the team ends up coming under, and there were some very nervy moments at the back, not least Koscielny fouling Cabella in the box, and our full-backs' struggling against Newcastle's pace.

So I suppose it shows good spirit to see out the win in spite of everything. In the end, it's another win (six consecutive win in the league now) that keeps us a good distance away from Soton and Spurs, who both won today, in touch with City, who won earlier, and puts pressure on United and Liverpool tomorrow.

The international break awaits us next week. As always, there'll be a healthy number of Gunners on duty, so fingers crossed everybody comes back safely ahead of a trying run of fixtures, starting with Liverpool at the Emirates.

Summed it up nicely Jay.

I think fatigue definitely played a role

Hard to reconcile that these were the same sides from one half to the other. Tip of the hat to those bastards at Newcastle, that was a tenacious and inspired attempt to fight back. They looked good, Cabella and Sissoko and Ayoze causing problems ...

Our first half was really sharp though, at least. Coquelin: beautiful. Giroud: can't fault him -- though it does seem like he and Ramsey get in each other's way a little more than they should by now, no? Welbeck ... ehh. He's got so many good qualities but his finishing and his final ball too often let him down. It's what keeps him from jumping up to that next level. He's still young enough to improve though.

Özil was completely missing from this game, tho #Flop #WengerOut

Second half in gif form::

Thank God(olski) we held on there. We looked very 'jaded' in the second half. Hopefully this doesn't happen when we play Liverpool.

I thought the refereeing was terrible today. Two times we were in on goal and wrongly got called offside while Newcastle should have had a penalty. Tackles were flying in all over the pitch throughout the game as well without any of them being punished with a card.

Special praise for Giroud. On one hand, I'd still like a striker, but if he plays like this and stays fit then there is no need for one. Best striker in the league right now along with Kane. Ospina was also very assured when under a lot of pressure.

Game of two halves indeed.

Like I said elsewhere, We didn't have the energy to match Newcastle for 90 minutes. United away, Monaco away and now Newcastle away. 3 tough games and we were just hanging out towards the end.

Great performance by Giroud though.

Next three games in the PL are Liverpool(H), Burnley(A) and Chelsea(H)

Chelsea is a default defeat. Liverpool could be a draw and Burnley can go either way depending on how much Burnley are desperate.

We need 4 points from those 3 games at minimum. 6 would be great. 9 would be unreal.

You should all be disgusted that you didn't thrash our shite shower of a team especially with that defense.

Wenger Out.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:You should all be disgusted that you didn't thrash our shite shower of a team especially with that defense.

Wenger Out.

.

We need a break, but NOT an INTERNATIONAL BREAK

Well some of the lads do get a break - just not the top stars called up for NT duty.

Ameobi was strutting around our players like the bastard love child of prime Vieira and Figo It was very emotional to watch