Arsenal v Newcastle – Match banter.
Posted on November 7th, 2010 | 350 Comments |
I get the feeling that a lot of fans are not expecting too much from the game this afternoon, other than a spirited and committed performance from the lads in black and white of course. Still, Newcastle will be full of confidence after two victories on the bounce, including that 5-1 mauling of Sunderland, and our team do have a habit of performing away from home and pulling off the odd unexpected result, so you never know, perhaps we could defy the odds again today?
Newcastle boss Chris Hughton will be instructing his side to play without fear as they take on The Gunners, although he has also warned that the game this afternoon will be one of toughest games of the season.
“It goes without saying – you have to be confident after that, how can you not be? But whether you’re confident or not, we are going to as tough a place as they come in Arsenal,” Hughton told The Chronicle in the pre-match press conference yesterday.
“Most would consider it one of the most difficult. But we go there with confidence and the feel-good factor is there from the last couple of Premier League games. We must be mindful of the quality they have, but not fear it.”
A lot of people believe that Andy Carroll could be the key to unsettling the Arsenal defence, and I tend to agree with that to be honest. More importantly, it is something that Arsene Wenger seems to agree with as he talked about the striker, and the possibility of a call-up to the England sqaud for Carroll for the friendly match against France.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if he was in the England squad,” Wenger said. “I have been highly impressed with him. He has presence, charisma, confidence. He is intelligent on the ball. For me he is a player who I had doubts about one year ago but in the last year he has improved tremendously.”
“For a young player like Carroll to improve, he needs attitude. That means basically motivation and intelligence. They are the two main things I see personally. When you are not highly motivated and intelligent your potential to improve is very limited.”
“If you have the right attitude and brain you can improve every day, and after a few years that makes a massive difference between two players with the same talent who don’t have exactly the same ingredients.”
For a more in-depth look at team news, history between the two teams and some fun facts you can read my match report here.
The game is being bradcast live around the world, so if you happen to stumble across a stream or two then please feel free to leave a link to them in the ‘comments’ section below.
Howay the lads!
Arsenal – Lukasz Fabianski, Bacary Sagna, Sebastien Squillacci, Laurent Koscielny, Gael Clichy, Alexandre Song, Cesc Fabregas, Jack Wilshere, Samir Nasri, Theo Walcott, Maraouane Chamakh
Subs – Robin Van Persie, Emannuel Eboue, Andrei Arshavin, Nicklas Bendtner.
Newcastle – Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Joey Barton, Cheick Tiote, Kevin Nolan, Jonas Gutierrez, Shola Ameobi, Andy Carroll.
Subs – Ole Soderberg, Steven Taylor, Sol Campbell, Alan Smith, Nile Ranger, Peter Lovenkrands, Wayne Routledge.
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
at last footy talk,we wont lose today