No one said it was easy supporting Newcastle. My co-blogger Bob called last night's last-minute loss the lowest moment he's had as a fan of the club. It seemed like Alan Pardew had successfully dusted off the playbook he'd used in the draw at Old Trafford. But this time, Danny Simpson wasn't there to clear off the line in the 94th minute. He was caught well up the field after his errant throw-in led to Arsenal's game-winning counterattack.
However, there were plenty of encouraging signs yesterday in Pardew's first-half approach and formation. Against a less talented and confident side - such as Norwich on Sunday - this approach will pay dividends.
Newcastle started the game in a fairly fluid 4-2-3-1, dissuading fears of the drab football that has plagued some recent performances. The quirk, of course, was putting Gabriel Obertan in a number 10 role and keeping Hatem Ben Arfa out on the right. It almost made sense; Obertan looked fairly effective in his cameo appearances there. But 10 minutes against Blackburn is not exactly the same as starting away to Arsenal, and Obertan looked unsure of what to do for most of the match. His biggest contribution was the woeful pass to an unmarked Ben Arfa that ended the only real chance of the second half.
It was also a disappointing evening for Davide Santon, whose positioning at left back was left wanting. Time and again, Santon would charge out to midfield, trying (and failing) to cut off Bacary Sagna. That left a cavernous gap for Theo Walcott to exploit. As the defense struggled to reshuffle, Arsenal ended up with exactly what it wanted: Robin van Persie, the league's best striker, one-on-one with Mike Williamson.
Arsenal's midfield trio of Tomas Rosicky, Mikel Arteta, and Alex Song conjured up memories of some of Newcastle's early-season performances, not giving Yohan Cabaye and Cheick Tiote any space to operate. Arteta, in particular, was a possession machine for Arsene Wenger's crew, completing 83 of 88 passes (94%) and winning the ball back with three interceptions as well. As the game continued, Rosicky and Arteta pushed up even further, forcing an interminable stream of backpasses to Tim Krul - who actually led Newcastle in touches by a considerable amount.
But none of this should be surprising when playing Arsenal at this point in time. Outside of that 4-0 blip in Milan, it has been an impressive run for van Persie and company. The dominant second half skewed so many of the statistics on offer, but make no mistake: unlike the first half against Sunderland, Pardew sent Newcastle out to play passing football last night. The formation switch and inclusion of Ben Arfa shows what he had in mind. And the preferred forward pairing of Demba Ba behind Papiss Cisse, with Ben Arfa on the right wing, will give Norwich plenty to think about as they walk into St. James' Park Sunday afternoon.
I hate to single out just a couple of players as it takes a team to lose. However - Obertan was the weakest link for most of the match on the attacking side and his indecision and horrific choice of pass when Ba and HBA were options IN THE BOX is shocking. I'd be lamenting his performance more if it weren't for the unsurprising let down of Williamson who once again showed he's out of his element playing in the premier league. He constantly looks scared and intimidated. The first goal was a combination of great control from RVP and terrible defending from Williamson who was sent for the pies like a school boy on that move. The second goal while Danny Simpson was upfront (weird) Williamson found himself in no mans land no covering an open defender and instead going up for a header with another Newcastle defender leaving two gooners unmarked for the clean up. Newcastle won't make the champions league due to their cheapness in January with defenders that we clearly need! Europe is far from guaranteed also and unless they start finding ways to win again we could be looking at a 9th finish!
Posted by: Mathew | 03/13/2012 at 11:09 AM
Wow, what a devastating ending to a game. Why were there 5 minutes added on? It seemed excessive.
All in all, it seemed to be a typical NUFC game as of late: encouraging signs mixed with glaring holes.
HWTL
Posted by: Toon Fan in MN | 03/13/2012 at 11:23 AM
I'm an Arsenal fan and agree with your statement - don't be discouraged by that defeat. We only just managed to steal it in the last minute and Newcastle were one of the best teams I've seen at the Emirates this season. I hope you finish 5th!
Posted by: Andrew | 03/13/2012 at 11:32 AM
The 5 minutes was a direct result of Krul taking his time with every goal kick and free ball. RVP made a point to call this out he got the crowd involved and the Ref bought into it.
Its almost Karma when you try and waste every little second that we loose due to the time the reff added because of said time wasting.
Posted by: Mathew | 03/13/2012 at 11:49 AM
I refuse to be cheered up. I hate van Persie, soccer and life. I think I'll start a blog on gardening.
Posted by: Bob | 03/13/2012 at 11:52 AM
Another Arsenal fan here. Really good blog - nicely balanced for a change - and really good shift by your boys last night. Would love for you guys to take 4th place; assuming we take 3rd (naturally).
Still more than 1/4 of the season to go (30 points). There's more than enough scope to leapfrog totts and chel$ea. You certainly have the players to do it.
Posted by: Tim | 03/13/2012 at 12:39 PM
Its encouraging to have some Arsenal fans heap praise on Newcastle however I guess i'm a jaded Newcastle fan from years of standing in the cold while they break my heart to buy into the idea we have a shot at 4th with the defense we're duck taping together these days!
Posted by: Mathew | 03/13/2012 at 12:50 PM
Five things I learned last night:
(1) I still wish Newcastle had signed Mikel Arteta before the season. He isn't a striker, but gosh is he ever-present in the midfield.
(2) I don't know if Davide Santon's best position is at LB. I love to see him roaming up front, but unless Jonas is going to cover for him (or someone else is going to slide in behind him) there are substantial gaps.
(3) We were missing that "extra" pass through that would have opened up Demba, Shola or HBA. It seemed like we held the ball a bit long sometimes giving the defense a chance to close or re-position.
(4) I thought once Perch came on that he had a pretty good game against Walcott on the far side. Shola showed his big physicality but he'll never beat a man with speed...it'll be coordination and length...get him closer to that box.
(5) Arsenal was the better side last night but not by much. If we played ten times, I think we'd take five. I think that is a positive sign (despite losing a point) when we were scheduled by many for a relegation scrap.
Bob...the sun will come out tomorrow! Even in Wisconsin.
Posted by: MnToonArmy9 | 03/13/2012 at 03:54 PM
Cheer up Bob! I would have been disappointed if NUFC hadn't shown up, like at Spurs. But the team battled hard, just isn't quite good enough to go toe-to-toe with a team like Arsenal on the road.
Thought Shola was superb last night and had Simpson just thrown the ball to him, he probably would have been able to hold up the ball and run some more clock. Ba was a bit uncomfortable up top by himself, but he still had some good moments. Ben Arfa was up and down, but overall pretty promising. Obertan was the same as he's been all year - some nice moments, but giving the ball away cheaply too many times.
Santon and Simpson were poor. Williamson was shaky in the first half, but at least got better as the game went on. Colo needs some help along the backline next season.
But we already knew all of that before yesterday. Still on target for Europa League.
Posted by: Tom | 03/13/2012 at 05:11 PM
Bob, if this club has gotten to you in just a couple years then you are in trouble. Are path to glory will take a while and demand patience from all of us. These matches suck to lose at the death but we did not deserve a point from this match in my opinion.
Posted by: Rob | 03/14/2012 at 04:45 PM
Mathew - wrong. Obertan was key to everything good about our first half performance - his movement and willingness to provide passing options to Tiote and Coloccini was essential to our ability to move forward without resorting to 'hoofball'. Until Cabaye starts taking up positions further up the pitch... we desperately need someone to perform this role in the team. In the first half, he did it well. In the 2nd he faded
Posted by: M | 03/14/2012 at 11:25 PM
Overall a tough loss, but as previous posters said, at least we showed up and played well. It's hard to lose at the death like that no doubt, but I am proud of the fight and heart the team showed.
I think giving up a goal immediately after going up 1 nil was key to the game. If we are able to hold the lead until halftime say, then I think we had a real shot at 3 points or 1 for sure.
While it's a hard defeat, other than a couple of shocking performances, we are hanging with the top teams for the most part. And that's with much less depth than Tottenham, Man U, Chelsea, etc. Most of the matches we have played against them have been relatively close affairs. If we build wisely in the summer, there is no reason to think we can't push a little higher up the table. Plus we are already set for when FFP rules come into effect. Those clubs are not, so they will have to deal with that sooner rather than later.
Posted by: Ryan | 03/15/2012 at 11:19 AM