The late kick-off at St. James’ Park was always going to be an intimidating return to Tyneside for the Gunners after the shambolic 4-4 draw which still haunts Gooners and many point to it as the nadir of last season. A team selection overshadowed by the supposed injuries to the seemingly departing Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri meant Szczesny, Gibbs, Vermaelen, Koscielny, Sagna, Ramsey, Song, Rosicky, Arshavin, Van Persie (C) and new-boy Gervinho lined up against the Magpies supported by a sell-out allocation of Arsenal away fans; the Newcastle line-up was Krul, Simpson, S Taylor, Coloccini (C), R Taylor, Barton, Cabaye, Tiote, Gutierrez, Ameobi, Ba.

The game tipped to be the highlight of the opening weekend of the league kicked off with back-and-forth play, the early highlight for Arsenal being when Arshavin found Gervinho free on the edge of the box, who cut back to Rosicky only for the Czech skipper to skew his shot wide: many Arsenal fans felt his selection was generous based on his recent form and if anyone had something to prove, it was him. Sagna took a blow to the head in the fifth minute courtesy of Ryan Taylor’s elbow in what was just the first encounter of a full-blooded game, with Vermaelen pole-axing Shola Ameobi in the eigth minute. Arsenal had the lion-share of possession which was complemented by excellent wingplay, seeing a very dynamic pairing in Arshavin and Gervinho who were supplied by Aaron Ramsey playing the Cesc Fabregas role. Fifteen minutes in, we started to give the ball away cheaply, song doggedly winning it back only for Arshavin to give it away and force Szczesny to collect a nerve-jangling near post cross similar to that which the inferior Almunia and Fabianski have missed. Van Persie won and wasted his first corner of the match in the 18th minute – he would go on to squander the rest of the set pieces he took in the match in a similar fashion to last season.

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The first 25 minutes was all Arsenal but no real chances materialised for the Gunners – Newcastle, however, barely had the ball. Arshavin broke clear in a 2-on-1 against Coloccini but tried to play Gervinho in far too soon and the chance disappeared; Alex Song was booked two minutes later for a clumsy body-check on Cheick Tiote with Szczesny collecting the resulting free-kick with a lot of conviction. In Arsenal’s best sight of goal so far, Koscielny beat Dutch keeper Tim Krul in the air and had his header cleared off the line in the 31^stminute – soon after, Van Persie smashed a free-kick into the first man. By the 36^thminute Arsenal had completed 201 passes to Newcastle’s 69, but had nothing to show for it except 1 more booking than the home side who never looked like scoring, especially with Ramsey, Vermaelen, Song and Koscielny’s commendable displays. The Reds could definitely be accused of trying to walk the ball into the net: Van Persie and Gervinho squandered numerous, numerous chances most notably when the skipper was put through by an Arshavin chip and was too indecisive to shoot. Despite all the possession and chances Arsenal had 2 attempts to Newcastle’s 1 after the first half where the only positives could be drawn from an impressive start by Szczesny. Nevertheless the 6/1 in-play odds on RVP as next scorer looked good if Arsenal were to win the war of attrition.

United reject Obertan replaced Demba Ba for the second half, signalling a shift to a 4-5-1 formation in order to add an additional midfielder. A firm but fair tackle by Kieran Gibbs on Joey Barton in the 48^th minute was rewarded by a booking by an overzealous Peter Walton and four minutes later, bad technique in the challenge by Tomas Rosicky led to a booking for the Czech. All of the chances were started and ended by Gervinho, who ran the lines with step-overs but he was far too lateral and lacked a final ball to build on his running work – Sagna was clipped innocuously by Gutierrez in the 54^thminute and went down despite being in possession on the edge of the box, setting up a RVP free-kick in a great position which, surprise surprise, he curled onto the roof of the net. After a typical fifty/fifty challenge in the 59^th minute Alex Song clearly trod on Joey Barton, who, after rolling around on the floor, jumped up and confronted the referee, fourth official and Cameroon international with some histrionic finger-pointing after he wasn’t awarded a free kick; this was a sign of the ugly things to come in the half.

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Theo Walcott came on to replace Andrey Arshavin in the 60th minute and was quickly in the thick of it after Ramsey worked a no-look pass to him in the 64^thminute that he fired into the keeper, but showed much-needed aggression in the face of goal – much unlike when Sagna skied a shot a minute later that was followed by a booking for Cheick Tiote for a pseudo-rugby tackle on an onrushing Aaron Ramsey. £11 million Gervinho consistently skinned which ever fullback he was running at but failed time and time and time again to elaborate – after another frustrating miss in the 72^ndminute cries of “Spend some ****ing money” reverberated around St. James’ Park. Gervinho went down in the 75^th minute and wasn’t awarded a penalty, but baffingly, Barton (out of nowhere) decided to pull-up the Ivorian by the scruff of his neck, resulting in a mass brawl which led to a red card for a Gervinho slap and a booking for Barton and even more randomly, Wojciech Szczesny. The next ten minutes were uneventful and totally overshadowed by the incident that took place between Gervinho and Barton – Emmanuel Frimpong replaced Tomas Rosicky in the 85^th minute.

Arsenal, now playing a 4-2-3 with two holding midfielders and deep attacking midfielders, were content to sit back and let Newcastle have the ball: a tactic that, with a man down, allowed Newcastle a number of chances along the flanks. Djourou replaced Ramsey in the 93^rd minute as another holding midfielder and out of nowhere broke free, putting Walcott in on the wing before the Englishman would characteristically stumble and waste the chance. Cue “Spend some ****ing money” before a final dragged shot by Van Persie at the end of the second infuriating game at St James’ Park in as many years, with Joey Barton once again at the centre of the controversy. Arsene Wenger said post-match he is leaning towards appealing Gervinho’s red: a lot more could be said about Barton and the whole incident, but due to libel laws, lets save the colourful language for the return leg.

Highlights

Mass Brawl

Song Stamp

Penalty Call