Match Reaction v Newcastle

[GP]

Still better than Sturridge's

[Grebbo]

Some great forward play but holy shit how dumb is Gibbs??!! Was done twice ball watching to concede two goals and put a routine win in the balance. Wake up you dumb ass!!

[hobson's choice]

Never seen a game where a team scores 7 goals, but look so weak in some many areas. Same problems that's been plaguing this teams was still on show yesterday.

Can't keep the ball, have trouble getting the ball when they lose it, still can't break down a team, when they have time to organize. Can only score from quick attacks or defensive mistakes.

Play like that against Bayern(especially that 1st half performance), they will get beat 7-3

[Cripps_orig]

I thought it was an awful team performance. Defence and midfield were off. Cazorla and Arteta took the night off. Jack was anonymous for large parts because he wasn't getting touches of the ball and while he's putting pressure on the opposition everyone else is standing around and giving Newcastle plenty of space. Arteta needs to hold a bench and we need a new DM pronto because he can't play the anchor role in the middle. He's on his heels too much and when the defence are looking for passing options from the back he's pointing to someone else for the ball to go wide. He never comes looking for the ball and that's part of the reason why we're getting dominated in the middle because we're being forced down narrow channels. There is no cohesion between the three middle players. Maybe Jack needs to play deeper and play the pivot role because Arteta is slowing us down. When marked he never tries to loose his marker he just stays flat footed and points for the ball to be played anywhere as long as it's not played to him. He needs to go.

Jack even if marked will always stay on his heels and look for space and such movement at least creates space for others if you're being tightly marked. Standing in one spot and pointing to where the ball should be played while making no movement yourself is just plain lazy. The middle three have to be more fluid and move more because we have tougher games ahead of us and more lethal teams will punish us if we keep playing like that.

Spot on. We won cos the front 3 were excellent. The rest were poor to average. Enough has been said about Arteta. He has to go asap. Cazorla didnt have the best of games either. Wilshere for me was the best of the 3 and linked well with the front 3

[LDG]

Some great forward play but holy shit how dumb is Gibbs??!! Was done twice ball watching to concede two goals and put a routine win in the balance. Wake up you dumb ass!!

At fault for one goal. The first of the two you alude to, he was trying to cover off the spare man in the more dangerous position.

The midfield didn't track the extra man, vermaelen just left him, and kos tried his best not to score an own goal.

[Syn]

In hindsight, Sagna was beaten far too easily. Gives away the needless free kick for the first and gets owned by Obertan for the second. The third was all Gibbs though - just didn't read the game at all.

[selassie]

A bit late on this, good result...much needed to put the pressure on the Scum. Theo was deadly, as was Giroud. Poldi, Oxo, Cazorla & Jack all had good-ish games. Arteta was OK...still needs proper competition.

Now onto the defence, Sagna was horrible, his worst performance in an Arsenal shirt IMO, Gibbs was horrible too and If I'm honest his current form is really worrying me, the boy is caught out of position far too much and ball watches. Both CB's were OK...though got bullied by BA.

Onto the next, the Saints away, this one won't be easy, they've really improved since we last played them and I think they are going to cause us quite a few problems. Obviously we can really hurt them...but it won't be easy.