One sub Gunners suffocated and drop two points against highly organized Newcastle

Arsenal 0 Newcastle United 0   
Premier League   
Tuesday 3rd January 2023 7.45pm    

This game developed the look of a very tricky fixture as it got nearer, with Newcastle’s ability to carve out results seeing them climb from the pack into Champions League qualification territory in the table. And so it proved. This isn’t going to be a long entry today, because ultimately, there isn’t too much about the game that requires deep analysis, just a few questions for Mikel Arteta to ponder. 

Arsenal were unchanged from the win at Brighton, and perhaps there would have been a different feeling if the team had drawn there and won last night. In the end, the points are the same, only becoming a factor if Arsenal end up neck and neck in a race with Newcastle for either the title or a top four spot. Ultimately, what this match probably told us was that sometimes, the current lack of Gunners’ squad depth will lessen the chances of winning such tight matches in the last 20 minutes. Arteta had nobody on the bench that would improve over the existing tiring attacking players on the pitch. And this is obviously the reason the club are trying to secure Murdyk now, rather than wait until the summer. Both Saka and Martinelli are still young players who can only perform at the top of their game for so long without needing a break. Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson continue to be unavailable, Vieira hasn’t really worked out so far and Marquinhos is still a raw teenager. By not giving the latter 10 minutes, his coach was probably thinking more of the risk of losing the game than the surprise element he might have created. 

Kieran Trippier did an excellent job on Martinelli and Saka was invariably martialled by two players. Added to that, Newcastle denied Odegaard the space to be effective. Eddie Nketiah did have one decent chance near the end, but the keeper was up to it. Aside from that efforts were mostly off target, or blocked. It was a frustrating game, but one that Eddie Howe prepared his players well for, in terms of not conceding, even if it must have made a tedious watch for their traveling fans. One thing I predict. The return fixture will offer Arsenal a better chance of winning, because the St James’s Park crowd will not put up with this kind of display at home. 

It was Arsenal’s job to find a way through the massed ranks, and they failed. It’s no huge disaster, but a salient lesson on where the club are now. Title talk is nice to hear, and the team have put in some fantastic performances. However, the first half of the season is about jockeying for position, and with challenging teams that haven’t been contenders for some time, I only really put them in the mix after Easter. For me, it’s still Manchester City’s title to lose. That’s just realism. I’ve not looked at the bookies’ odds but at best, I am confident that Arsenal will be second favourites. 

The primary aim of this season is a top four place – the higher the better. Financially, Arsenal need that for the rebuilding project to continue. The season so far has been great to experience, but ultimately, the squad is short on enough quality options to allow the necessary rotation in the second half of the campaign. And that isn’t a criticism, it’s a reflection of their financial capabilities after six seasons without the income that the other ‘top six’ clubs have enjoyed – either through Champions League participation, owners pumping in funds, better sponsorship deals or more effective use of their transfer and wages budget. 

Newcastle have, since the Saudis’ arrival, been transformed into a well run club under a coach who has proven far better than I envisaged, so credit to Eddie Howe for that, even if his team is not the most entertaining. Still, you start building a team from a solid foundation – defence, not losing. It would not be difficult to imagine them becoming Champions League regulars in the years ahead. It makes the Premier League even more competitive and interesting, although the disparity of their financial muscle makes the effectiveness of Financial Fair Play all the more important. I am far from convinced it’s had very much effect at all. Arsenal were certainly relying on it becoming far more of a leveler from about 2009, but since then Manchester City and Chelsea seem to have spent with aplomb and little evident restriction. So who knows?

Back to the match, and on the plus side, Arsenal’s defence did the job required when called upon, and psychologically, defeats can be far more damaging. The FA Cup will allow over a week’s rest to players who need a break ahead of the games against Spurs and Manchester United. One thing that did strike me about last night. The stadium was full – only the occasional empty seat. But the crowd felt a little subdued. This was a reflection of the events on the pitch – aside from a cracking opening five minutes when the Gunners did start very promisingly. People were still coming in and settling then anyway. Not too many early leavers was a plus as the game neared its end, although how there were only five minutes of added time is a mystery given the away side’s clock eating antics. I would love basketball style timing to be introduced, that way we’d get 60 minutes of actual football played and such tactics would only effect momentum rather than playing time.

Let’s see how the players respond after the cup game at Oxford has been played – a tie for which we will surely see a very different starting eleven. You’d have to think the game at Spurs – because Antonio Conte’s team are at home and need a result to placate their supporters – will be a more open affair, as will the visit of Manchester United, a club that seem to be getting their act together after the departure of the self-proclaimed GOAT – who will now end his playing days in luxurious ignominy. There’s a lot of matches to be played between now and the end of May, the season will become quite congested after February if Arsenal progress in Europe and there will likely be more dropped points than we will see in the first half of this season. For me, it wasn’t the result that quells talk of a title, it was the fact Arteta made only one sub in a situation that needed more. Due to a combination of circumstances, he’d ran out of options.

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