One thing today showed was the importance of the second goal. So many games in recent times it’s felt like we have sat on a single goal lead.

All of a sudden the game opens up and you can start to get a better output from the attacking players.

More importantly they were forward... Ceballos was constantly looking to get the ball forward unlike Xhaka who looks more crab like than Wilkins.

Would like to think confidence will pick up a little after this result with key scorers, maybe even release zee handbrake in the next outing.

Think with this current incarnation it’s more the third goal, never feel two is enough with our rabble at the back.

In my view Ceballos was comfortably man of the match. But Saka, Mustafi, Pépé and Xhaka also had fine games. To be fair everyone did quite well in the second half with the possible exception, without wishing to be over harsh, of Nketiah. Even Özil woke up towards the end of the game.

Xhaka is like Gilberto when in his first few years. You couldn't suss out the obvious qualities a minority of people including the manager was talking about. You needed a 'skill decoder' that were in limited supply. Why they were getting picked for the first XI was a head scratcher.

I can't wait till the transfer window players and injured players are ready. When all the players are available we will be a different side. I'm not so sure Tierney will have be a confirmed starter also. Central defense and the middle will be much stronger.

MOTM for me was Özil. Always looking to make something happen. He carried the ball well and when he did you could see their defence backing off and looking around wondering what he was going to do. A few ropey moments in defence at 2-0 up.

Just watched the 20 min highlights package. Good result and will build some momentum hopefully. Upside- some real good forward play in the 2nd half, clean sheet, good clinical goals and team seem united.

Downside- poor half of play, gave up some easy chances across the game, Newcastle surrended so I am not sure how good we are. Hopefully he is keeping Martinelli for Europa league this week. But I would not like to see too many games without him playing.

When you go on a run with a lot of draws a result or two one way or the other can put a completely different spin on things.
Fail to win today and it’s 1 league win in 8, by winnings it’s all about only 1 defeat in 8 and unbeaten in 2020

Found these stats from F365
Arsenal have won more points than Chelsea, Leicester, Manchester United and Wolves since Arteta was appointed, scoring more goals than Tottenham and conceding fewer than all but Liverpool

We must extend Saka's contract as soon as possible. He is a gem. Fearless and effective. No attitude as well. Give him a good enough deal, so his head will not be turned.

Glad to see Ceballos and Pépé putting in a good game yesterday. More, more, more ........... And Özil did well too!

The best is the return to goals for both Aubameyang and Lacazette. More to come?

Clean sheet today, keep it up defence!

Hail Arteta!

Thinking 'What ifs'. What if we had hired Arteta instead of Emery?

I liked Emery though, but must admit it was too far gone the other way for him to recover and rebuild.

He had a fine second half. Id give him m.o.m. ahead of Ceballos and Saka who were also superb.

Time to stop using that excuse.

I do constantly feel Spurs are such an incredibly lucky team. Yesterday they got a penalty on VAR that will not get given in countless other games this season, had the pen saved but fell perfectly to tuck away the rebound and then benefited from a once in a season kind of mistake to score the undeserved winner in the 94th minute. Ok Son is an excellent player who took the chance very well but so many times I see Spurs not play well but somehow sneak a win, and not in a that’s what great teams do either. So many times already this and last season. I saw someone say ‘are spurs sleepwalking their way to the champions league?’
I hope Leipzig year them apart in the champions league

I won't get too carried away with yesterday's win, as welcome as it was. The first half was very average and Newcastle certainly had their moments. Saint-Maximin caused Bellerin all sorts of problems, he seems to have lost some pace.

Second half was obviously much better. I thought Saka was superb and looks so comfortable. Pépé again showed glimpses of why we paid so much money for him and contributed a goal and two assists without even being in top gear I feel. Ceballos was excellent as well.

The Guendouzi omission is interesting, will he see this kick up the backside as motivation to improve or will he sulk and seek pastures new.

Turning us around will take time but everyone can surely see the positive affect Arteta has had on the team. Just looking at basic stats from games, even without watching them with your eyes, shows he has made us harder to beat and harder to take shots against. The rate at which we allowed the opposition shots on our goal under Emery was alarming, and through sheer weight of numbers meant we were liable to concede 2 goals to anyone.
We've only conceded 2 goals to Chelsea twice in Arteta's games, and on both occasions there was an element of subtext. At home we were good value for a win until the Jorginho non red card and we ran out of steam and away we played 60 minutes with 10 men.

That six point gap between us and Spurs could vanish very quickly. And Chelsea have hardly seized 4th place.

I don’t see it vanishing very quickly, even though our next five league games (Everton H, West Ham H. Brighton A, Southampton A and Norwich H) all look winnable. Let’s say we do win them all to give us 15 points.

Tottenham’s next five league games are Chelsea A, Wolves H, Burnley A, Man Utd H and West Ham H. Let’s say they lose at Chelsea and draw at home to Man Utd. I see them beating Wolves at home (solely because it’s at White Hart Lane or whatever they call their ground), Burnley away and West Ham home. That would give them 10 points and they would still have a one point lead over us.

After the next five games, to me our remaining fixtures (Wolves A, Leicester H, Tottenham A, Liverpool H, Aston Villa A, Man City A and Watford H) mostly look challenging. Arguably more so than Tottenham’s last seven games (Sheff Utd A, Everton H, Bournemouth A, Arsenal H, Newcastle A, Leicester H and Crystal Palace A.

I realise how difficult it is to predict correct results. However, I’m more confident about saying we’d have to enjoy an extremely strong run of form, with results to match, to make up the six point gap and overtake them even on goal difference. Indeed, Tottenham’s goal difference (+9) is currently seven goals better than Arsenal’s (+2).

Guendouzi has been dropped because he’s a wrong un

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... eta-dubai/

A small pedant point but if we make up the 6 points then we'd likely make up that goal difference as well, seing as to make up the 6 points Spurs would have to lose 2 and we'd win 2, a 7 goal swing wouldn't be hard to conceive.
I can see us winning the home games we 'should' win, but even at the moment I can't see us getting big wins against the top teams and don't pin much hope on our away form just yet.

Europa league is still our best chance of Champions League Football next year, even if 5th place in the league gets that.

He's a young player with potential, but not remotely good enough to be playing Billy big boots with the boss and coaches and get away with it.

I’d suggest that may be over ambitious mate

Undoubtedly. If we got half of that we'd be doing well.

I think it’ll be very sad if Guendouzi goes. He may need to grow up quick, but I hope he does. Strange as he’s always struck me as having a good attitude. I don’t see this alleged row with Arteta as the end of his Arsenal career. These things can happen with 20 year olds and Arteta will surely realise that.

£25m? I don’t think that would be us doing well at all. Remember his form earlier this season and the same period last season. He was outstanding in the cup win at Bournemouth too. I think this represents Arteta giving him a wake up call.

What I liked about the performance was the smiles and happiness on display .

All the right people scoring ; another win next up and confidence will soar . Pleased to for Özil , must have been under a lot of pressure recently .

The Dubai experiment seems to have worked except for Guendozi but that in itself is a positive ; shows our manager is a man of action doesn't fanny around and issue a load of gobble de gook as Emery or Wenger would have done .

I think it helps that we are edging towards stronger national spines as well ...Spanish speakers Pablo , Bellerin , Ceballos , Özil , Torriera , Luiz , Martinelli ....Arteta , the French Connection Aubameyang , Pépé , Lacazette and English Saka , Willock , Nketiah , Nelson , German Özil , Leno , Mustafi , Xhaka ... rather than have a united nations team from every corner of the planet . .

I don't think that is a small point at all.

My point is that 4th place is still up for grabs. Chelsea and Spurs are 4th and 5th by default at the moment, not because their results are anything to write home about. They're treading water.

I don't want to get carried away after one good half of football against Newcastle. However, I don't think this was a flash in the pan. It's no coincidence that this result coincides with Ceballos' and Aubameyang's return and Pépé finding form, and the (surprising) continued renaissance of Özil. We now have a more creative and forward looking midfield and rather a tasty set of options up front to add to the (hopefully durable) defensive stability we have shown. This is the first time I've actually felt optimistic all season.

Getting more than 25 million for Guendouzi would be a real stretch and us being overly ambitious. At the moment he’s a slightly more technical version of Francis Coquelin.

He may realise his potential but only impresses in cup games and Europa right now. Compare his rise to Martinelli or Saka and you get a different picture. Even when those 2 have less productive games you can see their talent is obvious. Don’t really see that with Guendouzi at the moment

Barcelona have been given permission from La Liga to sign an emergency striker outside of the transfer window. That is ridiculous. A GK perhaps, there is precedent for that, but an extra striker just because Suarez and Dembele are injured....and they ONLY have Messi and Griezman and youth players to pick from!
Apparently there are certain rules ghat the signing must be a forward and must be from a la liga club and must happen in the next 15 days, after which the club they buy from will be given their own special window to sign a replacement, and I assume that goes on and on from club to club.

If we're going to start a run of form by spanking someone 4-0 I'm quite happy for it to be Newcastle.

Made me happy.

As for Gwen, I think people are probably over-reacting to what has happened. Not at all uncommon for youngsters establishing themselves to need a slap down from the gaffer, which from what we know is what appears to have happened. Wouldn't be at all surprised to see him back in the squad Thursday, probably alongside pretty much everyone who was on the bench yesterday.

I don't like the rule at all and the only thing remotely good about it is that the seriousness of the injury has to be confirmed by a La Liga doctor.

Btw don't be surprised to see Lucas Perez high in the mix of names. He's been impressive this term.

Get Brexit done, we’re not all racists blah blah blah etc etc

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51535367

Terrifying and moronic in equal measures.

Mari starting for the U23 tonight

Hi Rich.

Any idea if it's being streamed?

That’s pretty well how I see it. He’s 20 for gawd sake. He was a stroppy teenager (or to be pedantic barely above). It’s growing up. He hasn’t murdered anyone.

Sorry read this too late, I didn’t see it anywhere. Mari came off at half time in what seems like a pre planned sub. Arsenal lost 2-1 to Chelsea

Arteta putting a few players in their place is a win win situation for him as long as he treats everyone the same and retains the backing of the group as a whole.
He dropped Lacazette and explained to him why he did it, Lacazette comes on and gets a goal and assist and Arteta gets the reaction he wants.
If Arteta drops a player and gets a negative reaction then he’s been proven right to drop the player
That’s a simplistic view and it takes careful man management to get it to work but I’d far rather this approach than the previous regime

More VAR bs this evening. Maguire with an absolutely blatant deliberate kick out. A clear red and nothing is given. Willian then gets booked for diving when he was actually fouled and there is some rule that it can't be reviewed because it is outside the box. It's a pile of crap.

Maguire kicks out at Batshuayi, very similar to what Son got sent off for against Rudiger earlier in the season. Var review doesn’t give anything.
Same ref in both games

I dont think it was too similar really. Maguire's was bloody obvious.