Three Points: Spring Hangover, Summer Dreams

Here’s this season’s final three-pronged match recap, examining Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Arsenal before turning attention to summer pastimes such as evaluating transfer rumors, sipping fresh lime margaritas and praying for American friendlies:

Shutdown central

While Newcastle United showed little prolonged threat in attack, this was one of the better defensive performances of the year (faint praise), throwing numerous wrenches into Arsenal’s metronome-like passing machine and shutting down the Gunners’ main weapons. Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa was effective despite being out of position on the left, dancing out to frustrate Theo Walcott with Fabricio Coloccini and Steven Taylor forming a refreshingly organized safety net behind. Cheick Tiote had some head-shaking moments on the ball – remember when the in-the-knows had his transfer value at £20 million? – but he was a welcome midfield roadblock. And Mathieu Debuchy’s reliability continues to surprise this observer who has long admired his versatility but worried about his occasional defensive naps in France. Except for one bad guess on a setpiece Newcastle would’ve swiped a point and sent Arsenal’s Champions League playoff berth to Tottenham.

Love him or Hatem

Hatem Ben Arfa can’t resist the challenge of taking on an entire opposing backfield by himself. He’s overdue to complete a signature coast-to-coast journey with a goal. And he looked on Sunday to be still carrying a bit of injury fat. But he sure does keep the other side occupied. Even without much sniff of an actual goal, he took several minutes by himself off Arsenal’s possession fixation and showed why Newcastle suffers without him. Would that he could stay uninjured and fit through a season.

Where have ye been, Newcastle?

During the second half at our pub an Arsenal fan turned to me and said, “What the hell. I thought you guys were bad.” I can’t come up with a better summation of the day. Not that it was a scintillating performance. But if Newcastle United had shown only this much orderliness and mettle through most of the season, the club and fans would’ve been spared their relegation worries, and Alan Pardew’s managerial seat would be off the simmer. 

Comments

[Andrew Douglas]

We got beat 1 nil! How ordinary do you want us to be? Cisse totally isolated again and HBA on the right! wide right???????? and hea expected to track back? Come on man wake up! Our tactics this season have been horrendous! Pardew has been that bad this season I don't have the time to list his faults!!!!!!!'

[Mathew]

That game was awful! AP finished a horrible season with consistency at least. Poor tactics and team selection lead to a nervy Arsenal sneaking a 1-0 win.
Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa was looking dangerous on the left so what does Pardew do? Subs him out leaving Tiote who is becoming my least favorite Newcastle player. Between the eye rolling and constant talking back to the ref for the smallest things while he's also one of the biggest flopers in the league. He spent more time on the ground holding his face, leg, back than the rest of the Newcastle team combined.
As for Jonas, I can't for the life of me work out why he consistently starts??? He and Tiote did an amazing job of stifling any attack with no movement and poor passing.
Finally - HBA, He needs a better coach, someone to teach him how to pass the ball and make better decisions! And what's with the blasting the ball over the bar when he's in the box? Just like against Benfica he does a magical run into the box just to lean back and lift the ball high into the stands! For a player of his quality after 19 games to only have 2 assists and 4 goals speaks volumes to his poor decision making on the field.