For the want of a nail the shoe was lost, For the want of a shoe the horse was lost, For the want of a horse the rider was lost …
For the want of a striker? … well Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal could well end up missing out on yet another title while much of Steve McClaren’s good work at Newcastle might come undone.
The managers could each do with recruiting a high-calibre centre-forward by Tuesday evening, with their needs emphasised in a game defined by Aleksandar Mitrovic’s volatility and Theo Walcott’s unsuitability for the lone striker role.
With Mitrovic suspended following a dismissal for an early stamp on Francis Coquelin, and Papiss Cissé’s future uncertain, McClaren must pray his board’s interest in QPR’s Charlie Austin is rekindled.
“I don’t know if I’ve done something wrong,” said Cissé, who began on the bench, is coveted by Galatasaray and answered “I don’t know” to questions about an imminent move. “I work very hard on the training pitch. I accept the gaffer’s decision but it’s very hard for me. I don’t want to say anything about him [Mitrovic]. For him to do something like that was hard for the team.”
The biggest indictment of Wenger’s side was that, despite creating 20 chances and playing against 10 men for 75 minutes, it took Fabricio Coloccini’s own goal to secure victory. Apart from missing one excellent chance, Walcott rarely gave Coloccini and the impressive Chancel Mbemba cause for serious concern.
Olivier Giroud, who spurned an inviting late chance after stepping off the bench, is a very good striker but arguably not a title-winning catalyst. In any case, he needs better competition than Walcott –surely best deployed cutting in from the wing than holding the ball up – and the currently injured Danny Welbeck.
Mike Ashley may have permitted McClaren to spend almost £50m this summer yet Newcastle’s owner has furnished him with players aged under 26 and sourced from the overseas markets which he feels offer optimal value for money.
So far this policy has produced the immensely promising Mbemba, Georginio Wijnaldum and Florian Thauvin as well as Mitrovic. The 20-year-old Serbia striker shone at Anderlecht last season but his primary contribution so far on Tyneside has involved offering a worryingly convincing impression of a hormonal teenager trapped in a man’s body.
This imposing physique looks capable of petrifying centre-halves but only if Mitrovic stops allowing himself to be so easily wound up. Well before he planted his studs in Coquelin’s shin pad he seemed alarmingly edgy. Laurent Koscielny was already ruffling him.
McClaren maintained, perhaps justifiably, that the challenge on Coquelin was clumsy rather than malicious and warranted only a yellow card while even Wenger conceded Mitrovic was possibly a little unlucky but, for once, the devil is not really in the detail. Yes, the midfielder over-egged things and another referee might have been more lenient but, in interpreting it as dangerous play with intent irrelevant, Andre Marriner adhered to the letter of the law.
Mounting a valiant, sometimes spiky, rearguard action, Newcastle thrilled the crowd if not a sometimes unnecessarily pedantic Marriner while collecting six yellow cards to complement Mitrovic’s red.
“You have to impose yourself against Arsenal,” said McClaren. “You can’t watch opponents play but we need to be a little more controlled in certain situations. We’re very young, the youngest team in the Premier League and there’s a lot to work on. We’ll talk about the need to go out there with fire in your belly and ice in your head. We don’t want to lose that fire. If we, do the crowd will be down to 20,000, it’s a case of us being a bit more sensible.”
Wenger’s team needs ruthlessness. “Our finishing hasn’t been clinical,” he conceded. “There’s a big difference between the chances we create and the goals we score. It’s a bit too big.” For the want of a striker …
Man of the match Chancel Mbemba (Newcastle United)