Pizy

Absolutely disgusting performance and tactics from Newcastle. Parking the bus is one thing, what they did was taking it to another level. The constant fouling with the ref not doing anything about it until late in the match was annoying. Giroud gets a forearm to the face directly in front of the linesman and nothing is given which leads to their goal. I really hate Newcastle. Thankful to get this one out of the way early with 3 points.

A game like this is also really a struggle for Morata. When he's surrounded and bullied by yo multiple people. This is definitely a Giroud match.

Newcastle using the Tony Pulis Stoke tactics. Have to pop it around quickly like we did a few times that half if we want to get through. Playing it sideways at walking pace plays right into their hands.

One foul and a yellow card. Their whole team hacking away at ours and nothing.

Gonna be very difficult to break down this massive bus's playing at this pace. Need to quicken things up.

Unles he's injured, how poor must Emerson look in training to repeatedly not even make the bench? Had really high hopes for him this season to at least split time with Alonso.

That Newcastle team... Our strongest XI whilst they're missing/not starting their 3-4 best players. No Shelvey, no Lacelles, no Ayoze, no Kenedy. This should be a comfortable 3 points if we play well.

They were utterly horrific last week so I'm 100% certain they'll raise their game for such a big match here. Thankfully for us, we now have a manager and the personnel to be proactive and assertive rather than playing defensively and waiting for a counter attacking chance or some individual magic from Hazard. Really hope we come out of the gate aggressively and dominate possession. Keep the ball away from Shelvey as much as we can and I don't see how they can hurt us much other than if we make silly errors.

Adama was roasting Mendy who's arguably the fastest LB in the league. Think about what he'll do to Alonso! 😩

Unless we are completely shit and hand them loads of chances on a plate early in the game I just don't think they have enough quality to either score multiple goals against us or prevent us from doing so.

Expect Rondon to make his first start here which means their biggest danger will be Shelvey pinging quick long passes up to him and hoping he can bully Rüdiger or Luiz. If we can dominate the ball (no reason we shouldn't since we just did so to possession kings Arsenal) then they really shouldn't have a chance. I suppose if we allow them lots of setpieces in poor areas or corners they can trouble us. They'll park Rondon right near Kepa who he'll tower over physically. They were unbelievably awful over the weekend against in my opinion the worst side in the league in Cardiff. This gives me belief that we'll break this spell of Newcastle being a bogey side.

So, looking forward at least in the short term, Pedro has pulled ahead of Willian for a place in the first XI surely. He's our best finisher and unlike Willian he actually seems eager to press all the time. Willian did it sometimes but got pretty lazy as the game went on. He was also partially at fault for one of their goals.

Jorginho was excellent again but I do see people here and there having a pop at him for his defending. You have to remember that in this system he's basically by himself on an island in midfield. When the ball turns over quickly that's when he's vulnerable because Kante will be up high pressing. Just something we have to work on.

If you'd have asked me before the season started whether it would take longer for us to look solid defensively or silky going forward I would have said the latter. I thought it would take us months to look like a free-flowing attacking side. But fuck me, we look amazing going forward compared to years past. We totally controlled an excellent footballing side in Arsenal in that second half and if not for Cech having a 10/10 performance could've scored 6. If we can settle ourselves at the back and our midfielders know when and where to be to help out, we can make a real push for that 3rd spot.

What a fucking difference Kovacic made when he came on! Instant, telepathic link up with Hazard and Jorginho. He's so good on the ball.

We really have to hope half time settles the players' heads. They looked shell shocked. How we can go from bossing it (while admittedly still conceding chances) to looking like scared dogs is mad. Like getting kicked in the teeth. It was as if we expected Arse to surrender.

It seems like when our midfielders retreat back to defend in our box, they go way too deep. The cut backs are being played with Kante facing our goal! Most worrying this seeing Alonso and Azpi just allowing Iwobi and Bellerin acres of space to run into. You have to engage them tighter. Letting them just build up a head of steam and run. Recipe for disaster.

LOOK AT THIS!!!! ALONSO GETTING DESTROYED! There are multiple players just standing wide open on our penalty spot! WTF!?

We are shockingly terrible at the back. Every single time they get it wide and cut it back we look like conceding. Better finishing and we'd have conceded 4-5 by now.

If Alonso gets roasted today hopefully it'll get Sarri to consider Emerson against these bigger teams. Alonso can start against the Huddersfield's of the league.

It is a pretty bad look, isn't it? Especially when you see all the French players that were in the final like Kante, Pogba, Lloris etc all starting games already. Think he obviously could've started here but wouldn't last too long. Better to not risk anything.

Neither side able to field their strongest XI yet, then. Both have key players on their benches. Expect us to struggle going forward with this XI.

Arsenal fans seem pretty confident from what I've seen. Unless we come out completely flat like we did against Huddersfield while Arse blitz us and score early I really don't think we'll lose this. I think the mentality of the team now under Sarri is far different than it was under Conte last season. The lads will now be instructed to start on the front foot and go after Arsenal rather than trying to simply contain them and counter attack. Their entire back 4 is frankly shit defensively and Cech is very uncomfortable with the ball at his feet when he's under pressure. If our attack is fluid and keeps the ball moving quickly I don't see how they keep us from scoring. Conversely, we have 2 areas in our back 4 that are very susceptible to pace and a new keeper making only his second appearence in a new league. So there are certainly areas they can exploit as well. I'm confident that we'll win this but would be very confident had this fixture been a few weeks from now instead so Hazard and Kovacic were fully caught up and match fit.

So it sounds like we'll use the same XI that started against Huddersfield with Hazard and Kova coming on in the second half.

Think this'll be a very open, back and forth match. Both teams under new managers that like to press high. We saw last weekend that Cech looked super nervy under heavy pressing so hopefully we can do the same as City did and force him to make mistakes. I worry about Luiz and Alonso against Özil, Lacazette, Auba, and Mkitaryan. Lots of quick movement and pace which both of them struggle against. If Eden starts I'll be very confident, if not I think we'll struggle going forward.