Joey Barton answered critics on his Twitter account after his brawl with Gervinho yesterday. Jack Wilshere attacked Barton on Twitter for his behavior in the scoreless draw between Arsenal and Newcastle.
Here is what Barton said on Twitter: “Cheats dive to win pens. If there’s contact go down but dont blatantly try to con the ref. Refs have it hard enough.
“Hopefully, today proves my commitment, if it was ever in doubt? ‘Imagine if I’d stamped on Song, all the numptys would be out calling for a public execution. Cos its on me its alright? #hypocrites.
“What do people want me to do, stand and trade blows with Gervinho. If you raise your hands to players faces, you should be off. Ref got it right…
“Maybe I shouldn’ have got involved but diving and trying to win a penalty, is ****. Needs stamping out (No pun).”
Then, Barton admitted that he went down easy on the Gervinho slap: “I went down easy, no doubt. Still cant raise ur hands. Ref got it right.”
Barton is complaining about Gevinho’s “dive” (it wasn’t a dive) even when he admits that he went down too easy. Joey Barton is a menace to the Premier League. Good thing I never endorsed an Arsenal signing of this Newcastle thug.
But then Barton went overboard: “Correct or stamped on 1 of there [sic] players. I’d of been hung, drawn and quartered by u mob? Fact not conjecture.”
Gervinho was shown a red card late in the match after a scuffle with Joey Barton. The match finished scoreless between Newcastle and Arsenal at St James’ Park in the first match of the new season. Neither side looked like winning the match, and the Gooner faithful were left disappointed.
The biggest moment of the match came in the 75th minute. Gervinho was tripped up in the box, and Joey Barton thought that Gervinho had taken a dive. The Newcastle thug yanked Gervinho up to his feet by his shirt, and the two wrestled with one another.
As the brawl went on, Joey Barton collapsed to the ground in pain. Barton claimed the Gervinho had punched him, when, in reality, the Ivorian only lightly tapped Barton on the head. Gervinho was sent off, while the instigator, Barton, was only given a yellow card.
Barton was in a foul mood after being stepped on by Alex Song in the 58th minute. After a collision which left Barton on the ground, Song appeared to stamp on Barton’s leg. The Arsenal midfielder had already been given a yellow card. The Magpie bad boy cried to the officials, and was later rewarded by getting Gervinho sent off.
Here is how Arsene Wenger reacted to the incident (from Arsenal.com): “I think I saw two yellows or two reds but not one yellow and one red.
“There is a link between the incident [and Diaby’s sending off last season]. He got away with a yellow card [...]
Arsenal will be without three key players as they take on Newcastle at St James’ Park on the first day of the new Premier League season. Twitter outlaw Joey Barton may be in the starting eleven for Newcastle.
Arsene Wenger announced yesterday that Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas will miss the match. Both players are strongly linked with moves away from London. Nasri will sit out due to sickness, while Fabregas is not yet match-fit.
Jack Wilshere will be forced to miss the match due to a real, genuine ankle injury. Wilshere said on Twitter: “Gutted not to be playing tomorrow but wish all the lads the best of luck! We need a good start! #gooners.” Abou Diaby will also not feature in the match after undergoing ankle surgery.
On a positive note, Theo Walcott, Robin van Persie, Thomas Vermaelen, and Kieran Gibbs are expected to be on the pitch after injury concerns during the pre-season. Van Persie will captain the Arsenal squad tomorrow.
Newcastle, meanwhile, will be looking to revive the magic of their four goal comeback in this fixture last season. After selling Kevin Nolan and Jose Enrique, the Magpies will be starting the season with a distinctly French feel.
The new arrivals at Newcastle include Gabriel Obertan, Johan Cabaye, and Demba Ba. But the Toon summer has revolved around the Joey Barton saga. Barton has strongly criticized the club management on Twitter. The English midfielder was not pleased by the sale of [...]
Arsenal are the front-runners to sign Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku. Arsene Wenger wants Jose Enrique of Newcastle to replace Gael Clichy at left back. Real Madrid are interested in Robin van Persie.
Let’s start off with Lukaku. According to The Sun, Arsenal has offered Anderlecht £14million for the 18-year old striker. Chelsea are also firmly in the hunt for Lukaku. Arsenal executives met with a Lukaku representative yesterday in London. The Belgian striker is one of the most exciting young players in Europe.
For literally months now, Chelsea has always been the front-runner for Lukaku. A deal sending Lukaku to Stamford Bridge seemed imminent. Could our the Gunners hijack the deal and steal Lukaku away from those rich Blues?
Lukaku has been dubbed the “next Drogba” because of his size (1.91 m or 6 ft 3 in) and strength. If Wenger can pull this off, then maybe the current crop of players can see the weight our club carries throughout the world.
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has admitted that Jose Enrique wants to leave the Magpies for Champions League football. According to Daily Mail, Arsenal is willing to offer £8million for the 25-year old left back.
If Wenger brings in Enrique, it will be a sign that Kieran Gibbs is not yet ready. Enrique has been a consistently good footballer for Newcastle over the last couple years. He would be a solid player every week at left back. Liverpool are also interested in the Newcastle man.
According to rumours, Real Madrid has placed a bid for Robin van Persie. The bid is said to [...]
Many pundits, commentators, podcasters, writers, and football fans have been reacting to Arsenal’s historic collapse against Newcastle on Saturday. But I don’t care much about what they think. Some Arsenal players have been weighing in on the match. Let’s see what they think.
Arsenal keeper Wojceich Szczesny: ”I cannot believe it, it is the worst feeling I have ever had in my life. I can only say sorry to the supporters.
“I have never known anything like it. I don’t understand what happened. With 10 men we were capable of holding the game but there were a lot of things that went wrong.
“The whole back-four unit got changed because if the situation but we were used to playing with each other and we should still have been comfortable playing alongside each other.”
I appreciate the honesty from Szczesny. After the sending off, Arsenal might as well been playing with four players. It didn’t matter. The defence collapsed and their was nothing Szczesny or any keeper could have done about it.
Andrei Arshavin: ”He [Wenger] didn’t say anything at all to us.
“He was disappointed and distraught too, like any man would be in his shoes and under such circumstances.
“Naturally, we were all sad. Only Manchester United being defeated later that night sweetened the pill a bit. But we are not psychologically broken. We just cannot afford to be.”
Wolves helped brighten my day quite a bit as well. With United’s loss, Arsenal are still right in the thick of the [...]
Well, one of the worst games in Arsenal history was played today at St. James Park. Newcastle were able to “come back” from a four goal deficit to even the score in the second half. Referee Philip Dowd was definitely a Newcastle supporter, handing out penalties anytime Newcastle got near the Arsenal box. He also made it his job to show cards to the Gunners, while letting the Newcastle thugs, Barton and Nolan, get away with battery. Even so, it looks as if Arsenal are out of the title race.
The match started with a flurry of goals from Arsenal. Forty seconds into the game, Walcott struck with a goal off the break. Many fans were just getting to their seat, only to see Arsenal up one on a cool finish from Walcott. By the time three minutes passes, the Gunners were up by two. Johan Djourou had a brilliant header off a free kick taken by Andrei Arshavin.
The Gunners weren’t done yet though. Robin van Persie found the back of the net in the 10th minute. Walcott sent a cross towards RVP, and the Dutchman banged it home. Three-nil to the Arsenal and the game looked over by that time. RVP headed home the fourth goal as well, in the 26th minute. The Arsenal attack was ripping through the helplessly bad Newcastle defence. Arsenal headed into halftime with what looked to be a guaranteed three points.
The Gunners will travel to St. James Park to play Newcastle tomorrow afternoon. All the talk around Newcastle has of course been about the departure of striker Andy Carroll. The Magpies were able to defeat Arsenal at the Emirates in November. The Gunners did blow past Newcastle in the Carling Cup, beating them 4-0 at St. James. All the matches from now on are important for Arsenal is they wish to stay in the title race.
Newcastle was able to earn a surprising was able to fight out a draw against Tottenham last Saturday but fell to Fulham during the week. So a mixed bag of results recently for Newcastle. Not so for the Gunners. Arsene Wenger’s squad has won every match since the first leg of the Carling Cup semifinal against Ipswich Town on January 12th. So that’s six straight wins for Arsenal.
Manchester United (5 points ahead of Arsenal) have not yet lost a game in the Premier League. Robin van Persie thinks that will change soon and that United will eventually drop points:”We all know United’s schedule, we know Chelsea’s schedule, but the main thing is to just look at our own.
“We have got a tough opponent now at Newcastle away, and so we only need to look at that.
“I am confident Manchester United will drop points, 100 per cent, because they have big games coming up – they have their own derby, they have games against Chelsea, other big games, so we will see [...]
