Gooner Daily

What dafuq happened last night?

Don’t ask me, and trust me, I won’t tell.

I have a meeting in 20 minutes time at work (it’s 10.40am as I write this) so this would be a quick one. There’s no point talking about Europe anymore because it’s a thing of the past. All we can do now is to look forward to the run of fixtures left in the Premier League as well as some FA Cup action coming up next month. The Gunners have been in superb form lately, winning five consecutive games in a row since the embarrassing 3-1 loss to Monaco that cost them a place in the Champions League quarterfinals. Today, Arsene Wenger’s men come up against a Newcastle United side that has been in a run of poor form with just one win in their last six games.

John Carver’s men have been carved open in recent weeks with their last result against a pretty shitty Everton side compounding their miseries. The Magpies have lost three of their last four league matches, conceding nine goals in the process. Newcastle is currently languishing in 11th place and I believe that the team has enough in its tank to retain it’s Premier League status. As always, the team is currently plagued with injuries and their captain’s suspension would definitely not help their cause but I’m sure the Gunners don’t care. When they visited the Emirates earlier in the season, Olivier Giroud and Santi Cazorla did the damage in a 4-1 thrashing with Giroud scoring the pick of the bunch. The French forward has been in pretty good form recently, and the Gunners would be hoping that he’d get among the goals today.

The Gunners are unbeaten in the last eight Barclays Premier League games against Newcastle, winning the last six in a row. and they’re the only team ever to not win a Premier League game after being 4-0 up at half-time, when they drew 4-4 with Newcastle at St James Park in February 2011. However, Newcastle have failed to score in their last three Premier League home matches against the Gunners.

Team News

The usual suspects are still out injured but Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Tomas Rosicky has returned to the fold following his recent bout with sickness. The manager recently offered his thoughts in resting Alexis Sanchez but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. I have a hunch that the manager would make some changes to the squad against Monaco to keep things fresh. Theo Walcott is a player that needs some games and I see him replacing Danny Welbeck in the starting lineup. Aaron Ramsey also came from the bench on Tuesday to score a vital goal and he’d be itching to get some game time in his bid to full fitness but that’s a headache the boss has to face himself. According to the manager, Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Debuchy are a couple of weeks away.

Injury Updates

Newcastle United: Rolando Aarons (hamstring), Massaido Haïdara (knee), Mehdi Abeid (thigh), Paul Dummett (knee) Cheick Tioté (knee), Steven Taylor (Achilles, ), Luuk De Jong (collapsed lung), Fabrizio Coloccini (suspension), Papiss Cisse (suspension)

Arsenal:Serge Gnabry (lack of match fitness), Mikel Arteta (ankle), Jack Wilshere (ankle), Abou Diaby (calf), Mathieu Debuchy (shoulder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (hamstring)

Team Form

Newcastle United

• Last Five Games: L W L D D
• Last Result: Everton 3 Newcastle United 0
• Leading Goalscorer: Papiss Cisse (11)

Arsenal

• Last Five Games: W W W W W
• Last Result: Monaco 0 Arsenal 2
• Leading Goalscorer: Alexis Sanchez (19)

Predicted Lineups

Newcastle United (4-5-1): Krul; Ryan Taylor, Williamson, Janmaat, Colback; Sissoko, Anita, Obertan, Cabella, Amoebi;iviere

Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Ospina; Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal; Coquelin, Cazorla, Walcott, Ozil, Sanchez; Giroud

Gooner Daily says 0-3 to the Arsenal

Sayonara.

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