Stunner at The Gunners! Arsenal 0-1 Newcastle.
Posted on November 7th, 2010 | 95 Comments |
Not many people gave us a chance of getting any kind of result against Arsenal, including me to be fair, but yet again Chris Hughton managed his men to a defiant , only this time it was away at a top-four ground.
The chant of old used to go along the lines of ‘one-nil, to the Arsenal’, but not today as Newcastle shut Arsenal down and stopped them playing. To a man they were excellent, and to me this result ranks above some of the other stunners that we have pulled off already this season. Joey Barton said in his post-match interview on Sky that Newcastle had ruined a few betting coupons so far this season, which is true as we now boast exactly the same away league record as Chelsea, which is the best in the league I hasten to add.
Newcastle named an unchanged side for the third game in a row, which meant that Chris Hughton remained positive in his approach to the game when many had predicted that he may adopt a more defensive approach.
Newcastle started off brightly enough without being too much of a threat to the Arsenal goal. We outpassed and outplayed them for the first fifteen or so minutes with Andy Carroll, the focus of so much pre-match attention for a number of reasons, again being a thorn in the side of the opposition defence.
Arsenal came back into the match and started to look threatening, but credit to Newcastle, they stuck to their task and restricted Arsenal to only a handful of half chances, with the best chance coming through Theo Walcott who thumped his shot against the bar from eight-yards out.
Minutes later it was Arsenal who again came close to breaking the deadlock, but Tim Krul was on hand to save superbly from a first-time Samir Nasri shot that looked to be heading towards the top corner of the net. Tim Krul palmed it away with one hand to deny the Frenchman.
With the game looking like it was drifting towards a half-time score of 0-0, Newcastle, who hadn’t registered a shot at goal in the first-half, struck the first blow. Joey Barton, a source of so many assists in recent weeks, swung in a free-kick that coaxed the Arsenal goalkeeper, Lukasz Fabianski, out of his goal only for Carroll to get the better of him and loop a header into an unguarded net. 1-0 to Newcastle.
A second-half onslaught was expected from Arsenal, but it never really materialised. For all of Arsenal’s possesion they still failed to create many chances and Newcastle stuck to their task tremendously well.
Arsenal brought on Andrei Arshavin, Robin van Persie and Niklas Bendtner in attempt to freshen their side up, but it never really worked depsite Arsenal putting us under a bit of pressure.
Nile Ranger replaced Shola Ameobi, who had again been excellent and worked hard for the team, late on in the game, and it was Ranger who figured in the final act of the match.
Ranger hustled the ball from Arsenal defender, Laurent Koscielny and was clean through on goal, but the Arsenal defender pulled him back and conceded the foul. With Koscielny being the last man and Ranger through on goal there was only ever going to be one outcome as soon as the free-kick was given and the French defender saw red for the challenge.
The match finished 1-0 to Newcastle and secured an unlikely three points for the Geordie Boys. It was a team peformance out there from the lads in black and white today, and every one of them can feel justifiably proud as they head back home.
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.
Goals – Andy Carroll (45).
Referee – Mike Dean.
I think we may have found our best side. :)