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A second early Saturday kick-off in a row, this time Newcastle face a so far sub-par Arsenal at St James’ Park.
Both sides earned hard-fought goalless draws in their last league outings; each of their keepers making an impressive eight saves. Although at the other end the parallels end, as Arsenal peppered the Liverpool goal with 19 shots and had a goal disallowed, meanwhile Newcastle barely managed seven and it was their opponents who were the ones with the written off goal.
History doesn’t paint a pretty picture for the home side, we’ve on a seven match losing streak against Arsenal, and haven’t defeated them at St James’ in a decade. The last time we earned a point against the Gunners was a certain 4-4 draw back in 2011, three players who played that day remain at the club; captain Fabricio Coloccini, Mike Williamson, and Cheick Tioté, and another two were unused subs; Tim Krul and Shane Ferguson (currently on loan to Millwall).
Perhaps that day is still fresh in Wenger’s mind, although going 4-0 up by half-time wasn’t quite enough on that occasion:
“We want to do well at Newcastle but it’s always very, very, very tight and very committed there because the crowd is always behind their team. They have just come out from a good result at Manchester United so it’s important that we prepare well and we give absolutely everything to win this game before the break.”
– Arsene Wenger
Steve McClaren will be doing his best to prevent Arsenal’s attempts to bombard the Newcastle goal, aiming to emulate the defensive performance from the Manchester United draw, but hopefully with more luck at the other end.
“We defended very well at Old Trafford. To beat any team, especially the top few teams, you have to defend well, defend as a team and be compact. We will need to repeat that against Arsenal but be better on the ball, especially as it’s a home game. At home you need to keep the ball. With a sell-out crowd behind us, hopefully we’ll make it difficult for Arsenal.”
– Steve McClaren