Match Reaction vs Newcastle (away).

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Originally Posted by Jeebus

:lol:

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I do like Giroud but infuriates me so much his failure to convert chances, not so much today (although he really should have scored again after Walcott's effort was cleared off the line) but in the last three premiership matches he has missed a hatful of chances and you can't afford to do that at this level.

Was never going to be easy today, I do love how Pardew has never got a win over us as Newcastle Manager....but they are a good side....Tiote and Anita were in our faces from the first minute.....they have beaten Chelsea, United...got a draw against Liverpool despite playing most of the game with ten men....definitely our best away win of the season in the league.

I only watched the first 40 minutes but it sounds like the rest of the game was more of the same. But the result is all that matters in tricky away games like this and another win is vital for our confidence.

http://scontent-a-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/h...89338245_n.jpg


Dressing room picture after today's game, posted by BFG on his Facebook

Rosicky ##

Sign him up Wenger ##

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Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie

I do like Giroud but infuriates me so much his failure to convert chances, not so much today (although he really should have scored again after Walcott's effort was cleared off the line) but in the last three premiership matches he has missed a hatful of chances and you can't afford to do that at this level.

Was never going to be easy today, I do love how Pardew has never got a win over us as Newcastle Manager....but they are a good side....Tiote and Anita were in our faces from the first minute.....they have beaten Chelsea, United...got a draw against Liverpool despite playing most of the game with ten men....definitely our best away win of the season in the league.

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He's not good enough for a team with ambitions of winning the league IMO, he scored today but it would have been harder to miss and then he went on the miss an absolute sitter, by passing across goals rather than shooting at it.

He's done OK this season, but he won't score enough goals and in reality has offered little or no threat in the last few games, striker is a must in January if we're serious about the league, could use a genuine wide man too if we can find one.

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Originally Posted by Özim

He's not good enough for a team with ambitions of winning the league IMO, he scored today but it would have been harder to miss and then he went on the miss an absolute sitter, by passing across goals rather than shooting at it.

He's done OK this season, but he won't score enough goals and in reality has offered little or no threat in the last few games, striker is a must in January if we're serious about the league, could use a genuine wide man too if we can find one.

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Usually I'd agree with this. I can't recall the last PL winning team who didn't have a world class striker up front: Drogba, Henry, Rooney, RVN, RVP, Rooney/Ronaldo, Shearer etc etc.

However records and standards are there to be broken. Bayern won the treble last season and they had Mandzukic up front, who despite being a good player who I rate, isn't someone I'd put in the world class bracket. It can be done.

Top top top quality result. Very tough game to play especially missing Ozil and Ramsey. Newcastle will (and already have) take points off good teams this season.

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Originally Posted by The Emirates Gallactico

Usually I'd agree with this. I can't recall the last PL winning team who didn't have a world class striker up front: Drogba, Henry, Rooney, RVN, RVP, Rooney/Ronaldo, Shearer etc etc.

However records and standards are there to be broken. Bayern won the treble last season and they had Mandzukic up front, who despite being a good player who I rate, isn't someone I'd put in the world class bracket. It can be done.

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True but Bayern have Ribery and Robben two of the best players around, they also had a number of other players who scored 10 or so goals and Mueller as well who scored 23 goals, they have threats all over the pitch.

I doubt that goal will restore Giroud's confidence. It was a great free kick. He'll still be thinking about that chance he messed up.

Top of the league for the new year. Hard to argue with that, much improved performance so far this season.

Uncharacteristically, I agree with Zimm.
I like Giroud but he's not at the level of a striker who I can see leading the line in a title winning side.,

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Originally Posted by Letters To Santa

Uncharacteristically, I agree with Zimm.
I like Giroud but he's not at the level of a striker who I can see leading the line in a title winning side.,

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He's lead the line in a side that has us top at the half-way stage.

Besides, he's integral to our shape and the way we set up. He's done well.

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Originally Posted by Letters To Santa

Uncharacteristically, I agree with Zimm.
I like Giroud but he's not at the level of a striker who I can see leading the line in a title winning side.,

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Definitely not, good squad player but not good enough to be leading the line out for us game in game out....i certainly want to see more of Podolski who i think is a much more clinical finisher than Giroud as evidenced by thursday's game at West Ham.
A striker in January is a must even if it's a loan signing

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Originally Posted by 'Coca Cola presents GP'

He's lead the line in a side that has us top at the half-way stage.

Besides, he's integral to our shape and the way we set up. He's done well.

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He started well but has tailed off, somewhat

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/ol...82442.html#GB1

All strikers have dips here and there but he needs to get going again. The goal vs Spurs shows he can get the odd goal in a tight game (Spurs defence was notoriously mean at the start of the season and that was a great goal), he needs to do it more consistently.

Also does anyone know when Ramsey and Ozil are back....Cazorla needs to be dropped he's just not playing well...problem is like all our midfielders he operates best from the centre and not being stuck wide left and he stinks at it.

Addendum: IMO the Chelsea game showed where he's not good enough. He had 1 really good chance and put it wide. I accept that will happen to any striker but really world class ones will get you that goal in a game like that where chances are few and far between. Like I said, he did it against Spurs so he can do it but not consistently enough.

Think his form will pick up again now that at least one of Podolski and Walcott should be around. He can only do good things where he takes one touch. With a few runners around him he can link up better.

That said he was also playing very well without Podolski and Walcott, and the team record shows that. With a bit of tiredness creeping in, the introduction of good goalscorers around him can only help him.

He's no good on the wing (Cazorla) and thought he looked best when moving towards the middle to link up with Rosicky. Wilshere was bad also. He wasn't playing at the right tempo a all game. Wenger may need to tinker with the side a little.

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Originally Posted by 'Coca Cola presents GP'

He's lead the line in a side that has us top at the half-way stage.

Besides, he's integral to our shape and the way we set up. He's done well.

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This.

Amazingly though (or not) it's a fact that has passed most GW's by.

Nothing wrong with Giroud, he's just dropped in form but he'll pick it up again soon.
No one will be comlianing when he's scoring again.

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Originally Posted by Jeebus

No one will be comlianing when he's scoring again.

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people are complaining when we are top of the league. they will be complaining even if he scores a hatrick every game. are you new here?

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Originally Posted by Letters To Santa

Addendum: IMO the Chelsea game showed where he's not good enough. He had 1 really good chance and put it wide. I accept that will happen to any striker but really world class ones will get you that goal in a game like that where chances are few and far between. Like I said, he did it against Spurs so he can do it but not consistently enough.

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it was by no means an easy chance though.

For a start he had to hit it on the bounce, normally yes, a top striker would have hit square and to the left of cech, but he also had to hold off a defender and, the main factor, the conditions were atrocious.

Stupidly high winds and the rain probably contributed to him not striking the ball square on.

I guarantee if he was setup like that again in good weather he would have scored.

Normally I would agree with you to some extent but on this occasion you have to say that the conditions are very likely to have played some part in that miss.

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Originally Posted by the ollie and the ivy

people are complaining when we are top of the league. they will be complaining even if he scores a hatrick every game. are you new here?

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Yeh that's true Ollie.

Sigh, I give up tbh :ilt:

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Originally Posted by the ollie and the ivy

good to see the leagues best midfielder cabaye finish on the winning side

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Too bad every single side in the league has lost this season.

You would have had a cracking point.

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Originally Posted by The Emirates Gallactico

Tbf to Jenks his first thought was timewasting from the throw in so he wasn't focused on Bendtner. I've seen some of the British lads joke about it in interviews but he's not meant to be the sharpest tool in the box either.

Looking back on it you can only just laugh at the whole incident :lol:. Mind you, if they had equalised I'd be absoutely livid about it right now.

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The board are having the last laugh. You can asset strip as flagrantly as you like, as long as you replace with an "Arsenal fan". Everybody turns a blind eye then.

Worst right back in the league bar none.

So apperently Pardew thinks the ref was giving Arsenal to much and that he was the reason that things didnt went their way, which ended up with 3 points for Arsenal.... :doh:

He should shut his mouth and be happy that we werent sharper and pray to the corrupt ref-god and say thx for letting tiote stay on the field.

As pubby as they get but i have to say it was an impressive "champions like" win. Newcastle were on fire and had beaten some big teams as well as Spurs so we've done well. Our organisation and tactical play starved them of any real chances and apart from a couple of Ben Afri efforts, we managed to contain them.

Well done lads.

This game & the lack of opportunities created in recent games only proves that we have lost the confidence that the team had going into the Man Utd game. Another quality buy in Jan is a must, we need a quality striker & it will give the team another Ozil like lift. We can see the negativity that Wumger is bringing on this team rather than have confidence in your team to go & get a 2nd goal to put the game to bed. Did we ever use take Wrighty or Titi off when we went 1-0 up. If your going to take a forward off in a game like yesterdays, take off Giroud & leave Walcott up top against tired legs. Bringing on Bentdner is the same as having a tired Giroud on the pitch.
Wonderful for this team to be top going into the New Year but Wumger needs to want to kill off teams like City are doing rather than start defending 1-0 leads by going 5 at the back.

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Before the game I thought a point was a bad result so I am delighted we got all 3 without being at our best (which we haven't been at for some time anyway). I get that Newcastle have beaten a few sides but I think that whether a result is good or not is more dependent on the need to get a certain result, imo.

Anything but a win meant not being top(which is the ultimate aim at any given point) so for me, it was almost always going to be bad to draw on that alone. You could see towards the end of the game. I have seldom seen a player more desperate to win than I did in Rosicky's eyes at the end. I was truly proud and impressed by his attitude. He could see the ball continually coming back to our end so he made sure he closed down their back 4 and goalkeeper, almost on his own as Giroud couldn't be arsed by that point. He almost had to drag Giroud with him by the shirt to help him. I think that was the main reason Giroud went off in the end. Not so much because he was no longer a threat but because he had lost the legs to defend from the front.

Jenkinson's moment of madness was astonishing and he really should be pulled aside for it behind the scenes, although I am reluctant to hammer him as it wasn't costly. Neither was the Pole in the goal's attempt at knocking out the opposition striker by firing it as hard as he could at his head fortunately. It is becoming a rather effective tactic. Remy didn't know whether he was still in the French league or in the playground at school in a game of no consequence after he got up.

Obviously Pardew and a few of his lot are desperate to beat us. His goalkeeper Krul came out of his area twice like it was the world cup final to try and stick it to us. Amazing stuff......really should have made him pay for it.....but see above!

Giroud has rightly been credited for most of what he has done to this point in the season and I am really glad the crowd at games really get behind him which is wonderfully vocal from tv 99% of the time...... That is in spite of most probably feeling we need better options than him. Nothing will be going his way and in the background all you can hear is 'Commme onnn Girooooouuuuudd'. We get a lot a stick at times but we should be credited for that.

He has been very effective but I would argue we have been top in spite of our lack of options in forward positions rather than because of them. The second half the season is likely to be trickier than the first. Traditionally United finish well and ironically so do David Moyes teams. They have been languishing in mid table/bottom half before coming back to finish 5th before and you can barely see where City will drop a point. We really need to have the mentality of not slipping up anywhere and if it is to be this tight, the edge that a top froward would bring is crucial.

Mertesacker was immense too. UP the ARSENAL!!! :d

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Originally Posted by Blink 1nce Quince 2wice

Before the game I thought a point was a bad result so I am delighted we got all 3 without being at our best (which we haven't been at for some time anyway). I get that Newcastle have beaten a few sides but I think that whether a result is good or not is more dependent on the need to get a certain result, imo.

Anything but a win meant not being top(which is the ultimate aim at any given point) so for me, it was almost always going to be bad to draw on that alone. You could see towards the end of the game. I have seldom seen a player more desperate to win than I did in Rosicky's eyes at the end. I was truly proud and impressed by his attitude. He could see the ball continually coming back to our end so he made sure he closed down their back 4 and goalkeeper, almost on his own as Giroud couldn't be arsed by that point. He almost had to drag Giroud with him by the shirt to help him. I think that was the main reason Giroud went off in the end. Not so much because he was no longer a threat but because he had lost the legs to defend from the front.

Jenkinson's moment of madness was astonishing and he really should be pulled aside for it behind the scenes, although I am reluctant to hammer him as it wasn't costly. Neither was the Pole in the goal's attempt at knocking out the opposition striker by firing it as hard as he could at his head fortunately. It is becoming a rather effective tactic. Remy didn't know whether he was still in the French league or in the playground at school in a game of no consequence after he got up.

Obviously Pardew and a few of his lot are desperate to beat us. His goalkeeper Krul came out of his area twice like it was the world cup final to try and stick it to us. Amazing stuff......really should have made him pay for it.....but see above!

Giroud has rightly been credited for most of what he has done to this point in the season and I am really glad the crowd at games really get behind him which is wonderfully vocal from tv 99% of the time...... That is in spite of most probably feeling we need better options than him. Nothing will be going his way and in the background all you can hear is 'Commme onnn Girooooouuuuudd'. We get a lot a stick at times but we should be credited for that.

He has been very effective but I would argue we have been top in spite of our lack of options in forward positions rather than because of them. The second half the season is likely to be trickier than the first. Traditionally United finish well and ironically so do David Moyes teams. They have been languishing in mid table/bottom half before coming back to finish 5th before and you can barely see where City will drop a point. We really need to have the mentality of not slipping up anywhere and if it is to be this tight, the edge that a top froward would bring is crucial.

Mertesacker was immense too. UP the ARSENAL!!! :d

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:gp:

Rosicky is just pure class. He gives everything when defending and is so smart with his ball distribution. Jack, Ramsey and all the young players should be look to emulate his style of play. He knows his options before he receives a pass, hustles hard to receive the ball or to win it back and is always on his toes. Turns defence into attack with a quick turn.

It will be trickier from here on and Wenger needs to keep an eye on the way his subs change a game. After that game, you can understand why Wenger didn't make a change against Chelsea. Taking off Theo just flipped the game on its head and invited pressure. They'd never have pushed that far forward if he was on. They'd have been punished if they were that foolish. Besides reinforcements, we need to get that right. Almost had a meltdown in the last 10 mins of that game. But it's encouraging to see we can hold on to 1-0 leads. We need to keep it up but we should be able to defend with the ball and just kill the game by holding possession.

Not been one of Rosicky's biggest fans since he joined the club (because of his injuries) but one thing he does constantly is give his best. I completely agree that he was immense in the last few minutes closing down Newcastle in their own half in the last few minutes. It was absolute madness for Vinegar to take off Theo and not Giroud!

Oh well, we ended up winning, so :scarf:

I agree Rosicky is a little tiger in midfield, I love to watch him putting himself about, he's more than just a creative player.

Slightly frustrated that in the last 10 minutes we invited the pressure, we made defensive substitutions and when we did get the ball back we didn't seem to be able to keep any possession which is generally something we're good at. It was a bit like the last 10 minutes of the Spurs game - attack vs defence. Both times we held out, we are getting good at that. It's not much fun to watch though!

I don't get why people are coming down so hard on Jenkinson. Especially as it's common place for players to try and rundown the clock when leading at that stage of the game. It was a bit 1st instinct and no one would have been so up on arms if the old tub of lard wasn't there having a fit because Jenkinson wasn't aware he was a bit high up the pitch.

Furthermore, I could only see the useless oaf immediately losing possession, thereby putting us back under pressure if Jenkinson had unfortunately sighted him and made the quick throw in.

He should have absolutely chucked it up to him. There was a potential 1 vs 1 with the keeper. Even if only to try to throw it as hard as he could at Bendtner's head to knock him out and divert the ball into their goal....... Bendtner is still a professional footballer. If he can't pose a reasonable threat from a position like that, don't even put him in the reserves. Just get him making the tea.

I have no time for the Dane and would rather he weren't on the bench at all...but if Wenger's going to play him and he is open, give him the ball. If Jenkinson had sipped past 2 players in open play down the wing, spotted Bendtner unmarked with just the keeper to beat and decided to pass it down field to somebody else, we probably would have been even more pissed and yet the actual scenario that played out was almost as bad as that.

Jenkinson did completely the right thing.

Wasting time in the 93rd minute was sensible.

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Originally Posted by Santa's Big Sack.........of Gifts

I don't get why people are coming down so hard on Jenkinson. Especially as it's common place for players to try and rundown the clock when leading at that stage of the game. It was a bit 1st instinct and no one would have been so up on arms if the old tub of lard wasn't there having a fit because Jenkinson wasn't aware he was a bit high up the pitch.

Furthermore, I could only see the useless oaf immediately losing possession, thereby putting us back under pressure if Jenkinson had unfortunately sighted him and made the quick throw in.

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Absolutely. There was nothing to gain by playing it quickly, and everything to lose.

100% right.

Yeah of course nothing to gain by scoring a 2nd goal :lol:

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Originally Posted by Blink 1nce Quince 2wice

He should have absolutely chucked it up to him. There was a potential 1 vs 1 with the keeper. Even if only to try to throw it as hard as he could at Bendtner's head to knock him out and divert the ball into their goal....... Bendtner is still a professional footballer. If he can't pose a reasonable threat from a position like that, don't even put him in the reserves. Just get him making the tea.

I have no time for the Dane and would rather he weren't on the bench at all...but if Wenger's going to play him and he is open, give him the ball. If Jenkinson had sipped past 2 players in open play down the wing, spotted Bendtner unmarked with just the keeper to beat and decided to pass it down field to somebody else, we probably would have been even more pissed and yet the actual scenario that played out was almost as bad as that.

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:gp: Just imagine if we'd have conceded after that moment. Just for the sake of wasting a few seconds. It wasn't smart. He should have passed it to Bendy and even if he didn't score and a defender got back to him, we could have won a corner and wasted time up in their half. Luckily it didn't cost us.

I'm sure he would have thrown it in instantly were he aware Bendy was there and might have had little bit opportunity to do something productive. But I suspect it was more an issue of 1st instinct to run down the clock and by the time he became alert, Bendtner was no longer in an advantageous position. Therefore, I don't think the criticism can fly that he intentionally refused to throw in the ball to the Danish lump.

I could be wrong, but Jenkinson seems humble enough a lad for me to think he wouldn't pull such a a slight against a fellow teammate.

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Originally Posted by Santa's Big Sack.........of Gifts

I'm sure he would have thrown it in instantly were he aware Bendy was there and might have had little bit opportunity to do something productive. But I suspect it was more an issue of 1st instinct to run down the clock and by the time he became alert, Bendtner was no longer in an advantageous position. Therefore, I don't think the criticism can fly that he intentionally refused to throw in the ball to the Danish lump.

I could be wrong, but Jenkinson seems humble enough a lad for me to think he wouldn't pull such a a slight against a fellow teammate.

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Of course, it was just instinct to run down the clock. Considering we were under a bit of pressure at the time, he was absolutely right to do that.