Joey Barton making his first appearance for Newcastle this season starting from the bench, and with both Martins and Duff are out, Keegan has no further options but ask him to get ready when needed at the Emirates.
Couple days ago, some Arsenal fans have contacted me for an interview about today’s match, so if you interested to read my answer to their questions, you can visit the Arsenal Insider website.
Back to today’s game. Steven Taylor make a comeback again for United after being absence on FA Carling Cup win at Ricoh Arena last Tuesday, and partnered Fabricio Coloccini in our central defense.
As predicted, the North London boys are coming out aggresively and hunger for more goals after their Champions League 4-0 match win last Wednesday, and they could have a penalty very early when Van Persie tumbles to the floor from Coloccini’s sliding tackle.
The linesman indicating for a corner, although from the TV replays it’s inconclusive and a penalty may have been deservely iven to them. And they are finally got it in 18minutes as Adebayor’s cross hit the arm of Charles N’Zogbia.
This time the replays shown either way than the previous accident as it looks that the ball is coming straight to Charlie’s arm when he had no chance of getting out of the way. Van Persie doing it better than Kevin Nolan to give the lead to the home side.
And when the opportunity knocks on our door, it’s Ameobi who lurk it away with his stupid leg. Gutierrez interesting run down the right pulls the ball back from the by-line, and was wrong-footed by the host defenders to give Owen a golden opportunity from eight yards out. Only to see his shot clips the leg of Ameobi and rolls wide of the target! Thank you very much Amoeba.
On the other hand, the Gunners had their second from a break from the right. Adebayor cuts the ball inside to Eboue who flicks into the path of Van Persie for his second. Two minutes later, Enrique is off and Bassong going in.
In the 56 minutes, we have some minutes of enjoyable match as we try to minimize the 2 goals defisit. We have a corner when Sanga heads behind Gutierrez’s teasing centre. N’Zogbia’s cross meet Nicky Butt to turn a header with Almunia is beaten but not the woodwork.
And again, we have saw that for the second time, we are so helpless when dealing with a swift Arsenal breakaway, with their rather soft (today) player, Adebayor wins the ball back just outside the area before overlapping it to Denilson to scores past a rooted Shay Given.
Into the last quarter of the game, they are so close to scores the fourth but this time Given’s instinctively reacts to keep out Toure’s header from Walcott’s floated corner, while inside the last five minutes Walcott in a one-on-one against Shay Given shots wide of the target.
Another disappointing 3-0 lost like the last two games against them last season. But I see it as very deserved win for them against the depleted Newcastle team. I wonder what Mike Ashley’s thinking about when he saw this. If he still keep his pocket tight in the last three days of the summer transfer window, then we will not see much of progress at all for Newcastle team this season.
TEAMS Arsenal FC: Manuel Almunia, Bacary Sagna, Kolo Toure, William Gallas (c), Gael Clichy, Emmanuel Eboue (Theo Walcott, 72), Denilson (Alex Song, 69), Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Robin van Persie (Carlos Vela, 63), Emmanuel Adebayor. Subs: Lukasz Fabianski, Aaron Ramsey, Johan Djourou, Nicklas Bendtner
Newcastle United FC: Shay Given, Habib Beye (Joey Barton, 89), Jose Enrique (Sebastien Bassong, 43), Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Danny Guthrie, Nicky Butt, Jonas Gutierrez (David Edgar, 89), Charles N’Zogbia, Michael Owen (c), Shola Ameobi. Subs: Steve Harper, Ben Tozer, Ryan Donaldson, Nile Ranger
Referee: Rob Styles
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