Match Report: Newcastle United 0 - 0 Arsenal - Joey Barton Against The World
The half-hearted football and frustrating lack of entertainment on show at St. James Park was overshadowed by a scuffle and a disgraceful display by Joey Barton that led to the sending off of Arsenal’s biggest summer signing.
The half-hearted football and frustrating lack of entertainment on show at St. James Park in the no scoring first live televised match of the 20th Premier League season was overshadowed by a scuffle and a disgraceful display by Newcastle's Joey Barton which led to the sending off of Arsenals biggest summer signing. Arsene Wenger had included Ivorian forward Gervinho his £10.5 million acquisition from Lille OSC in a starting line up that was missing Barcelona bound Cesc Febregas and Samir Nasri, the latter who is rumoured to be completing a big money transfer himself this week to Manchester City, and also the unfit Jack Wilshire. But it will be a debut to forget for Arsenal's new big hope, sent off on his otherwise impressive Premiership debut for slapping Barton in the face seemingly with the power of a sledgehammer. The viscous fracas broke out in the 75th minute after a blatent dive by Gervinho (his second of the fixture) in the Newcastle penalty area led to, unsurprisingly, the midfield terrier grabbing Gervinho off the ground by the shirt and onto his feet to chastise the player's cheating. How quickly Gervinho has picked up English, especially Scouse, is anyone's guess but Gervinho communicated with his hands in the melee and Barton embarrassingly flung himself on the floor like he had been shot. Red cards for both players seemed assured but referee Peter Walton made the unfathomable decision to force Gervinho off the field of play but for Barton to receive only a generous caution, despite instigating the trouble by picking the player off the ground when the ball was still live in play. How many other players are likely to receive the same punishment for doing the same thing this season you can probably count on, well, zero hands. Arsenal 'keeper Scezney was also booked in the incident for also wondering why the Newcastle midfielder was allowed to stay on but the power of television replays would tell us that the referee had his back turned when Barton picked Gervinho up from the ground and perhaps he was mindful of an incident earlier in the game when Arsenal's Alex Song, already booked, deliberately stamped on Barton's poor foot... which the ref had missed (though strangely it was right in front of the fourth official who was too busy ordering new batteries for his communicator to the ref, which had ran out during the first fixture of the season!, to see it. Both incidents overshadowed what was an otherwise forgettable display in the North East. Alan Pardew named his summer captured midfielder Yohan Cabaye, also from Lille, alongside free transfer striker Demba Ba who scored 7 goals in 12 appearances for West Ham last season, the latter hoped to fill the goalscoring void left by Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan this year. Perhaps the biggest talking point pre-game was the inclusion of twitter rebel Joey Barton, who is said to have cleared the air with Newcastle after having previously criticised the running of the club, presumably because no other clubs can be bothered to take him even on a free with the baggage he brings. The two sides, who both have a history of being entertainers in the Premier League, started slowly, Gervinho showed quality early on by putting in a few decent crosses that was not met by an Arsenal head. But most of the game was played in the middle third of the pitch with Arsenal showing the supremacy of their players ability to pass the ball from left wing to the right, but rarely finding a pass that would make it past the Toon strongholds in central defence, Steven Taylor and Fabricio Coloccini who always had an answer for all of Arsenal's attacks. The one moment of skill that caused the most trouble to the Newcastle defence was a chip through ball from Andrey Arshavin to put Robin Van Persie through for a clear goal scoring opportunity but again Taylor came to the rescue before the trigger could be pulled. With Jose Enrique starting a new life for himself at Liverpool, it was up to the fullback on the Newcastle right hand side, Danny Simpson to plod forward and put in the searching crosses but most were smothered with relative ease by Arsenals mistake-prone keeper Wojciech Scezney. Gervinho caused more problems when a twisting run was followed by a cross to Robin van Persie whose deflected effort trickled past the post. Arsenal had a fair share of corners that in the end caused no problems. With the 4-4 meeting between the two back in February fresh in the minds of both sets of supporters, and indeed neutrals as well, the game was a surprisingly uneventful affair. Arsenal dominated the opening twenty minutes, but for all their trademark fluent passing moves and flair, there was very little genuine attacking play. Spectators were temporarily snapped out of their stupors though when Ryan Taylor spotted Scezney off his line and went for goal from out near the halfway line, but his shot was just wide to the relief of the Polish keeper. Fabregas absence was clearly felt in the middle of the park for the visitors, as was Kevin Nolans to Newcastle. There was very little bite in the centre of the park from either team with Tomas Rosickys passing looking sloppy at times and Cabaye looking nothing like the driving box-to-box midfielder the Toon Army were promised, despite plenty of effort. Cheick Tiote, one of Newcastle's midfield generals last season and in some people's eyes a quick-fix signing for Arsenal in the middle of the park with Fabregas gone, had one of his worst games in memory, struggling to find a black and white shirt with his passes that are usually so precisely placed. He would also find himself booked for his regular 'stopping the counter attack break' of the opposition and we wonder whether he will get out of September without finding himself with five cautions and a suspension. Former Man Utd winger Gabriel Obertan made his first appearance in a Newcastle shirt after being introduced at half time and almost instantly showed more guile and muster and skill than Ba and gave the Gunners defence a few jitters. Toon 'keeper Tim Krul also got his own shakes when a powerful curling free kick from Robin van Persie went narrowly over after Sagna was brought down by Jonas Gutierrez on the corner of the penalty area. Newcastle fans were treated to some bursts of pace and skill from Obertan that they will no doubt be hoping can be capitalised in future games. A glimpse of the football were used to seeing from Arsenal soon after when shortly after being introduced to the fray Theo Walcott was involved with a flowing move by Arsenal, ending with the England wingers shot being easily saved by Tim Krul. Arsenal fans will be concerned however that such glimpses were few and far between due in no small part to the absence of Fabregas and Nasri. After the sending off Pardew used the extra man advantage to try and pour pressure on Wengers men by replacing Cabaye with Danish striker Peter Lovenkrands but the gamble however made no real change to the nature of the game as both sides seemed happy to take the point under the circumstances. Newcastle (4-4-2): Krul; Simpson, Steven Taylor, Coloccini, Ryan Taylor; Barton, Cabaye, Tiote, Gutierrez; Shola Ameobi, Ba. Subs: Forster, Williamson, Gosling, Obertan, Sammy Ameobi, Lovenkrands, Best. Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Szczesny; Sagna, Vermaelen, Koscielny, Gibbs; Song, Ramsey; Arshavin, Rosicky, Gervinho; Van Persie. Subs: Fabianski, Traore, Frimpong, Walcott, Jenkinson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Chamakh. (Article co-written by Matt Holmes)