Arsenal vs Newcastle:Player Ratings

Arsenal drew 0-0 with Newcastle today in a contentious match. Arsenal started off well and were sharp in the first fifteen minutes, and Saka was particularly bright. But Newcastle got back into the match, and from then on, it was a pretty evenly balanced contest in the first half. Both teams had a few shots, but nothing special from either.

The Magpies' fouls and persistent double-teaming on Arsenal players ruined the first half. Five yellow cards and a fair number of cautions were given out by the referee. He probably was the busiest man of the half. At the end of the half, Joelinton missed an easy header at the back post, summing up the half as a whole: hyped up but quite underwhelming.

The second half wasn’t much better, and it really was just Newcastle defending and Arsenal not being able to break them down effectively. The Newcastle players just kept committing fouls, especially on Bukayo Saka, but the referee didn't seem to care.

At the end of the second half, there was just a lot of time wasting by Newcastle, and in the 95th minute of the game, Arsenal had a penalty call denied by the referee. Granit Xhaka crossed the ball in the box, and it hit Jacob Murphy on the arm. Incomprehensibly, it wasn’t given as a penalty, with VAR’s only excuse being "proximity." It was appalling. Newcastle did defend exceptionally well, but 8 out of 10 times Arsenal would have won that game, and that penalty could be the difference between the title and a top-four finish

.

Arsenal Player Ratings

GK: Aaron Ramsdale -6/10- Made a couple good saves and was decent when distributing the ball albeit a sloppy error in the 2nd half.

RB: Ben White -7/10- Very solid in defence and had a good battle against Joelinton. Completed 3 of his tackles and won 6 out of his 7 ground duels. The best Arsenal defender on the night.

CB: William Salliba -5/10- He’s still struggling and always looks a step behind. Wasn’t exceptionally bad, but didn’t have much to be proud of either. Worrying.

CB: Gabriel -7/10- Defensively good; performed much better than his defensive partner. He completed one tackle and performed 3 clearances.

LB: Oleksandr Zinchenko -6/10- Wasn’t a great defender but made up for that with his incisive passes into the final third, completing eighteen.

CM: Martin Odegaard -5/10- It's not his fault that he received such a low mark. It's just because of how well Newcastle stopped him from getting into the game fully.

CM: Thomas Partey -5/10- an average performance. He wasn’t adventurous enough with his passing.

CM: Granit Xhaka -6/10- Mediocre. He created a couple of chances but wasn’t the best with his passing, seemingly trying to force the issue.

RW: Bukayo Saka -6/10- Was quite bright in the first half but was consistently fouled by Newcastle players and usually had multiple players marking him.

ST: Eddie Nketiah -4/10- Didn’t get the service required to do anything meaningful. Tried to do a couple of flick-ons but was usually unsuccesful.

LW: Gabriel Martinelli -5/10- Lots of running and hard work, but didn’t exactly ooze quality. Not as able when dribbling in this game and wasn’t as much of a direct threat as he can be.