Co-authored by ClockEndRider & 21stCenturyGooner
3 A.M. Saturday. North London. The alarm clock emits a sound which somehow penetrates deeper than usual, causing every nerve and sinew to scream piteously – “Leave me alone”. But no. The call must be heeded. And the massed ranks of the Arsenal supporters rise and look forward to the furthest away trip in the domestic calendar.
South Mimms 4 A.M. Dark, cold and just a touch on the damp side. Surely this wouldn’t be an omen for the performance we would witness later? The coach turns up on time and we all get on, find our seats, and try to get some sleep. Many on the coach endured the trip to Preston on Wednesday and are more than a little nervous at the prospect of spending even more hours sitting in a tin can. Fortunately, the journey is completed in around 5 and a half hours, including a 30-minute breakfast stop at motorway services near Sheffield. The breakfast of Champions for us both, thanks for asking, getting us into Newcastle at around 10 am. We ventured into the city centre for a look round and found the kind of beautiful Victorian architecture you might expect all around. It was really quite nice to find a city centre not entirely despoiled by the usual 50’s/60’s ugly utilitarian buildings which scar so many inner-city landscapes. And the welcome from the locals was no less warm, despite the fact that, while I (CER) still bear the scars of away days in the 80’s and hence show no colours, 21CG proudly had his scarf in display. Not a single example of baiting or potential trouble from the hordes of locals making their way to St James from the station, as we battled against the tide.
Having sadly failed to find a decent pub to settle into for a pre match singsong, we instead made our way into the ground. After clambering up the infamous St James’ Park steps (14 flights – and a steward asked CER if he would like to take the lift, much to my amusement and his considerable chagrin), we arrived on the concourse and had a gander at our view, on what was our first ever visit to Newcastle. It is well documented that the away fans at Newcastle are situated in the upper tier, unlike all other Premier League grounds where at least a portion of away fans are housed in the lower tier. Despite this, we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of our view of the pitch. I (21CG) particularly liked how from our seats we had a view of some of the city which I thought was fantastically unique. I’ve now visited around 20 EFL grounds and I would now put St James’ Park at the top of that list. A proper old school ground with great atmosphere, and a large capacity. We’ve seen many big clubs up-sticks to bigger venues in recent years in search of additional revenue in sacrifice of the atmosphere but I don’t think Newcastle will ever have that problem. SJP holds around 50 thousand and from what I could see, they would have room to expand should they ever wish to. The welcome around the ground from stewards and police was warm and helpful and inside the ground there were plenty of outlets to quench the thirst, staffed by people who knew what they were doing. Just like Preston the other night, Arsenal could really learn a lesson or two and perhaps sufficiently incentivise the bar staff it hires or stop trawling from the bottom of the barrel or a combination of both.
The team was announced, and we saw that it was pretty much as expected, apart from Partey at right back, although Ben White was on the bench. Newcastle put out their selection of the usual physical freaks and failed WWF wrestlers including Guimaraes, Joelinton and Burn. Arsenal started well, dominating possession and probing the Newcastle defence without really creating anything of note. A sad indication of what was to come for the rest of the game. Then in the 14th minute, an excellent cross from Gordon on the right was met by Isak who found space between Saliba and Gabriel and put an excellent header out of Raya’s reach. It was against the run of play, and we would now see an exemplary display of defensive resilience, complemented by the usual strong-arm tactics from the above-mentioned offenders. Joelinton spent the next 80-odd minutes running round clobbering anything in sight but obviously, none of these fouls merited a yellow. I suppose at a ground where assault by a forearm smash is considered by officials and VAR to be perfectly acceptable, we should be in no way surprised.
Arsenal huffed and puffed for the rest of the half, to little effect with the boisterous away support becoming a little frustrated by the apparent reversion to the Horseshoe Football so unbeloved of the latter days of Wenger’s reign and the early days of Arteta’s. Saka, superbly marshalled all game by 2 and even 3 defenders. Did excellently late in the half to beat his left back and pull a great cross back from the bye-line. however, there was only a single Arsenal player in the box and the ball was easily dealt with. We were curiously off the pace and seemingly without ideas. Newcastle perhaps got a little bit lucky when, following a decent corner delivery from Rice – and, in truth, his delivery all day ranged from very poor to barely adequate – the ball dropped for Merino to lash a shot in from 6 yards which cannoned off the back of Hall, who had turned away. On another day it might have deflected in.
Th referee called for half time and a weary and frustrated looking Arsenal made their way to the dressing room.
Arteta sent Arsenal out early, having presumably read the Riot Act. It made not a jot of difference unfortunately. On 60 minutes he made some well-deserved subs, taking off Martinelli and Merino – who had been no less energetic nor more ineffective than any other Arsenal players – for Nwaneri and Zinchenko. The away support was delighted to see both, the former being greeted with “He’s one of our own”, the latter allowing Timber to move to right back and Partey to move into centre midfield. Surely this was the kind of positive change which would lift the fug. Rice, moved to ‘left eight‘ as a result, then had a good effort squeak narrowly wide after a mazy run had taken 3 defenders out.
On 70 minutes, Trossard, universally acclaimed as being disappointing in this game, although hardly alone in this, and Timber were subbed for Jesus and Ben White respectively. Then, on 85 minutes Arsenals best chance of the game came with Saka again putting in an excellent cross but Rice’s header from 4 yards being, frankly, limp. It summed up our day.
The whistle blew and barely any Arsenal players came over to the away fans who, for the second time in a week had made a bloody great effort to visit far flung places, setting off /getting back at ridiculous times. Not impressed.
We wended our weary way back to the coach and headed south, arriving home at around 9 pm. A long day but some high spots along the way.
Final thoughts – I (CER) have seen and heard some frankly petulant, childish and downright disgraceful social media comments regarding Arteta and his performance as manager. I cannot express strongly enough my disapprobation of these sentiments. Occasionally, we lose a game and don’t play well. It was ever thus. We have had the toughest start to a season I can remember in a while with away trips to C115y, Sp*rs, Villa and Newcastle as well as being at home to Liverpool. We have suffered ridiculous red cards and suspensions as well as considerable injuries. And there are a mere 84 points to play for. Get a grip!
Cheers both! And fully echo the sentiments of the closing paragraph.
An astounding performance. No not the team, they were pants. I mean CER and 21CG and their 18 hour round trip voyage to Newcastle just a couple of days after a long visit to Preston. Bravo to both! And you’re off to Milan on Wednesday! Road warriors. The team didn’t deserve this outstanding support yesterday.
Wonderfully colourful review, fellas, of a game that was anything but.
Your last paragraph is spot on, CER. Sadly, it has always been thus, just much more visible since the advent of social media saturation.
There is still much to play for. At full compliment and playing as they can, our first team is still by a margin the best in the League.
COYG.
Well played gents. Top effort and a report that was far better than the performance.
I must disagree with Countryman (himself an old hand at big efforts to support the club on away days) in that the team did deserve the outstanding support they received, but would agree that the outstanding support deserved to see better from the team.
It wasn’t a lack of effort, which would have been inexcusable, just one of those days. It has been a long time since I have seen a goal knock us off our stride lack that; we were excellent for the opening 12 minutes.
Like Esso, I agree with CER’s closing thoughts. Arteta is one of the best managers in the world. He is certainly the best manager available to Arsenal and personally I am a huge fan of him as man as well as a manager. Criticism is fair and he knows better than most that he’s there to be shot at, but we must remember the context – that we only expect us to be good because he has made us so good.
We haven’t become bad after one dodgy game. There is lots still to play for.
VCC
Thanks for that CER and 21CG, after a terrific effort to get to the last two away games.
Arteta is trying to weather an injury storm and I’ve already offered my version in previous bars of how that has devastated both wings of our attack – not to mention that we finished the game against Liverpool without one single member of our first choice back four, and our fourth choice left back.
The first pick players who are fit have had to play every game of an unprecedentedly tough early season, including home and away Champions League ties. On top of that and without being overly dramatic, we have lost around eight points to some bizarre and unique refereeing decisions which have further depleted the team in important matches.
Yesterday’s performance was poor as we once again struggled to find a settled midfield / defence and still lacked the creativity and rhythm normally provided by the absent Odegaard. We were slow to change things yesterday and only began to show any pace and urgency in attack for the last 10 minutes. Did we have fully fit options on the bench ? Is the manager resisting the temptation to throw too much pressure, mentalily and physically, onto 17 year old Ethan Nwaneri ? Hopefully, yes, but we don’t know. But Arteta out ? Bloody ridiculous.
May I add my compliments to the Muswell Hill Gang for their very serious commitment to the cause . Your report seems very fair although I missed the first twenty minutes of the game .
Social media is a wonderful thing if it’s used by the right people. Sadly far too many people write utter crap at the drop of a hat. Anyone who thinks the answer to our problems is to sack Arteta is an idiot . We haven’t fired consistently this season but remember this time last year ( ok we were more in touch ) but most wanted to drop Havertz, banish Raya and buy a striker . The last one of those may still be relevant but Arsenal will be in a much better place when Odegaard returns and we gain some stability .
I don’t think Liverpool will keep up the pace and by March I think we will be very much in the title race .
Keep the faith Gooners!
Sterling work, C100 and 21CG, both the report and in putting in the hard yards of getting to Preston, Pons Aelius and Milan. Like others, I commend your final paragraph. Dino hits the nail on the head in that our expectations are so high because Arteta has made the team as good as it is. How quickly we forget how low things had fallen before he arrived. Memory seems to stretch no further than 280 characters these days.
Ned it was CER not me.
Spurs have conceded from a corner. In other news, the Pope has declared himself to be a Catholic.
Many thanks to the traveling father and son team of cer and 21cg for this excellent report on the day’s expedition and match. I woke early, watched until the goal, then turned it off and attended the final week of my beginner cricket course before going on a 30 mile group bike ride. When I returned home I first checked for comments from my fellow ‘holics who seemed none too happy with the result so I figured it was a morning well spent personally, but from an Arsenal perspective it feels as if our season hasn’t really started rolling yet but I have another feeling that with patience we will also see the steam building up over the coming weeks.
Well, apart from City losing, that’s been a complete bust of a sporting weekend. Arsenal lose, Spurs and Liverpool win and Verstappen practically wraps up the F1 by going from 17th to 1st in Brazil.
Hopefully we’ll get some joy in Milan and Chelsea.
Here’s to that, C100.
Utd vs FC Chelski 2003 was an execrable borefest,
I have just had a look at the table. Nic that we are more than 25% of the way through the season, I think it ought to be fairly instructive. I note that if the current top 10, of which we are 1, we have okayed 7, 5 away from home. At some point thuis has to even up.
I can’t get too exercised about our current position as a result…..
I note, not Nic….
C100@8: You see how deeply you are engrained in my subconscious as our talismanic traveller. A thousand apologies to CER. I can only plead being befuddled by the time change.
Edu leaving
https://x.com/samimokbel81_dm/status/1853344370021331098?s=61&t=cVFjCyGkt4y-Ne45LtfqkQ
Although Edu and Arteta have worked well together, I don’t see the former to be remotely as irreplaceable as the latter is. Nor do I see Edu’s departure having the same impact on Arteta as Dein’s did on Wenger. Onwards.
Keenos offers a good analysis of the situation on SheWore:
And to add to your ‘must reads’, an excellent analysis of where we stand after Newcastle:
https://www.le-grove.co.uk/p/arteta-faith-issues-bite-him
Until we get clarity on the why and when questions, it will be difficult to assess the impact. I am sure we’ll get a ton of ‘the sky is falling’ piling on in the press and on social media in the meantime, regardless.
bath@19: Thanks for the link. A sensible read. Keeno’s point about corporate employees commonly moving sideways to move up is well made.
Also, James King is reportedly due to return from the PFA as director of football operations so there may be less internal surprise at Edu’s departure than is being made out in the popular prints.
Bath,
Thanks for attaching that sensible Keenos article . Peter Wood wrote a good piece looking at the two periods of Edu’s career – the early Sanllehi – influenced years and the development of the leadership group with Arteta and Josh Kroenke . I’d add Garlick and Lewis and with the return of King we may see his role taken over by somebody else . Certainly I don’t think he was the person who discovered great new signings , Arteta is too much of a control freak to allow that but he negotiated some excellent new signings in the latter stages of his tenure at Arsenal some at very fancy prices . Most on here know how I feel about his ability to get good prices on sales !
He is by no means irreplaceable( and indeed may not be replaced directly ) but we owe him a debt of gratitude for his fine work over the last few years.
He has apparently trebled his salary at Forest and now takes over as CEO of the Marinakis football empire . We move on and need two good results this week
I think the days of one person discovering unknown talent are long gone with the advent of recruitment profiling and every eight years old on the planet being in a scouting database and having a YouTube highlight reel.
It’s official on .com. Edu had resigned.
I wonder if this might be weirdly well timed for the playing squad. Something to shake things up and bring a new energy and focus? Or maybe it won’t affect them much.
Anyway, Edu has done well and leaves with lots of thanks and goodwill. Yet he is not irreplaceable, we already have other top people in the executive team and I’m sure we’ll make a sensible appointment in some capacity when we are ready.
Thanks and good luck, Edu!
UTA
Thanks 21CG and CER, a tough trip for zero points. I have had a couple of days away from social media to avoid all the nonsense you highlighted in your final paragraph.
Best of luck to Edu.
Another good piece by Pedro on Le Grove on Edu’s departure:
https://www.le-grove.co.uk/p/edu-aftermath
It’s a great opportunity for him to progress his career at a European level and financially extremely rewarding but I suspect working for Josh is more secure and stable than working for the somewhat flaky Demis Roussos look-a-like.
I’m sure I read about Edu and Forest in September and dismissed it as unlikely. So it’s not exactly an over night thing. I guess they have been talking to each other for months.
The latest leaderboard for the GHF Predictathon has been posted. Forest continues to cause carnage. There is a new leader and a bonus form guide. You know where to find it all…
Declan Rice doesn’t travel to Milan as a precaution.
https://x.com/fabrizioromano/status/1853825484271874303?s=61&t=cVFjCyGkt4y-Ne45LtfqkQ
SPanza – since August apparently. Very strange that it’s all happened so quickly as soon as there was any public mention at all – and that it comes in November. You, or I, would have thought that an appointment like that would have been made either in the summer or at the end of this season.
The Athletic is carrying a story about allegations being made against Marinakis of being involved in a range of criminal activities ranging from drug smuggling to match fixing to being the leader of a criminal organisation known as The System. All denied by Marinakis but hardly a calm environment for Edu to begin operating in.
Good luck to him anyway. Hope he hasn’t given up a job he “ loved every minute of “ to jump into a storm.
>>>>>>>