Liveblog: Arsenal @ Newcastle in our season opener!

By: Brenton | August 12th, 2011
   

It’s finally arrived, everyone. The day we’ve all been slogging through summer for. The start of a dreamy ten-month long season of bliss. The Arsenal are playing again. *add triumphant horn music when technology allows*

The game kicks off tomorrow, Saturday the 13th, at 5:30pm UK time, 12:30pm Eastern, 9:30am Pacific. Also: 1:30pm in Rio, 10pm in Mumbai, 7:30pm in Beirut and 11:30pm in Bangkok. This liveblog is global.

Check out our preview of the match, and don’t miss the comments. Riveting stuff.

We’ll be open for business an hour before kick-off to bring you starting line-ups, discerning commentary and wild speculation as we head into what is sure to be a fascinating encounter at St. James Park in lovely Newcastle.


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  • Looking forward to ZM's assessment of the game. 

  • JG

    Signing new players isn't just imperative. It's the difference between making it into the CL and mid-table. Wenger, you have been warned. Right now, they're saying to spend the fucking money. Next, they'll call for your head.
    Defense was good. RvP was terrible, I'm afraid.
    Fuck Barton.

  • FredJacob

    why the hell was Arsenal players shaking Barton's hand after the game

  • FredJacob

    seems Barton always get one or players a red card

  • FredJacob

    Dear footballing Gods i ask that allow my team to be successful this season and be free from injuries and help Arsene to put out a winning team

    thanking you in advance, and our first trophy this year is yours

  • Paco

    What's up with Wilshere? Is he injured or why does he not start?

  • Homey_Mills

    Still injured.

  • Gigi_man

    Does anyone like AC / DC around here? Yesterday I was listening to one of my favourites, For those aout to rock, and I rememered the alum had a canon as a cover, it made me immediately think of our own Arsenal logo and thought: what a great phrase for us to start a game (if we rock and win that is, otherwise it would be a salute for the other team):

    So, for those about to rock, we salute you

  • JG

    Liveblog up soon? Here's the lineup:  Szczesny, Sagna, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Song, Ramsey, Rosicky, Arshavin, Gervinho, Van Persie
    Totally expected. Here's for 3 points. COME ON ARSENAL!!

  • JG

    Gary Cahill just scored for Bolton. Dear Arsene, I now you like doing things your way and you detest that the media mention even the possibility of you doing a sensible, needed transfer signing, but please, for the love of Arsenal (even if you ditch us for PSG next year), sign this man.
    Or any other decent CB. But please, sign one!

  • FredJacob

    Have no fear a guaranty a goal from a set piece from Kos which will show you he is better than Cahill

  • Homey_Mills

    Well if that Kicker article is to be believed, he said he has four and doesn't need another.  Which is odd, what with the admission that we made a bid on Jagielka a while back.  Oops, I did it again, being negative. 

  • Goonerholic, on the Arsecast, said that they quoted him from an interview he did a long time ago. So its probably a culmination of shitty reporting and sheer boredom. Get your hopes up, your negativity is a cancer to this blog.

  • JG

    Bartley started for Rangers this morning but was subbed after 33 minutes. He should be recalled, really. Perfect fit for Arsenal. Especially now that we're not going to sign anyone meaningful, now that Wenger's had his Howard Beale moment.

  • Well, he was subbed because he suffered a slight groin injury.

  • JG

    I just read an article that says Arsenal are proposing Nasri +cash for Tevez. The article was based in the UAE, so perhaps this has an inkling of truth to it. If so, I think Tevez would be a fantastic player for us, but would he be up for it? He has mentioned repeatedly that he wants out of Manchester... but London really isn't any better. If he plays great for us this coming season then great, but I don't want Sell-out Dou- err, I mean Cesc 2.0 all over again.

  • Gigi_man

    Tevez, if with right attitude, has one thing we are missing, the guy is a warrior aove all and he fights until the very end, never backs off and is never expecting the perfect game because he is always looking to win and score.
    I would vote yes in a blink of an eye

  • FredJacob

    yea but were would he play?

  • I think we'd play a 4-2-4.

  • A manchester reporter started that rumour earlier this week. I don't think it has any legs myself.

  • Homey_Mills

    I'd rate the chances of that about the same as I'd rate our chances of winning the Champions League this season.  Interesting rumor though.  Kudos to whoever made it up.  I think the biggest sticking point, among the many, is that I'm sure Tevez is making a ridiculous amount of money.

  • Please god no. His various transfer sagas have been every bit as tedious, if not more so, than Cesc's. And he frightens children.

  • Definitely more tedious, because it's all of his own making. "I love City. I hate it here. I'm moving to South America. I'm staying in Manchester. I'm going to Italy." and repeat ad nauseam. 

  • He causes issues whereever he goes. And that includes for his national side.

  • I came onto the site and saw the liveblog, and now I am absolutely gutted I'm not doing the match review tomorrow.

  • I am licking my chops at the chance to criticize whoever does the player ratings when they commit the travesty and injustice of misrating a player by .5 a point. What goes around comes around, bitches.

  • I will crush you. 

  • Homey_Mills

    Believe me, I've learned quite a bit about both the joys and pains of blogging.  And I think I'm the one doing the report and ratings, and I'm most certainly a bit nervous about it. 

  • Eh, most people, at least the regulars, get it, and understand the ratings are just a way to talk about the players' performances. The people who get super hung up on numbers, man of the match, etc. you can just ignore.

    My only piece of bloggerly advice would be to try to make mental notes every time a player does something good or bad. Because you will find, especially if you're live-blogging as well, that you go to do the report and realize you have no idea what just happened. You will also be stunned by how long it takes to write. So, umm... enjoy?

  • Homey_Mills

    I was planning on doing that today, so I won't be a part of the live blog too much.  And I'll probably start a tiny bit even before the match begins. 

  • I used to literally write stuff down during the game, make notes. And I dug for pics at halftime and then again after I finished writing the blog.

  • Gigi_man

    hey! hi!!

  • Yeah, I would usually spend half-time writing about what had happened in the first-half. And I'm not sure if the site still takes forever to upload photos like it was for a while, but for most of the end of last season, it would take 45 minutes alone just to upload the 5 or so photos for a match review. Hopefully they've gotten that straightened out by now.

  • Homey_Mills

    That reminds me... where did y'all go to get the stats and photos after the matches? 

    And second... we have a Sairax spotting!  Yay. 

  • What Martin said.

    Also, I found it handy to keep a "template" for the player ratings bit and keep it in Word or wordpad. Then I 'd just copy and paste and replace the names with whoever was playing. I found it to be very handy.

  • This is probably more "how the sausage gets made" than most people are interested in, but I used ESPN's Match tracker quite a bit. I would pull the stats from there at half-time for first-half and full-time stats, and then I could also go back and look at the minute-by-minute if I forgot when a certain thing happened in relation to other things. Guardian does good minute-by-minutes, too.

  • Homey_Mills

    Good idea.  I think I'll use that one too.  Also, I decided that I'm going to do my best to avoid any mention of Wenger at all in the report.  See if I can go one blog without it.  Now if he gets ejected for throwing a water bottle or something, it might be hard to avoid. 

  • For pics, go to daylife.com and search Arsenal. For stats, I'd check @orbinho on twitter. He posts them pretty quickly. Or try skysports or the Guardian or something.

  • Yea, I did a mini post game review of the first (I think) pre-season, and man.... It took bloody forever to describe every single notable play.
    You sure you don't wanna write every now and then?

  • JG

    Live from Capitol Hill, Corporate Reporter can now confirm that the 4 Arsenal Blogger's Caucus' Majority Leader has tapped one of Brenton or Homey to the Match Review Super Committee tomorrow... more to come... 

  • The Super Committee oversees everything. 

  • This made me laugh quite a bit. Well done.

  • In Canada the game is live on Sportsnet One. In the UK it's on ESPN channels. In the US it's on Fox Sports channels.

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