Same old Arse nal always cheating

The optimism on Tyneside was high for this encounter with Arsenal in the Coca-Cola Cup game after we gave the champions a good thrashing on their own turf. The fact that we were to make nine changes did not seem to affect the Toon Army; it felt like we were bound to win. Arsenal was a different prospect with first team players in the team and first team players coming back from injury and all the talk about Arsenal winning F all for 5 years. In short this is Arsenal's season, yes, the Carling Cup. Our season on the other hand has got to be the Premiership. Chris Houghton made the changes but still felt we could match Arsenal for 90 minutes. If the game was to be judged on chances rather than goals then Chris Houghton would have been correct. We started the game on the back foot but it took only a few minutes for Arsenal to start the cheating - as Ranger was through on to the goalie his hand was pulled back to knock him off stride to prevent 1-0 to United. Newcastle kept a clean sheet for almost all of the first half when a soft goal went in via Krull's head. A terrible time to concede and we came out for the second half feeling unlucky to be one down. The ref Andre Marriner (West Midlands) surely had a red jersey on under his FA kit and when the second goal went in I was surprised the ref did not celebrate with the rest of the Gooners. The second goal has been talked about for the challenge from an offside Bentner who was not active, apparently, although he was when he brought down Williamson. Also nobody seems to be talking about Walcott who was a foot offside as the ball came over from the defensive header. Benter should have had two yellow cards before his goal came from his part in the first goal as he clearly looked at Williamson before knocking him down and in the first half he was shirt pulling Perch who could have, and almost did, suffer a nasty injury because of his cheating ways. That said the game is completely different and the game could have been ours as we never gave up and continued to bombard the Arse nal goal. The 0-4 score line was one of flattery, and not one that paints the true picture.


"the Toon Army we were bound to win"


Let's forget this trophy, it was a distraction anyway and only good as a way of getting the young lads experience. After going two down it was dangerous for Chris to bring on first team players. With the derby coming up who needs Messrs Carroll and Barton injured or sent off. Talking of sending off, along with Bentner Joey Barton was lucky to stay on the pitch. You could see in his eyes at 0-4 that he wanted to dish some punishment out and he certainly knew what he was doing in the late challenges he made. Smith was good along with Vuckic on a night to forget. Joey Barton will have to go easy on the Mackems as he is a marked man and we know what he is like when things are not going well. Hopefully he will play and do what he does best. I would be tempted to play Smith, Tiote and Barton and play Carroll up front. However I have a niggling feeling Ameobi is going to score. I don't care who puts the ball in the Mackem's net - Ameobi or Carroll.

picture sourced from http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/may/03/premier-league-liverpool-newcastle-united-alan-shearer