Morning all.
Haven’t seen the game yet, nor the highlights so can’t comment on anything other than how good it is to kick the season off with a victory. An away one at that which is something we struggled to achieve last season. Another bonus is Chambers and AMN being part of a defence which kept a clean sheet, something else we struggled to do during Unai Emery’s first season.
Willock and Nelson in the starting eleven was another nice surprise and as Unai Emery said after the game, it was no more than they deserved after such a positive pre-season.
I have seen our goal. A cracker it was too. Newcastle we’re trying to break down the left but AMN read the play well and nipped in to steal the ball. He drove forward at pace, looked up and saw Aubameyang before playing in a well placed cross. One touch from Aubameyang, followed by a cheeky chip over their keeper. That was enough to secure the three points.
Martinelli, Pepe and Ceballos made their league debuts from the bench. A little taster perhaps before starting in front of their own fans next weekend. Our other new signing Luiz had to settle for being a spectator which is understandable. Pepe and Luiz arrived late in the window so they need more time training with their new teammates and to familiarise themselves with the way Emery wants the team to play. I doubt it’ll take them long though.
There was no sign of Mustafi yesterday. Not even on the substitutes bench and he hadn’t been named on the pre-match injury list either. If that alone doesn’t get tongues wagging then Unai Emery’s post match comments about his defence will.
On having many senior defenders missing and the performance of Chambers…
Really, last year for Calum Chambers was a very good year because he played all the matches with Fulham. They played him as centre-back in a three, in a two and they played him as a midfielder. From pre-season, he deserved to play today in the first XI and he was very focused and with Sokratis was also very serious.
I want to have very competitive players in each position. With David Luiz, with Holding when he is coming back to help us, with training regularly and playing with the under-23s because he will play again tomorrow. And with Hector Bellerin, one month more. Today we also had Sead out and the injury to Kieran Tierney. I think we can and will want to become stronger defensively, but above all being one offensive team.
Not a mention of our German central defender which surely means he’ll be gone by the time the other European Leagues transfer windows close.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Mesut Ozil depart either, or Kolasinac, not after what they’ve been through and are still going through. Not only were they involved in that awful carjacking incident a few weeks ago but have since had threats made against them, their families and their homes. So much so, 24 hour security has been put in place. Reports in the media suggest Kolasinac’s wife has already left the country because of what’s going on and neither player is ready to return to the game.
Arsenal said on Friday the players had been left out of Sunday’s squad following “further security incidents which are being investigated by the police”. “The welfare of our players and their families is always a top priority and we have taken this decision following discussion with the players and their representatives,” the club said.
Two have been arrested for that ‘further incident’ which is alleged to have taken place outside Ozil’s family home, with the court hearing set for next month.
Must be a frightening time for both families and I for one wouldn’t blame or begrudge either if they wanted out of London and out of England for good.
Catch up in the comments guys..
Good morning Rico and thanks for the post.
As Kev said, in the early hours, “Not a show stopping start but promising”.
What a pitiable situation for a once great side like Newcastle to be in. We crib about our owner but he is in a different universe to that occupied by Mike Ashley.
Rather than an exciting first match of a new Premiership season, yesterday’s game was more like a gentle pre-season workout apart, that is, from one or two spiteful challenges from Shelvey and a couple of his mates.
Our new defensive pairing of Chambers and Sokratis will come under much greater scrutiny in the future, but they showed a calmness and discipline so often lacking when Mustafi, and to an extent, Koscielny played in tandem. With Luiz in the wings and Holding approaching full fitness I’m more confident that we have overcome the worst of the defensive problems which were part of Wenger’s legacy.
Goodmorning Rico and everyone, it was a great game yesterday, keeping a clean sheet away from home something we managed to do just once in the league last season. Lot of positives from chambers to matland Niles, to auba’s superb finish etc, and some few negatives from xhaka’s terrible forward play and the flop of the match(mhiki). Still grateful for the 3 points anyways.
Good Morning rico and the House.
Can’t dissagree with most, saying it was a dull game, but we got the desired result.
Three points, clean sheet and away win. Made my egg, bacon and beans go down a treat this morning.
Leno showed calmness and a secure pair of hands.
Monreal, our captain for the day, didn’t venture much going forward, but showed his experience. Keeping the seat hot for Kieran Tierney.
Sokratis and Chambers worked well in tandem. Solid display from our CB pairing.
AMN, whilst still showing naivety and inexperience at full back when defending, done well going forward and supplied an exquisite pass to Aubameyang to open the scoring.
Xhaka. Simply was Xhaka, plenty of sideways passing and usual clumsiness in the tackle. How this guy keeps his place is an absolute mystery to me.
Guendozi. Young, keen and enthusiastic. Still green behind the ears in the premier league. Here’s hoping he will continue to progress and come of age whilst getting plenty of playing time under UE.
Willock. A personal favourite of mine!! for one so young and new to the premiership, shows desire, skill and drive to our midfield. Forward thinking most of the time.
Nelson. Surely a future star in this Arsenal team. He has trickery, pace and youth.
Mihkatarian. I’m sure he is only filling in whilst others get up to speed (at least I hope so) Along with Xhaka he has to step aside and make way for many others in the Arsenal squad who have more skills in their small toes than these guys. I wished UE would tell him what colour we are playing in before the game, OR, is he colour blind?
Aubameyang. Class, Class, Class. Nuff said.
The futures bright, the futures Red, the futures ARSENAL.
COYG
Morning all.
1-0 to the Arsenal! You just can’t beat a bit of nostalgia, can you? But I recall many games against the toon, invariably 0-0 or 1-1 or 1-0 never many goals and never ever much excitement! Yesterday’s game was a real throw back to the 60s and 70s.
Solid performance by UEs team and good to see the juniors make good. I wonder how many bruises Willock will have this morning care of a very spiteful Ritchie? On balance Willock won! Nelson too got knocked about a bit. Welcome to the EPL.
Defensively we seemed very much in control, but to be fair, Newcastle didn’t really offer much in the way of troubling our goalkeeper. Harder games to come I think.
Still a solid start but never a game to get you out of or even on the edge of your seat. Imo.
VCC, didn’t I see Xhaka leading the team out for the kick off?
Good Morning to The Lady of the House and all fellow Gooners in residence.
Not an exciting game, but one with a few negatives and many positives. Chief among the positives is we started with three teenagers who came through our academy and they all did their jobs well, They will only get better as they gain experience from more playing time.
AMN went some way to redeeming himself from the disasterous pass back own goal in our previous game. He read the situation well, nicked the ball and made an incisive diagonal pass for Aubameyang to run onto and score.
I don’t understand why Unai took Nelson off and left Mkhitaryan on, as he was ineffective at best.
We looked much better when we played more direct. Hopefully with a little more time to adjust to our and the PL game Cebellos & Pepe and with the return of Lacazette we’ll be faster in the transition. Luiz should also help this as he is good at moving the ball out of the backfield.
At the end of the day we came away with a win on our opening game, 3 points, a clean sheet and no injuries other than some bruises. Not the best start to the season, but a promising one. At least we were not humbled like Chelsea away at Old Toilet.
Good post Rico, thanks for your work, now you deserve to put your feet up and have a rest.
Here is Essex it’s raining, but that’s great for the garden and if it rains all day good for me!
It rained on Newcastle’s parade yesterday and Arsenal comfortably beat them in quite a low key encounter.
They have off field issues.
We have injury issues and new players to gradually integrate.
But I’ll take our first clean sheet of the season thank you very much whilst not forgetting that yesterday was the first time the Sokratis and Chambers played as a pair in a meaningful game.
The dovetailed perfectly, in fact it’s quite possible that Chambers (or maybe VAR) was a calming influence on Sokratis?
We defended with almost Mertesaker’ish composure.
Cicero, Sorry buddy…….was it Xhaka as captain? my mistake.
He’s still useless though. 😉
A decent win yesterday that I think we deserved. I feel for Newcastle fans looking forward to a season of Steve Bruce’s tedious tactics.
Guendouzi impressed me with a dose of maturity that was lacking last season. Mikhi was awful and I can’t remember a single game he has played for us when he has made the difference. To be earning what he does for doing so little makes him one of the luckiest footballers anywhere in my book. There’s surely no future in Xhaka. Already he seems like a footballer from a past age playing in slow motion while committing senseless fouls.
VAR had its opening weekend too. It might be good at deciding offsides but, watching the Spurs v Villa game I couldn’t help but notice serial cheat, thug and self-confessed man with mental issues, Danny Rose drag a breaking Grealish down behind the back of the dim witted referee. It was a clear card. The ref missed it because he is an inadequate twat, but the VAR ref saw it for sure. Nothing was done. If VAR is going to content itself with working out if a player’s arm is in an ‘unnatural’ position and ignore blatant fouls by horrible players like Rose and by definition, not protect players from off the ball violence, then the authorities have to think again.
Oh and congratulations to Sokratis for not leaving his customary mark on his opponents, presumably because of the presence of VAR. I doubt he will receive leniency that Rose did.
Hi everyone. .. 1 nil to the Arsenal never a bad thing. Always nice to the passion from the kids too. On a different note, any one think Luiz could do a holding midfield job for us? He’s far from being my favourite defender, full of mistakes, follows players into midfield too much, leaving gaps in behind…. However, he is tall, aggressive, good on on the ball, a neat passer and more mobile the Xacka. .. surely if (and when) he makes mistakes it’s better to do it with a defence behind covering… just saying, not seen enough of him to make a positive decision for myself just thought I’d put it out there.
Well said Adam, I’m still trying to work out how we got, what was it, 3 or was it 4 yellow cards and Newcastle got 1…
Our players were getting kicked regularly but that tosser Atkinson ignored it but whipped his card out like a poker player playing his winning ace whenever an Arsenal player transgressed.
VAR is revolutionary but we still have the same idiots operating it..
Ha ha that post has my name on it… always used to say Strangeman!
In the excitement of our game I noticed VAR was not referred to once! Not sure what that says about the game!
Very good Post, Rico, mucho gratias!! 😁
Adam, we are stuck with VAR and the football authorities are not going to admit that they’ve bought a turkey. The same bunch of incompetents are running the system, John Moss was in charge for one of the games at the weekend and, no doubt, will be back n the pitch with another of his colleagues in the elite referees group in the control room. They are not going to make their mates look bad, now are they?
I freely admit that I was sceptical about VAR from the beginning, I was and still am, in favour of the goal-line technology but most of the decisions being made under VAR are too subjective to be consistently accurate.
One simple thing will obviate the contentious offside line calls where the margin is measured in millimetres, for want of a better name I”ll call I “Referees Decision”. As in cricket, where the margin is so small, the umpire’s decision stands. In an LBW appeal If the ball is hitting the wickets by less than half the circumference of the ball the original decision is upheld. This rules out any slight inaccuracies in the VAR line judgements.
Incidentally, if the referee hasn’t seen an offence, VAR has no part to play because the ref hasn’t made a “clear or obvious error”.
Wavy, in one report I read VAR was used to see if Aubameyang was offside when scoring, but he wasn’t and as far as I can make out the ref did not request the check.
Kev you really must enjoy the leisure of a country gentleman in the bountiful and wet county of Essex!! 😳
I took one look and saw the ref was Atkinson and thought he would manage to wangle a dodgy goal for the Bar Codes and deny us a victory, and maybe a defeat. I really do not like the man’s refereeing.
With so many players injured or being kept away for security reasons, and the newbies being slowly brought along, and a very young team playing, I guess an away game with Newcastle, altho often tricky, was a good season opener for us.
A dull game? Not for me. I kept my fingers crossed for the 3 points, a clean sheet, an away win, and Atkinson deciding not to award Newcastle a goal, for whatever flimsy reason, kept me very interested from start to finish.
More!!!!! 😜
Hi VCC,
I particularly enjoyed your comment — and given half a chance — I would have enjoyed your bacon, egg and beans too.
Your match analysis could just as easily have been mine too — great minds ……….. 🤪
I appreciate that VAR leaves many fans unhappy — and altho I do not want to be drawn in to an irreconcilable debate, I am drawn to the application of VAR, provided it is properly administered — which is perhaps asking too much of the VAR refs.
The major downside to all “Video refereeing’ for me, would be yelling with delight when we score a goal, only to be held in limbo while an off field ref decides whether the goal should be allowed to stand, or not.
But there is an upside to that too.
If our team score a goal – and VAR proves it was ‘good’ we get the chance to cheer twice. Yay!!
Alternatively, if the other team score against us in a tight game, and we are totally peed off, until VAR kicks in, and disallows it — then we get both the miseries 😩 and finally a great cheer 👍👍 when we hear we are not 1:0 down (or whatever) after all.
There was a lot of misgivings when tennis, cricket, rugby union and rugby league first introduced their versions of video refs — but it is all taken for granted now — and if the useless umpiring in the 1st England v Australia game is anything to go by, it was a blessing that the reffing errors did not artificially ruin the game, thanks to the video.(Altho the Aussies still won).
And let’s face it — no VAR, in football, and we are back to the crap and very subjective decisions of some questionable referees, or linesmen, and that has happened too often over the years.
Just an opinion.
Evening Rico and the House,
The u23’s start the season tonight away to Blackburn.
I understand that Rob Holding and ESM are both in the squad
more later
Do you mean ESR ?
Nice one Rico.
Must admit when I saw the team sheet I would have taken any win by the skin of our teeth.
Always nice to put Steve Bruce`s nose out of joint .
Hi Reg,
It should have read ESR.
It was his first game for us since last December.
Rob Holding did start and played 65 mins before an agreed sub.
ESR also agreed sub on 45mins.
Tonightsv team captained by Robbie Burton who is the only
player in the team who played in the final game last season.
Its 1-1 after 70mins
That’s happened many times in the past by the look of his boat race Le Coq. 😉
wonder full to hear that Holding is back to playing again, I’m sure that he has a great future ahead of him. I would like to see him and Chambers together, they could be the bed-rock of our defence in the future.
What a Finish.
Balogun scored in the 84th and 90th min to complete hat trick
All 3goals were pens and he was brought down for all of them
They just cannot cope with his speed
That must be some kind of record, three penalties scored and won by the same player. Get him in the first team quick, it’s just what we need.
Red, I am far too common to ever be considered a country gentleman.
But I have been known to do gentlemanly things such as give up my seat for a lady or hold open a door for someone.
What part of the United States are you from?
Rick, the development of young players tends to run in cycles and we seem to be at one of those periods, following a successful group of youngsters, when our academy teams are rather young.
Good one, Rico. Never boring, always a stimulating viewpoint.
I sat on the edge of the settee for the 94minutes expecting “The Bar Codes”, I like that RA, to conjure up a last minute equaliser.
1-0 to the Gunners. Great goal.
Still lots of passing back and sideways and, having watched the Man Utd match afterwards was reminded that our passing was laboured and TOO SLOW!
Mkhi ineffective, Xhaka ponderous and clumsy with his tackles.
Wolves v Leicester – can somebody explain to me the definition of “handball” in football?
It HAS TO BE DELIBERATE! It seems that the current crop of referees think if the ball strikes the arm, well that’s conclusively “handball.
Utter rubbish!
Just gone 11 here, time for lights out shortly
Morning all.
RA, VAR/Video Ref is good in theory but can be overused, imo, or at least used in instances it shouldn’t.
Rugby League in Oz has had it for maybe 15 years, but they still can’t get it right.
Every year, they change the way it’s utilised and I reckon most fans would be well rid of it, but if the FA and FIFA use it the right way, it could be brilliant.
It’s more suited to cricket and tennis, , though, as it’s better in a stop start game, where football is much more free flowing, so any stoppages are more noticeable.
It’s also less subjective In those sports, which helps.
There’ll be some instances where we’ll be glad it’s there, and others when we wish it wasn’t.
Hopefully, the good outweighs the bad.
at 5:16, I am with you. I really don’t see why and how a “true fan- antic” doesn’t like VAR. In my opinion, if it gets one decision right for the entire season it’s worth it. I will never forget Ronaldinho offside goal against us in Champions League Final. On the selfish level, Arsenal has been on the wrong side of so many wrong refereing decisions, let’s give VAR a chance.
Hi Rick Thanks and thanks for the info the game. Sounds like it went OK
Well said, Obi.
Most fans would agree with what you say, particularly the Ronaldinho offside, but it is the mechanics of the system fans don’t like.
For example, everyone in rugby (UK) accepts that a try, for example would be disallowed, if any part of the foot touched the sideline before the ‘try’, even if it is only the toe of the boot on the line.
But something that upsets the ex-footballers, in particular, in football commentaries is that a VAR check for offside is ridiculed for disallowing a goal like the Man City (Jesus) goal because part of Sterling’s shoulder was ‘offside’. That’s not the fault of VAR — the offside rules are set by FIFA, all the VAR is doing is applying those laws.
The on-field or the off-field refs cannot say, “that was a great move, for a wonderful goal, so we will allow it even though it was offside according to Law 11.”
One pundit said it was ridiculous that the goal was disallowed because Sterling’s armpit was offside.
Law 11 states,– “a player is in an offside position if any of their body parts, except the hands and arms are etc, etc.
Maybe some of these ‘experts’ need anatomy lessons – the armpit would not have been offside. 😁
ScottfromOz,
You make a good pint. I watch a lot of Rugby Union, and Rugby League, and there is very little problem with the Video ref, especially because the fans know what is going on, as the on-field and off-field discussion between the refs is broadcaast to the fans.
Maybe that should be the case in football.
Hi Kev, morning to you.
Wichita, Kansas.
Andorrabyte,
I am not too keen on the changes brought in to the ‘handball’ rule.
In the past I used to query how the ref would know if a handball was deliberate, or not, as no one can read someone’ else’s mind to know if it was an accident or deliberate. This was quietly ignored and the ref could ‘interpret’ what he saw.
This latest FIFA version of tLaw 12 does away with the need to know it was ‘deliberate’ and if the ball strikes the hand, for whatever reason — it is a foul. ——— Except — there is some guidance given by the PGMOL, about natural or unnatural body positions involving the hand/arm etc — and that makes this a foul open to the ref’s subjective opinion, and I think will cause far more controversy than the VAR business.
From what Dermot Gallagher said yesterday RA, your interpretation of the handball is not quite right. A goal will not be awarded if during the buildup, there is a handball. Deliberate or not.
Hello everyone, thanks re the comments on the post yesterday.
New post up now and it’s Kevs so it’ll be even better…. 😇
Scott likes a good pint… 😀