That Was Arsenal's Best Performance Of The Season

Match Review: Arsenal 4 Newcastle United 1 - Premier League 13.12.14

Two weeks ago, I wrote that Arsenal may need major changes at the club. A few weeks before that, I wrote that we were in a crisis. Each time Arsenal have come back with consecutive wins of 1-0 and this time 4-1. I should have learned my lesson, but after defeats it’s easy to fall into the trap hyperbole and overreaction. Arsenal’s performance on Saturday was probably one of our best this season and an important reminder that there is quality and potential in our injury ravaged squad.

The defensive crisis we have yielded yet another back four combination, with Debuchy forced to play centre back and Bellerin brought in to play right back. On the face of it, it looked a suspect back line with Bellerin having struggled against Stoke and Debuchy having never played centre back before. In the midfield, Chamberlain continued in the centre from the win over Galatasaray, while Welbeck moved out to the left with Giroud at centre forward. It was pretty much the only XI we could name, but despite that, it was more than good enough to get a win.

A key problem for us in recent weeks has been that we struggle to score in the first half, despite often dominating the exchanges. It certainly cost us against United and we were too busy conceding goals against Stoke to think about scoring any. But against Newcastle we finally found a finishing touch. After dominating the ball and putting together some nice moves, we were finally able to finish an early chance. It came from Bellerin using his pace and tenacity to nip in and win the ball in midfield, which gave Giroud the ball. The Newcastle defence were caught out of position and Giroud was able to feed Alexis down the right, although it looked at first like he’d over hit the pass. It worked out well for him though, because the extra time it took for Sanchez to fetch the ball allowed him to get into position for a thumping header when Alexis floated the ball towards the penalty spot. An excellent goal all round for us and one to settle any nerves for both players and fans.

It should have been 2-0 mere moments later, as we won the ball back and broke down the left. Gibbs played the ball through for Welbeck, who beat Janmaat for pace and produced a wonderful chipped finish as he was falling over. Unfortunately, the referee decided that Janmaat had been fouled by Welbeck. Replays, not that they should have been needed, showed that Welbeck made little to no contact with Janmaat and that the referee had made an appalling decision. It’s nothing new, the refereeing in the Premier League is diabolical, with near comical decision’s made weekly by weak referees. Lee Mason, the latest incompetent official to hinder us this season, proceeded to let Newcastle get away unlimited fouls, including an absolutely horrific lunge from Tiote that should have seen a red card.

Newcastle had only one chance in the first half, but it very nearly yielded a goal, with Szczesny producing a good reaction save and blocking a follow up from Cisse after Gouffran’s initial header. It highlighted that while we had dominated the game, we are still liable to a defensive lapse at pretty much any moment.

However, Saturday was all about our attacking prowess and Cazorla’s goal less than ten minutes after the break was a perfect example of what we can produce when we are on form. Alexis produced another assist, running at the Newcastle defence before finding Cazorla’s clever run. The Spaniard did very well to lift the ball over Coloccini and then keep his balance before lobbing a beautiful finish back across the keeper into the far corner. Cazorla has been on a significant goalscoring drought and his form had also been poor, but recent weeks have seen him improve significantly. If he can get back to much more clinical ways, we will be a much better side for it.

With that goal, we had a firm grip on the game and it forced the away side to push forward in search of a way back into the game. For a side that had come to the Emirates with the intention of being tight and looking to counter attacks for goals, the transition to being the aggressors was always going to be difficult. Eventually, one of their attacks allowed us to counter attack and we were clinical. The key to the goal was the pace of Chamberlain and Bellerin, who stormed down the right and the latter squared for Giroud. The Frenchman produced a really classy finish with the outside of his foot to grab his second of the game.

The one disappointment we will have come from the goal we conceded five minutes later. Giroud gave away a silly freekick and we then failed to mark or challenge Perez as he headed the ball into the far corner. A real shame as we had been defending quite well, but set pieces are still hurting us. I’m sure we would have defended it better if we had our normal back four, but we never do and we’re going to have to find a way of dealing with it as it continues to cost us.

Despite a nervy period that ensued, we didn’t ever look like losing control of the game and we capped things off with Danny Welbeck winning a penalty right at the death and Cazorla stepping up to chip it cheekily down the middle. I think that penalty put the finishing touches on our best home league performance of the season. The way we moved the ball and the goals we scored was reminiscent of more successful times. We made Newcastle look ordinary and we looked dangerous with every attack. Not a single player had a bad game, which hasn’t happened enough this season and whilst it doesn’t mean that everything is now rosy in the garden, this has been our most encouraging response to a defeat.

Teams

Arsenal (4-2-3-1)
Szczesny, Bellerin (Y), Debuchy, Mertesacker, Gibbs, Flamini, Chamberlain (Y) (Maitland-Niles 91’), Alexis (Coquelin 87’), Cazorla, Welbeck, Giroud (Podolski 73’)
Subs
Martinez, Coquelin, Maitland-Niles, Podolski, Ajayi, Campbell, Sanogo

Newcastle (4-2-3-1)
Alnwick, Janmaat (Y), Williamson, Coloccini, Dummett, Tiote (Y), Colback, Perez (Armstrong 82’), Ameobi (Cabella 56’), Gouffran, Cisse (Reviere 56’)
Subs
Anita, Haidara, Cabella, Vuckic, Riviere, Armstrong, Woodman

Player Ratings

Szczesny - 7/10 - Made an important double save to keep us in front
Bellerin - 7/10 - Excellent, but also lost the ball too much in dangerous areas
Debuchy - 8/10 - For me MOTM, he was superb in his first CB outing
Mertesacker - 7/10 - Much better performance after recent criticism
Gibbs - 7/10 - Had a solid game
Flamini - 7/10 - An understated but efficient performance
Chamberlain - 7/10 - Another who was a little sloppy in possession but great in attack
Alexis - 8/10 - Another all action performance which included two assists
Cazorla - 8/10 - Two goals and a great performance to back them up
Welbeck - 8/10 - Deserved a goal, but the rest of his game was also outstanding
Giroud - 8/10 - A quality centre forward performance with two brilliantly taken goals
Subs
Podolski - 6/10 - Didn't get involved much and the game was pretty much dead
Coquelin - N/A
Maitland-Niles - N/A

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