Arsenal overcame a battling 10 man Newcastle side on Saturday afternoon with a 1-0 win that fired them to 5th in the league.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s deflected strike was all that separated the two teams, despite Newcastle going down to ten men after 16 minutes. But that only tells half the story; the Gunners were denied a clear penalty inside 10 minutes and looked like they might run away with it before Mitrovic was sent off. Then the home side sat back and blunted an Arsenal attack that was built to counter attack.
The feeling around the club at the moment seems rather negative, but from the opening four games, 7 points cannot be considered a disaster. The key is that the team manage to find their rhythm ahead of a very difficult looking November. Hopefully the manager makes a couple of signings before Tuesday’s transfer deadline and then I will be satisfied with the early season form.
One thing we certainly need to improve on is efficiency and that was an area of improvement the fans certainly identified too. Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud’s wastefulness caused particular annoyance.
Great results all round today but I’m still worried about our ability to score goals. Arsene doesn’t seem sure of Walcott or Giroud
— JG (@Artekkers) August 29, 2015
That was Walcott’s big chance to prove he’s a striker,a poacher,someone who can nick goals from 2 yards out. But he missed, the bloody idiot — Paddy Power (@paddypower) August 29, 2015
Giroud’s going to slip over and accidently score
— Arsenal (@ArsxnaI) August 29, 2015
Arsenal’s top Premier League scorers Own goal: 2 Giroud: 1 pic.twitter.com/Ob9iKrwlxO — Football Funnys (@FootballFunnys) August 29, 2015
One thing confirmed for AW today is that Walcott is not a striker. He hasn’t got it. Let’s hope something comes up
— Elliot Richardson (@ElliotR1971) August 29, 2015
Giroud has done well for 3 seasons and he deserves credit but that’s enough. Walcott also not a solution. Need a killer up front. — DC (@DeanLDN22) August 29, 2015
Walcott is going to continue having poor games up front, 1 day he’ll beg to get his right wing position back and by then it would be taken.
— Dezil Dez (@DezilDez) August 29, 2015
Seeing Giroud’s attempt again, sickening how you can’t score that. — Gene Oliver (@mantomanmarking) August 29, 2015
Walcott really not a good option as central striker.
— arseblog (@arseblog) August 29, 2015