Arsenal 1-1 Newcastle – 18/11/06 – (Barclays Premiership) 19 November, 2006

Another frustrating game to watch at the grove ending in another 1-1. Recently our finishing is what has been holding us back from taking all 3 points but our finishing had improved yesterday but the magnificent Shay Given wasn’t letting anything past him. We started with the team I predicted, a little unhappy that Henry was rested but really we shouldn’t of needed him against Newcastle anyway. I was very exited to see Baptista starting but he really did have a shocker.

He didn’t know his role in the game and there were miss placed passes all over the place. I was thinking, if Baptista hadn’t recovered in time for this game, Alex Song may have started instead, and if Song had given exactly the same performance as Baptista then we’d all be going Song is shit, he should never be allowed to play blah blah blah. Going into the game I was a big fan sitting proudly there with my The Beast – 9 shirt but after a while, like others around me were desperate for Wenger to take him off. However the difference is between Song and Baptista is we know The Beast will improve and that performance was just a one-off and he will improve once he gets some games under his belt; he’s been out for a while with his injury and really hasn’t played any regular football in a long time.

I don’t think he is comfortable in that midfield position either, yesterday he was given the Gilberto role in midfield and as a naturally attacking player he really was lost. I still believe he can go on to be a big player for Arsenal, we the fans just have to give him time, and I hope Arsene has the faith to play him again and give him the chance. However there were a couple of moments in the match he impressed: one was in the second half before he was taken off. He played a clever one two and continued his run and if he was delivered the ball he would’ve been one-on-one with the ‘keeper but instead we went down the wing to cross it in. The other was a fabulous free kick on the edge of the box. I’ve seen compilation videos on youtube of Baptista so I know he can whip in a free kick so when he was lining the ball up yesterday I knew he had a chance of scoring. When he struck it, it looked like it was sailing over the bar but it had so much bend and dip on it the ball ended up in the roof of the net just going of the bar. Given was beaten and it would’ve been a great 1st goal for the Gunners.

He wasn’t even that beastly either, got pushed off the ball a couple of times. Was very disappointed with that.

Anyways, the game…The first half we really didn’t play that well and after some poor defending Newcastle opened the scoring on the counter attack. It was a really stupid goal to concede and it was their only real chance all game. Eboue just kept backing off and backing off and allowed Dyer the room to curve the ball past Lehmann. If that was Toure in that situation he would’ve got stuck in and won the ball but Eboue hasn’t mastered this yet.

At half time Henry came out to train which brought the spirits up, everyone around me was saying he should come on for Baptista but The Beast came out for the second half and it became clear that Titi was coming on for Van Persie. I didn’t understand why but he had picked up a hamstring injury in the first half, which might see RVP missing the Hamburg game on Tuesday. The second half was amazing football from Arsenal, it was literally non-stop attack for the whole half and the crowd were really getting behind the team. It’s good to hear what sort of noise 60,000 Gooners are capable of; I just can’t wait for Spurs on the 2nd, that will be a great game and I can only imagine the atmosphere.

We had so many chances in the second half but once again, nothing would go in for us. Alot of the time that was down to Shay Given. He’d just come back from injury and he put in another magnificent performance against us. He stopped so many shots and I thought it was going to be one of those days and I feared that Newcastle would break our unbeaten record at our new home. In the end it took a magnificent free kick from Thierry Henry. It was so perfectly place not even Shay Given could save it. It was only an equalizer against Newcastle but I’ve never celebrated so much at the Grove. I nearly got my leg stuck between the seat in front on me and I nearly feel back over my own seat. We were all over Newcastle and I thought we could go all the way and make it 2-1. It wasn’t to be but it just shows you however well you play it doesn’t guarantee you a win.

We’ve been really inconsistent of late and as a Gooner is very frustrating. I always say I hope we can carry on this form but I just don’t know now. We should have no difficulty beating Hamburg on Tuesday but we’ll just have to see how it goes.

Yesterday’s game was probably the most enjoyable for me I’ve been to so far at the Grove. Well the Bergkamp game was very special but I’m talking about competitive games. I mean we’ve had three 3-0′s but for some reason I liked yesterday’s game. For the second half we were attacking down at the end I was at, and it was non-stop. And the crowd got quite loud which I always love. I’m sure though that the up coming Tottenham will be one to remember. But before that we’ve got Hamburg on Tuesday and a very tricky trip to the Reebok next week. Thanks for reading.

p.s. Oh crap I forgot to mention our midfield duo. Fabreags, and especially Flamini were amazing for us yesterday. They were getting stuck in all over the pitch and really put in all they had into the game to try and help us get that goal. There were several two-footed challenges winning the ball perfectly but with a bit of extra ‘fuck you’ to the player who’d just been tackled; if they’d got it wrong any of those times it probably could’ve been a straight red. I love it when you see players giving a damn and these two yesterday gave everything they had for the team.