After earning a hard-fought draw at home against Liverpool last week, the Gunners travelled to the St. James’ Park for their fixture against Newcastle United today. Arsenal managed to bag all three points from the fixture due to an own goal by the Newcastle captain Fabricio Coloccini. The match saw magpies recent signing Aleksandar Mitrovic being awarded the red card in the 16th minute, leaving Newcastle with no potential threat in their forward line against Arsenal.
The magpies provided intense resistance against the Arsenal attack lead by Theo Walcott, but eventually surrendered.
Newcastle troubled by cards, Arsenal failed to convert
Apart from the red card to Mitrovic, six other Newcastle players were booked by the referee throughout the game. And, as the game entered final quarter, St. James’ Park shouted slogans “One Nil to the referee”. Clearly the supporters were not happy with the decisions taken by the referee and Arsenal did benefit from most of those decisions.
However, the Gunners failed to create much advantage throughout the game as they lacked finish to their game. Walcott missed some early chances and did not prove as a potential threat to the Newcastle goal. While, Alexis Sanchez made some efforts but all plaudits to the Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul who saved everything that was kicked towards his goal by the Gunners.
But, Krul failed to save a shot deflected by the Coloccini that lead to the breaking of the deadlock between the two sides. If it had not been for the own goal, Newcastle may have taken a point out of the fixture too. That would have certainly been a good result for the club, considering they were a man-down for most parts of the game.
One goal in four fixtures
That sums it up for Arsenal. The Gunners managed to score just one goal against their opponents in the Premier League. That is definitely not the kind of result you expect from a Premier League title contender.
Another question that pops up is, why play Walcott as a centre-forward ahead of Olivier Giroud?
Definitely, Giroud may not be a prolific striker but he is the best striking option Arsenal have and he is also the only Arsenal player to have scored a goal since the start of the Premier League.
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