Arsenal Show They Can Win Ugly

Match Review: Arsenal 1 Newcastle 0 - Premier League 02.01.16

Arsenal welcomed in 2016 with a horrible, ugly win over Newcastle. In terms of performance, we were pretty awful and the team looked incredibly tired. But in terms of winning a title, it’s the sort of win that is invaluable. Everyone, the players and manager included, knows that we were terrible and yet we still have three points and a two point lead at the top.

Arsene Wenger reverted his team to the eleven that got wins over City and Villa, with the exception of Chamberlain, who kept his place in the team over Joel Campbell. It was a bit of a surprise to most, as Campbell has been very good of late and seems to offer more to the team than the out of form Chamberlain. Flamini recovered from injury to take Chambers’ spot in midfield and Monreal and Koscielny came back in to give us our first choice back four.

The first ten minutes were excellent from us and it looked as if we’d tear into Newcastle. With only a minute and half on the clock, Bellerin had a golden opportunity, sprinting in behind and trying to square to Chamberlain, but he over hit it and Chamberlain could only skew wide. We looked very dangerous, slicing through the Newcastle back line, but couldn’t find the end product. Then, for some unknown reason, all the energy fizzled out. The passing got sloppy, the play got slow and Cech was making all the saves. The new Premier League record holder had to produce three or four saves in the first half, none of which were particularly difficult, but showed that Newcastle were getting some joy while we were faltering. In the end I think most of us were glad we got to half time at 0-0.

There was no improvement as the second half started, as we gave the ball away cheaply in midfield and allowed Wijnaldum a one on one with Cech. Fortunately for us, Cech made an excellent save and we survived. At the other end we were only managing half chances and if anything Newcastle looked the more dangerous side. It didn’t help that our shape looked poor throughout the game and the old problem of having no-one to pass to came back to haunt us. The amount of times Özil looked up to find no options and no-one even making a slight effort to provide help was infuriating. Far too often the players seemed to be happy for the person on the ball to have responsibility and not take it on themselves.

Fittingly, it was a scrappy goal from a corner that broke the deadlock. A lot of credit has to go to Giroud, as he was switched on and determined enough that when the corner was headed straight up in the air, he reacted and beat Coloccini to flick the ball on. Perez went to sleep at the back post and Koscielny stole in behind to prod the ball past Elliot. Not exactly against the run of play, but also not a goal we hugely deserved.

With another twenty minutes to go, it wasn’t plain sailing to the end either. Newcastle continued to look threatening and we continued to look shaky, with Mitrovic and Wijnaldum both coming close to equalisers. We also failed to kill the game off on the break, with Ramsey in particular showing great skill to leave two defenders for dead but then put his shot wide of the post. The final whistle was a blessed relief when it came after a very stressful ninety minutes.

Despite the win, I am concerned with what I saw in this game. Wenger said before the game that the five days rest we got before the game should be enough to recover for a game. Yet against Southampton and in this game, when we’ve had five days between games, we’ve looked absolutely spent. We also looked like we were lacking that fire and determination to go and win the game. A lot of jokes are made about the British reverence of ‘passion’ and ‘getting stuck in’ and rightly so, but passion and determination are a vital part of a title winning side. Mitrovic in particular bullied us physically, he won nearly every ball played up to him and we never really got to grips with him. Newcastle aren’t the most physical of sides and if they can bully us, Stoke will absolutely destroy us at their place again.

The boys deserve a lot of credit for scraping the win and not giving up though. However badly we played, that win still counts for as much as smashing United 3-0 and if scrappy 1-0 wins take us to the title I won’t complain one bit. But we all know that we won’t get away with that sort of performance every time, just look at the Southampton game. Winning ugly is a great ability to have, but consistently better performances will be needed to win the league.

Teams

Arsenal (4-2-3-1)
Cech, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Flamini (Y), Ramsey, Chamberlain (Campbell 68’), Özil (Y), Walcott (Gibbs 81’), Giroud (Chambers 89’)
Subs
Ospina, Chambers, Gibbs, Gabriel, Iwobi, Campbell, Reine-Adelaide

Newcastle (4-5-1)
Elliot, Janmaat (Y), Coloccini, Mbemba, Dummett, Sissoko, Tiote (de Jong 87’), Colback (Y) (Thauvin 79’), Wijnaldum, Perez, Mitrovic
Subs
Darlow, Lascelles, Thauvin, Toney, Mbabu, Gouffran, de Jong

Player Ratings

Cech - 9/10 - Man of the match, made vital saves to keep his 171st PL clean sheet
Bellerin - 7/10 - Caused problems down the flank, has to watch his back post better
Mertesacker - 7/10 - Solid enough
Koscielny - 7/10 - Loves scoring vital goals, challenged by Mitrovic though
Monreal - 6/10 - Had a terrible first half, pulled it back in the second though
Flamini - 7/10 - Did well, needs to keep his head better though
Ramsey - 6/10 - Still giving the ball away far too much and a bit positionally suspect
Chamberlain - 6/10 - Showed flashes of talent, but still making some terrible decisions
Özil - 7/10 - A quiet game for him and he still created the most chances
Walcott - 6/10 - Anonymous, struggling for consistency since coming back from injury
Giroud - 7/10 - An important contribution for the goal
Subs
Campbell - 7/10 - Proved again why he should be starting over Chamberlain
Gibbs - N/A
Chambers - N/A

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