Derby County were hammered 5-0 at Arsenal yesterday and looked decidedly second rate against a resurgent young Arsenal side.
Newcastle’s 1-0 loss last Monday night has therefore been sandwiched between Derby’s 6-0 loss at Liverpool last weekend and a 5-0 loss at the Emirates.
As a Newcastle supporter, that doesn’t make Monday night’s defeat by Derby any easier to take.
One thing that is helpful is that Derby have played a lot better at Pride Park this season, but it may well be they will not be able to survive their first season back in the Premiership.
Cesc Fabregas – after scoring yesterday – an emerging world-class player
The game yesterday showed two things. It showed that Derby are very definitely second rate in terms of skill, if not effort. It also showed clearly that Arsenal are back to their very best. The Arsenal team looked in terrific form and so young. Their midfielder, Cesc Fabregas, had another outstanding game and is quickly becoming a world-class central midfielder.
Arsene Wenger, who looked like he was really enjoying the game, has said he will give more of his youngsters a try-out against Newcastle on Tuesday night in the Carling Cup 3rd round. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the team will be weakened much. Wenger has lots of brilliant youngsters just waiting for their chance to shine at Arsenal, and to be sure it will be a difficult game on Tuesday for Newcastle United.
Emmanuel Adebayor scored a hat trick yesterday and Cesc Fabregas finished off his excellent display with a terrific goal. The first goal was an absolute corker from just outside the box by Diaby, which looked like one of the best goals of the season so far.
This is what Wenger had to say after the game:
This team means business. We are not there to show off. We want to achieve something together.”
“We try to play football we love here, it is linked to what we aspire to do. When we don’t win we are criticized, when we win people love us.”
“There is still room for improvement and the target is to get better and hopefully peak in April and May.”
The way they played yesterday Arsenal have once again become the best side to watch in the Premiership. Their football flowed beautifully and the only mystery is how does Wenger and his staff identify all these great players so early in their careers? Fabregas, as an example, was signed by the club when he was just 17 years old and even then he looked really good.
We’ll just have to hope, from the Magpies’ viewpoint, that Big Sam can cast his scouting net out even wider, and bring in a few young players who can develop the way they have at Arsenal. One thing is very real after yesterday’s performance by Arsenal – our game on Tuesday night will be an enormous challenge for our boys.
Comments welcome.
7 comments so far
Craig Allen
Sep 23, 2007 at 9:16 AM
Comment #1yeah. I doubt we’d be as bad as Derby (provided Harper doesn’t keep – Derby’s keeper made a few schoolboy errors, and Ameobi doesn’t play) Cesc seem to do what he pleases in midfield and I;m confident he’d a need a permission slip from Barton (when fit) before doing what he likes to us when they play us later on in the season. I do however fear a strong Arsenal performance in the CC game as we don’t have a midfielder fit to contain Cesc. I hope we win, but somehow have my doubts. But, we’d cross that ball when we get there, for now – I’m really looking forward to hammering the hammers today. Come on TOON! Welcome back Nobby.
carl
Sep 23, 2007 at 9:17 AM
Comment #2this just highlights how poor we were on monday, we need barton back desperatly.not very confident before west ham game and afraid arsenal will tear us apart on wednesday.def and attack is ok but our midfield is drab at the moment.??????????????????????????????
Ed Harrison
Sep 23, 2007 at 9:35 AM
Comment #3It puts Monday night’s game in perspective – and we don’t come out of it looking too good. Agree our central midfield seems the weakness. The Arsenal game is actually Tuesday night so not too long to get ready for it 😀
Ashburton Gooner
Sep 23, 2007 at 9:38 AM
Comment #4It will be a completely different game on wednesday. I like Derby but you can’t say they have premier league standard players, Newcastle do. Wenger will also change our team putting in a lot of the back-up players & youngsters, it will be a strong team but the likes of Cesc & Adebayor will not be in it.
If I guess at the team Wenger will play, it will go something along the lines of:- Fabianski (Goalkeeper), Hoyte, Nordveit, Senderos, Traore, Walcott, Gilberto, Diarra, Diaby/Gibbs, Bendtner & Eduardo upfront with a host of youngsters on the bench such as Merida etc.
If Newcastle play a strong team it will be a good game & Newcastle will stand a very good chance of winning.
Big AL
Sep 23, 2007 at 9:40 AM
Comment #5Well arsenal were awsome yesturday but on monday although we were terrible, the least we should have got was a draw, why u ask? well just before there wonder goal there was a stone walled penalty for a blatant foul on Roz, i mean how can you have your arms warped around a player and hall him down in the box and not give away a penalty?.
guess only the ref knows that. Yes we played very poorly but but for the ref we still would have won that game. So for me if we should have won playing that badly we should definatly win if we play well. Although i dont think i could stand another display as bad as mondays
Dalston
Sep 23, 2007 at 10:04 AM
Comment #6we don’t play like a team, that is biggest problem, for all the goals we scored, most of them are individual effort without decent build up…..players did not seems to understand each other on the field, especially in Derby match…we have a decent squad, BSA needs to gel them together.
Hadji
Sep 23, 2007 at 11:30 AM
Comment #7Ashburton gooner…Even with that team they could beat us very easy.I only hope that luck will be on our side when we face them.