If all else fails at least win badly

+Stephen Couling (CoulingKnows)
3rd January 2016

First of all HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

So yesterday Arsenal had an absolutely terrible performance against Newcastle where we were outclassed but somehow managed to rob the 3 points from on the day, the better team.

Cech got himself another clean sheet after some incredible saves. Apart from that i struggle to really see who else did anything positive. 

I was happy to see Chamberlain start and he does bring some direct play to Arsenal and is one of a rare breed of English players that will just run at you. I was disappointed yesterday as during the game the commentator said 2015 was a baron year for the Ox as he had not managed any assists or goals in the premier league! A player of that capability should not have stats that bad. It does make you think will he be able to cut it as a top top player? Tweet me your thoughts on that one.

I think yesterday's performance showed several weaknesses the side does possess. Theo Walcott who i love as a player needs a goal. He was gifted some dream passes from Ozil against Bournemouth and could not put the ball away. A goal or 2 should bring back that glistening form he once had. Rambo being another player perhaps "tries too hard" as he also has not been amongst the goals.

We did see Newcastle keep battering the right-hand side and Monreal who has been a very good player was caught out several times which kept seeing Flamini or Koscienly being pulled from position. It was a poor performance from the start and no wonder Steve McLaren was scratching his head as to why they left north London with no points. 

A determined run for the ball for Koscienly after a bouncy corner was enough for a goal and luckily Arsenal managed to hold on for the points.

Now my Twitter timeline was littered with comments about how poor the performance was and i completely agree with that as we were shit, no doubt. But i can only assume some people forget the bad wins Chelsea had when they won the league last year. Same as City the year before and Manchester united many times before that.

We all love the Arsenal way of playing football. Any football fan would. Sometimes teams will not allow them to play their way and if you stop a team from playing you normally stop them from winning so for Arsenal to dig deep and scrape a victory should be a promising sign for Arsenal fans. I would rather win with some beautiful passing and some fantastic assists from Ozil but if that is not possible do whatever the fuck you can to get a goal and close the game out. 

I believe this is why Arsenal have not found success in the champions league for so long. We play in premiership which is a tough league but in Italy and Spain, those teams win badly and have no trouble throwing them pansy selves to the floor for every tackle. They take the intensity out of the play which is what the English teams are all about. If Arsenal can win badly and change their style of play, not by diving for every tackle or taking the ball to the corner come the 90th minute but rough up the other teams and bundle the ball in the goal or play keep before amongst the back 4 than that will make it 10 times harder for the opposing team.

So if you were lucky like me to have the Christmas week off we have to return to work on Monday and i will be perfectly honest i am not looking forward to it but get through this week and we can start getting into the FA Cup which kicks off next week. We have Sunderland at home so I'm hoping for  good performance as would love to see us win the FA Cup 3 years on the trot.

Also looking for people to play on Fifa 16. Tweet me @Coulingknows with your Xbox gamer tag. 360 only I'm afraid peeps.

Be good, if you can't be good be an arsehole!

#Coulingknows