There might still be some debate out there about whether Chamberlain should take the goal or it should stand as a Coloccini own goal but as far as am concerned, its 3 points in the bag and right now that is all that matters.
For the second week in a row we have won the game with a far from classic Arsenal goal and still remain far from the fluid threatening Arsenal that we know but for now, I along with other fans would gladly take any win as the team tries to get their fluidity back.
In a game which showed more rugby than football and saw a red card issued as early as the 16th minutes, one would expect Arsenal to have thumped this Newcastle squad by more than the somewhat lucky one goal we scored.
Newcastle played like they had been sent by our title rivals as all they seemed to do was foul our players and they got their reward. 6 yellow cards and 1 red and it could have been more.
Arsenal are unbeaten now in 8 games on the road since February and I wish our home form was this good, in that run we have won seven and drawn one.
From the first minute as is our custom, we pressed well, dominated possession, had more passes and all but lacked precision and that cutting edge we needed to break the Newcastle wall of defence.
Looking at the line up, Wenger seemed to have listened to our cries and decided to start Ox, replacing Giroud with Walcott up front and Koscielny back in for the somewhat out of sorts Chambers.
Ozil who got injured and has a minor injury was the only miss from that team that did the job against Palace.
Gabriel and Koscielny looked a good partnership even though some can argue that they were never really tested especially considering the fact that Newcastle had their main striker sent off after 16 minutes.
To be honest, it was not the best Arsenal performance considering the fact that we had 22 shots, only 9 were on target and just that one goal was scored. Agree with me or not, we could do better and I believe we would.
Sanchez still looks a little off but he would improve, Walcott didn’t have the best of games, same as Ox and Ramsey, Cazorla was a little silent but in the end we won the game which is most important plus another cleansheet for us and Cech.
As we prepare for the shutdown of the transfer window, we can only hope Wenger finds that exceptional talent he is searching for.
Until the next game.
Get well soon, Ozil.
