The Joey Barton show continues! Newcastle United 0-0 Arsenal: Report, highlights, interviews…
Posted on August 14th, 2011 | 19 Comments |
Extended match highlights.
In what seems to be somwthing of a tradition now, Newcastle United faced their usual stiff test against one of the ‘top four’ clubs in their first game of the Premiership season.
Those who might have been expecting a repeat of the last fixture against the Gunners were to be disappointed. However, although our last game against Arsenal was a 4-4 rollercoaster and this was a fairly flat 0-0 draw overall, there were similarities besides both teams walking away with a point each. It was strongly arguable that Arsenal dominated the midfield in the first half with their 4-2-3-1 against our 4-4-2. As well as this, the Joey Barton show also played a key role in controversial circumstances resulting in an Arsenal player, the debutante, Gervinho this time rather than Abu Diaby, being sent off and changing the balance of the game somewhat. Plus ça change…
More on that story later though. Unlike that last memorable encounter, despite Arsenal’s control of the midfield with some of their usual slick passing, Newcaslte defended stubbornly in the first half but were ultimately unable to capitalise on the advantage given by the sending off of Gervinho. But after all, this was a draw with Arsenal, and if we found it difficult to capitalise on oppotunities that came our way, then so did they.
Things could have been much different had Arsenal’s Tomas Rosicky made more of a very good opportunity in the first minute. Fortunately for us though, he ended what was a good start for the Gunners with some good passing moves when he weakly sidefooted the final ball and was wide of the mark. More good opportunities fell to the visiting team early on, with a run by Arshavin resulting in a good pass to Van Persie who was lacking support to make the most of the move. Next, Aaron Ramsey put Van Persie through, however Arsenal’s failure to capitalise continued when the Flying Dutchman showed surprisingly poor control, letting the ball get stuck under his feet.
Another opportunity fell to the visiting side in the eighteenth minute, with Steven Taylor diverting a Robin van Persie strike at goal. Joey Barton started to make his presence felt as he used his commanding presence to try and drag Newcastle into the game. The Magpies were still tactically outmanoevered though as chances continued for the visitors, with Danny Simpson being the next to stand in the breach with a good block right off the line as Tim Krul spilled a Rosicky corner kick in what was perhaps the best chance of the half. Genarally, Gervinho cut through Newcastle quite nicely on several occaisions throughout the first half too, but dealt poorly with his final efforts overall in what was a microcosm of the game as a whole.
On the Magpies’ side, Demba Ba made a promising break before being chopped down by Arsenal’s Song, resulting in a free kick and a yellow card for the offending Gunner from referee, Peter Walton. A few half chances didn’t disguise that Arsenal were the team who were far more likely to score though. I hoped that half time would bring something of a tactical rethink from Alan Pardew.
Wrapping up the first half on a disciplinary note, Captain Coloccini picked up a fairly soft yellow card for a relatively innocuous challenge on Gervinho as the half drew to a close. Half time Newcastle United 0-0 Arsenal.
Second half
The second half saw Newcastle’s most recent signing, midfielder, Gabriel Obertan, come on in place of striker, Demba Ba in a possible response by Pardew to Arsenal’s bossing of the midfield. They did manage to work their way back in as the second half unfolded, especially when the Joey Barton show did what he did so well in our last encounter Arsenal, wind them up and exploit their frustration and immaturity. A sliding challenge on mouth almighty himself lead to another slightly soft yellow on Arsenal’s Kieron Gibbs. As I hinted though, Newcastle also started to get stuck in more generally, ruffling the North Londoner’s feathers and partially suceeding in knocking them off their stride. It was Arsenal who were picking up the cards though as Rosicky picked up another relatively soft yellow in the early stages of the second half. Shortly after that, Steven Taylor deserves another mention at this point for a good tackle which ended another tricky and fairly dangerous run from Gervinho deep inside the Magpies’ area.
The game was quite scrappy as Newcastle eventually started to disturb Arsenal’s flow after the restart. After around fifty odd minutes, Van Persie managed to land a free kick on the roof of the net, then the real fun and games started when Barton went down slightly easily when challenging Song for the ball. Once again, another immature Arsenal player lost his composure and stamped on Barton. Peter Walton was seemingly oblivious though and Song escaped what should have been a straight red card. To add insult to injury, the referee then proceeded to award a free kick to the Gunners, with Barton furiously remonstrating with the fourth official to no effect. Although Newccastle are back in the game more, as chances on both sides are squandered due to poor final balls on both sides. Pardew opts for a straight striker swap, with Leon Best coming on for Ameobi in the 73rd minute. He nearly managed to get on the end of a promising ball just after his entrance but it was a step too far.
It was just a couple of minutes or so after that when the real fireworks started though as the Joey Barton show really started to get underway in earnest. With Gervinho attacking down the left flank, he cut inside, only to be brought down after slight contact from his fellow Ivorian international teammate, Cheick Tiote, in the area. Newcastle were fairly lucky to avoid a penalty for this first incident. However as Gervinho lingered on the deck, Barton dragged him up firmly by his shirt. I think it’s fair to say that Gervinho wasn’t too impressed with Barton’s ‘gallantry’, and slapped his face like a big girl. Barton had managed to do it once again. The delicate flower from Huyton wilted to the floor, eventually recovering to get up grab Gervinho by the shirt once again. He picked up a yellow card for his part but Gervinho saw red for the slap. The much targeted Barton had once again turned the tables and succeeded in doing Arsenal up like a kipper!
With Arsenal now down to ten, it wasn’t long until Pardew tried to take the bull by the horns, reversing his earlier decision to take off a striker and replace him with a midfielder as Cabaye was replaced by Lovenkrands the striker as he boldly attempted to now take three points from a game where tha Magpies had mostly been on the backfoot. It certainly had some effect, though not, alas, the ultimate one in the shape of a winning goal. Although there were now two strikers on, it was that midfielder, Barton who had the best chance with a good shot from outside the box which was just over.
Ten man Arsenal continued with the odd promising opportunity, but their inabilty to capitalise was even worse with a man down. The Magpies certainly weren’t totally dominant with the advantage though, except perhaps in the final few minutes. Overall, it was a fairly ordinary game apart from the Joey Barton theatre. Final score: Newcastle United 0-0 Arsenal.
Newcastle United: Tim Krul (G), Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Ryan Taylor, Danny Simpson, Joey Barton, Yohan Cabaye (Peter Lovenkrnands 76), Cheick Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez, Shola Ameobi (Leon Best 70), Demba Ba (Gabriel Obweran 46)
Subs: Fraser Forster, Mike Williamson, Dan Gosling, Gabriel Obertan, Sammy Ameobi, Peter Lovenkrands, Leon Best.
Arsenal: Wojciech Szczesny (G), Bacary Sagna, Thomas Vermaelen, Laurent Koscielny, Kieran Gibbs, Alex Song, Tomas Rosicky (Theo Walcott 84), Aaron Ramsey (Emmanuel Frimpong 90), Andrey Arshavin (Johan Djourou 60), Gervinho, Robin van Persie.
Subs: Lukasz Fabianski, Johan Djourou, Emmanuel Frimpong, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Marouane Chamakh.
Referee: Peter Walton.
Post match interviews
Workey mate you got Arsenal substitutions wrong. Djourou did come on Chamberlain did not.