Newcastle United 4 - 4 Arsenal: Absurdity

This is the moment my soul died. Pic via Guardian.

Newcastle United 4: Barton 68 (pen), 83 (pen), Best 75, Tiote 87
Arsenal 4: Walcott 1, Djourou 3, van Persie 10, 26

I'm not going to lie, I have no idea how to write this recap, because I still haven't really been able to completely wrap my head around what happened Saturday. I'll start by revisiting some things I said in the Everton recap from this midweek: "Do you know what worries me the most about the aftermath of this match? ... Arsenal have a knack of disappointing once the talk around them gets too hyped. ... We all know Arsenal isn't the most consistent side in the world. I guess that question will be answered Saturday on Tyneside."

Yes, yes it was. And I have the feeling that the ramifications of this match will be felt for a long time, in any number of possible directions.

Arsenal made two changes to the side that beat Everton on Tuesday (and my predicted XI was, again, correct) as Abou Diaby replaced the injured Alex Song in midfield and Andrei Arshavin, fresh off a goal and assist performance started as Tomas Rosicky dropped to the bench.

What a start it was, right? Andrei Arshavin put Theo Walcott through in the first minute and it was 1-0 Arsenal. Johan Djourou won a header in the box in the third minute and it was 2-0 Arsenal. A Walcott square ball found Robin van Persie in the tenth minute and it was 3-0 Arsenal. Then a Bacary Sagna cross found van Persie again, and it was 4-0 Arsenal. It was brilliant. Newcastle started mounting a threat after about half an hour, but on many plays in the box, Laurent Koscielny was there to clear. He was truly having a great match from the start, and everything was lovely at halftime.

It's quite astonishing how quickly a game can turn, however, and the big blow came immediately. Within five minutes, Johan Djourou was limping, having injured his knee; he could not continue and was replaced by Sebastien Squillaci, making for a much more unstable central back partnership. Then, Joey Barton's aggressive challenge on Abou Diaby made the Frenchman livid. He grabbed Barton by the back of the neck and threw him to the ground. Straight red card, all the way. Now, nobody is going to argue that what Diaby did deserved the red card. What is confusing is that Newcastle got away with a number of bookable offenses during the course of this match and Kevin Nolan once got away with doing exactly what Diaby did.

Those were two big reasons why Arsenal began to unravel. Now, I refuse to watch the highlights of this match, so my memory of the specifics in Newcastle's comeback are a bit hazy. The Magpies were given a penalty after the hour mark that was fairly soft, but was the type that you see given. Barton converted, then Wojciech Szczesny attempted to stall by picking the ball up first. This is when Nolan through him to the ground (and did not get sent off like Diaby) and somehow Szczesny was booked first. 4-1, and the tide was turning.

Newcastle certainly deserved their second goal as Best converted a cross, but the third was the most absurd. I'm not positive which player got the call, but it looked like either Laurent Koscielny or Tomas Rosicky were called for attempting to win a header. Barton converted again, as Szczesny this time got a piece of it, and things were getting painful. Then, a soft foul call on Rosicky, Arsenal clears the danger out to Tiote, who fires a wonder goal from 30 yards. Crushing. All the more crushing: Robin van Persie's injury time winner called offside (which I could not really tell from the camera angle but have heard it was a bad call.)

I don't really want to talk about this anymore. By now, you know what happened and you've made up your mind about Phil Dowd (who, FYI, has been dropped from this week's schedule.) It's time to move on.

Hipster Gooner Man of the Match: A convicted criminal, with some help from the officials

Preview: Newcastle United v. Arsenal

Fabianski is out for the season. "Club in crisis," says the Mail, ridiculously...


St. James' Park, Newcastle upon Tyne

Saturday, February 5

3:00 p.m. GMT, 10:00 a.m. EST

• Referee: Phil Dowd
• This Match, Last Time: Newcastle 1 - 3 Arsenal (March 21, 2009)
• Reverse Fixture: Arsenal 0 - 1 Newcastle
• All-Time in All Competitions: 65 Arsenal wins, 66 Newcastle wins, 36 draws
• Arsenal's Recent Form: D-W-D-W-W-W
• Newcastle's Recent Form: L-W-W-D-D-L

Predicted Line-Up

guesses in red

Szczesny

Sagna - Koscielny - Djourou - Clichy

Diaby - Wilshere

Walcott - Fabregas - Arshavin

van Persie

Subs from: Almunia, Squillaci, Gibbs, Denilson, Rosicky, Bendtner, Chamakh

Out: Song (thigh), Nasri (hamstring), Fabianski (shoulder), Vermaelen (Achilles)

Arsenal News and Notes

• Stay ready, Wojciech! Lukasz Fabianski is traveling to Germany for surgery on his injured shoulder. He's out for the season.
• Alex Song took an accidental kick to the thigh from Laurent Koscielny in the first half against Everton and could not walk on it after. He'll be short for this match.
• Samir Nasri will need about three weeks for his hamstring injury.
• And how long do we have left on Vermaelen's injury? Four weeks? Four months? Four years?
• Arsenal has won three straight in league play for the third time this season. The last time Arsenal entered a league fixture on such a streak, they lost to Newcastle.
• This is the first time this year that Arsenal has won six straight across all competitions.
• Arsenal has won their last two matches away from home, but at no point this year have they won three straight away fixtures.

Newcastle News and Notes

• As part of this week's transfer frenzy, which Arsenal watched from the sidelines, Newcastle sold Andy Carroll to Liverpool for a bajillion dollars.
• Newcastle signed Stephen Ireland on loan from Aston Villa. Turns out, he's hurt and will miss two weeks.
• Shola Ameobi's broken cheekbone further depletes the Magpies' attacking options.
• Ryan Taylor (ankle) has returned to training, but another four remain out: Dan Gosling (knee), Steven Taylor (hamstring), Alan Smith (ankle), and Hatem Ben Arfa (broken leg.)
• Newcastle are winless in four matches across all competitions, a run which started by crashing out of the FA Cup to Stevenage.

Match Facts

• In the reverse fixture, Andy Carroll scored just before halftime to give Newcastle a 1-0 victory at the Emirates.
• Arsenal has already won at St. James' Park this year, knocking Newcastle out of the Carling Cup with a 4-0 fourth round win.
• The Gunners had been unbeaten in nine against Newcastle before November's loss at the Emirates.

The Referee

• The referee is Staffordshire-based Phil Dowd.
• Arsenal's experience with Dowd has not been the best this season. He's taken charge of the 1-1 draw at Sunderland, the 3-2 loss to Spurs, and the 1-1 FA Cup draw with Leeds. Arsenal won both matches they played that were worked by Dowd last year.
• Newcastle's experience with Dowd has been highly pleasant, however. He's taken charge of their 5-1 derby thrashing of Sunderland and the 4-3 win at Stamford Bridge that saw Chelsea out of the Carling Cup.
• In 24 matches (20 league, 4 cup) he has shown 86 yellow cards and 8 red cards, one of which was to Alex Song.

Around the League

• These are the reverse fixtures of those played November 6-7.
• Saturday: Stoke City v. Sunderland; Britannia Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent
• Saturday: Aston Villa v. Fulham; Villa Park, Birmingham
• Saturday: Everton v. Blackpool; Goodison Park, Liverpool
• Saturday: Manchester City v. West Bromwich Albion; City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester
• Saturday: Tottenham Hotspur v. Bolton Wanderers; White Hart Lane, London
• Saturday: Wigan Athletic v. Blackburn Rovers; DW Stadium, Wigan
• Saturday: Wolverhampton Wanderers v. Manchester United; Molineux, Wolverhampton
• Sunday: West Ham United v. Birmingham City; Boleyn Ground, London
• Sunday: Chelsea v. Liverpool; Stamford Bridge, London

Arsenal 0 - 1 Newcastle United: Srsly?

Well, hey, Chelsea lost! Pic via Guardian.

Arsenal 0

Newcastle United 1: Carroll 45

After Wednesday's loss in the Ukraine, there were many who said they would rather lose that match than lose on Sunday in the league. I think everyone feels rightly distraught now that they've actually lost both. And yet again, Arsenal fails to capitalize on a Chelsea loss (though, it's probably a blessing of some sort that Arsenal does not find themselves waking up this morning eight points off the pace.)

There were two changes made from the side that beat West Ham a week ago (I'm not going to compare the side to the rotated squad that played in Donetsk mid-week.) Jack Wilshere returned to his holding role from suspension, meaning Denilson dropped to the bench. In form Theo Walcott got the start on the right wing, pushing Samir Nasri to the left, and dropping Andrei Arshavin to the bench. Robin van Persie made a surprise return to the bench after only one full training session on Friday.

Arsene Wenger blamed complacency for Arsenal's Champions League defeat this week and said in pre-match interviews that, after already losing at home to West Bromwich Albion, the team would not be caught like that again, that the lessons had been learned.

It didn't look like it. This was, for sure, Arsenal's worst performance of the season, and I'm hard pressed to think of any performances at home that were as poor as this from last season. Now, I'm running too late this morning to wax poetic on this disaster, so here are the dirty details of this one in bullet point fashion:

• It is apparent to me that Cesc Fabregas is still injured, at least enough to make him completely ineffective. The offense cannot run if your playmaking attacking midfielder is struggling to complete passes. An uncharacteristically high 16 of his 60 passes were unsuccessful. It's even more worrying to me that Samir Nasri picked up a knock, too.

• Newcastle's goal came courtesy the Lukasz Fabianski we're more used to. Wenger blamed "over confidence" on his coming out for a ball on which he did not have to, which is kind of a laughable excuse. What really happened was Fabianski hesitated, jumped late, and even more inexplicably, he jumped behind the attacker, Andy Carroll, who had already been lost by Chamakh marking him. 100% on the Pole, probably for the first time in his recent run in the side. So, let's buy in January, okay?

• In two of the last three home league matches, Arsenal have conceded a goal on their opposition's first legitimate chance on goal. Birmingham City and Newcastle United both opened the scoring with their first shots on target.

• Wenger made his substitutions earlier than normal, in desperate times down a goal, with the first two coming before the hour mark. Andrei Arshavin did essentially nothing, while Robin van Persie was clearly not ready to play 35 minutes. So, even though the changes were made early, they didn't work.

• I don't see why Jack Wilshere was removed at 73 minutes for Nicklas Bendtner. Wilshere is a work horse and can always give you 90 solid minutes. Why one of Arsenal's better players on the pitch was removed baffles me, aside for tactical reasons which ended up failing anyway. A holding midfielder was replaced by a goal scorer while down one, I get it, but the result was an increasing inability to win the ball in the midfield to get it to the goal scorer anyway. Of course, tactically speaking, hindsight is 20/20.

• Laurent Koscielny's red card, which he picked up for a professional foul, will likely be appealed. The foul was called by the linesman, in such a position where Mike Dean was forced to show red. The appeal needs to prove that it should not have been a foul in the first place, as I don't think we're going to get around Koscielny being the last defender and the attacker being through on goal. Wenger claims that Squillaci was covering, but I didn't think so at the time. As soon as the whistle blew, I knew it was red.

• Arsenal's league form at home: Two losses, two unconvincing wins, and two convincing wins that were aided by their opposition ending the match with ten men.

Okay, there's no time to dwell and sulk about this one, as Arsenal travels to Wolves on Wednesday for their first midweek league fixture of the season. Let's hope some consistency and focus makes the trip, too.

Hipster Gooner Man of the Match: Cheick Tioté, who outplayed Fabregas in the midfield.

Preview: Arsenal v. Newcastle United

RVP had a brace in this fixture when it was last played two years ago. Pic via Daily Mail.
 
Emirates Stadium, London

Sunday, November 7

13:30 GMT, 8:30 a.m. EST

• Referee: Mike Dean
• This Match, Last Time: Arsenal 3 - 0 Newcastle (August 30, 2008)
• All-Time in All Competitions: 65 Arsenal wins, 65 Newcastle wins, 36 draws
• Arsenal's Recent Form: D-L-L-W-W-W
• Newcastle's Recent Form: W-L-L-D-W-W

Predicted Line-Up

guesses in red

Fabianski

Sagna - Koscielny - Squillaci - Clichy

Song - Wilshere

Walcott - Fabregas - Nasri

Chamakh

Subs from: Szczesny, Djourou, Eboue, Denilson, Rosicky, Arshavin, Bendtner

Out: Gibbs (knee), Diaby (ankle), Almunia (elbow), Vermaelen (Achilles), Van Persie (ankle), Ramsey (broken leg)

Arsenal News and Notes

• All four players who dropped out of the Shakhtar trip with injuries (Fabregas, Song, Denilson, and Arshavin) return for this match, which lends more credence to my rotation conspiracy theory. Still, better to lose that match than this one.
• Abou Diaby's ankle injury does not seem to be progressing and Arsene Wenger says he does not know when he'll return.
• Jack Wilshere returns from his three match domestic ban.
• I'd like to see Walcott start over Arshavin, but something tells me that the Russian still won't be dropped from the starting XI.
• If Laurent Koscielny picks up a booking, he'll have five yellow cards this season and will have to serve a one match ban for accumulation.
• Arsenal had their five match winning streak across all competitions snapped in Donetsk on Wednesday, but have still won three straight in league play.
• That streak ties their longest league winning streak of the season. Arsenal's longest league winning streak last year was six games. Their longest winning streak two years ago was five, though that came towards the end of a 21 match unbeaten run.
• The last time Arsenal dropped points to more than one newly promoted side at home was 2001/02, with draws against Bolton and Blackburn.
• In terms of dropping points via one draw and one loss to newly promoted sides, the last time that happened was 1994/95. The loss was to Crystal Palace, the draw was with Leicester City.
• The last time Arsenal lost twice at home to newly promoted sides was 1976/77 with losses against West Bromwich Albion and Bristol City. They also drew newly promoted Sunderland.

Newcastle News and Notes

• While it would have been interesting, the return of Sol Campbell is doubtful for this match, given his fitness, in addition to not being top choice at the position at Newcastle.
• The Toon have three other long term injuries: Hartem Ben Arfa (double leg fracture), goalkeeper Steve Harper (broken collarbone), and Dan Gosling (ACL.)
• Through ten games, Newcastle sit in 7th place in the Premier League. The last time Newcastle was this high this late in the season was 2005/06, when they happened to finish 7th.
• The Magpies have won consecutive league fixtures for the first time since December of 2008, the season which ended in relegation.
• They are also coming off a huge 5-1 derby win over Sunderland, their largest derby victory since 1955.

Match Facts

• Arsenal defeated Newcastle United 4-0 in the fourth round of the Carling Cup at St. James' Park a week and a half ago.
• The Gunners took all six points two years ago, when Newcastle was relegated. Arsenal won 3-0 at the Emirates and 3-1 in the North East.
• Newcastle last defeated Arsenal 1-0 at St. James' Park on December 10, 2005.
• Arsenal are unbeaten in their last nine across all competitions against the Magpies.
• Newcastle's last win at Arsenal came on December 18, 2001, 3-1 at Highbury.

The Referee

• The referee is Mike Dean.
• Dean took charge of Arsenal's 2-0 loss at Chelsea last month and Arsenal dropped points in all four fixtures he worked for them last year.
• Dean has not worked a Newcastle match since their 1-1 draw with West Brom last year in the Championship.

Around the League

• Saturday: Bolton Wanderers v. Tottenham Hotspur; Reebok Stadium, Bolton
• Saturday: Birmingham City v. West Ham United; St. Andrew's, Birmingham
• Saturday: Blackburn Rovers v. Wigan Athletic; Ewood Park, Blackburn
• Saturday: Blackpool v. Everton; Bloomfield Road, Blackpool
• Saturday: Fulham v. Aston Villa; Craven Cottage, London
• Saturday: Manchester United v. Wolverhampton Wanderers; Old Trafford, Manchester
• Saturday: Sunderland v. Stoke City; Stadium of Light, Sunderland
• Sunday: West Bromwich Albion v. Manchester City; The Hawthorns, West Bromwich
• Sunday: Liverpool v. Chelsea; Anfield, Liverpool

Carling Cup: Newcastle United 0 - 4 Arsenal: Up for the Cup!

Arsenal took the lead into halftime, thanks to absolute preposterousness. Pic via Daily Mail.

Newcastle United 0

Arsenal 4: Krul 45+2 (og), Walcott 53, 88, Bendtner 83

It looks like we're going for this one this year. There's been a different feeling around the League Milk Littlewoods Rumbelows Coca-Cola Worthington Carling Cup this season. It's hard to say why Arsenal appears to be taking this competition more seriously. Obviously, the last round being a derby against Tottenham had a lot to do with the squad's strength that night. I feel like the biggest reason behind the strength of tonight's squad was, quite honestly, the quality of Arsenal's second string of players.

But, if you're still wondering if Arsene Wenger is serious about this cup this year, keep in mind that he sent Cesc Fabregas on with twenty minutes to play in a 2-0 game.

With this being a Carling Cup game, it's not really worth discussing the line-up in terms of changes in the side since the last league match (FYI, there were nine changes.) Arsene Wenger decided to start a number of players returning from injuries: Laurent Koscielny, Nicklas Bendtner, and Theo Walcott. Wojciech Szczesny got the nod in goal (as I said in the preview, if he didn't start now, he wasn't going to this season.) Johan Djourou, Emmanuel Eboue, and Kieran Gibbs joined Koscielny on the back line. Denilson, Craig Eastmond, and Tomas Rosicky joined Theo Walcott in the midfield, with the Czech wearing the captain's armband. Carlos Vela joined Bendtner up front.

To fit the non-standard squad into Arsenal's standard 4-2-3-1 formation, Vela appeared to play the left wing with Walcott on the right and Bendtner up front, Rosicky played the central role, and Denilson and Eastmond played the holding roles.

The fact that Arsenal could not score in the first five minutes was a bit surprising, given the number of chances. A Vela shot was stopped by goalkeeper Tim Krul within the first thirty seconds, then Bendtner had about four shots blocked after the ensuing corner. The shots kept coming from Arsenal in the opening minutes, but nothing on target found its way past Krul. After this, the match settled into rusty frustration. Despite the flying start, Arsenal did not continue the match very well, in that touches and passes were off. A ton of first touches were terrible. This was clearly a side that 1) doesn't play together often and 2) doesn't see much playing time anyway and, as such, was rusty. Shaking that rust off was a huge point of this match.

The following ten minutes were all Newcastle. Nile Ranger beat Djourou and Szczesny found himself near the 18-yard-line to challenge and the young keeper missed. He did clip Ranger a bit, but nothing more and Ranger stayed on his feet, clear through with an open goal in front of him. Instead of burying it to give the Magpies a 1-0 lead against the run of play, he checked over to try to shoot from his dominant foot, allowing Laurent Koscielny to get back into position. Then, instead of dribbling around Koscielny, Ranger fired a shot right at him. Crisis averted. Not long after, Alan Smith had a beautiful strike from 25 yards out that clanged off the goalpost for a goal kick, though Szczesny actually got a fingertip to it. Kieran Gibbs left the match in the 18th minute with an injury he picked up earlier after a challenge; when was the last time he played a full match? Bacary Sagna replaced him, with Eboue sliding over from right to left back.

Then, nothing happened for about half an hour, unless you're a fan of crosses to nobody in particular.

Arsenal did manage to take a 1-0 lead into the halftime break thanks to an absolutely ridiculous own goal. Words cannot describe how preposterous this goal was, but I'll give it a shot. Arsenal won a corner in the final minute of the first half's added time. Bendtner flicked the set piece into the six-yard box and all hell broke loose. In the scramble, someone in red got a shot on target that was headed off the line by Ryan Taylor. But, the defender's clearing header landed on the back of the head of the goalkeeper Krul, who was on the ground in the scramble. The ball careened off Krul's head and into the net. No, seriously, that's what happened.

Returning from injury, Bendtner and Walcott have scored four goals combined in two games. Pic via Daily Telegraph. 

Arsenal added a second goal eight minutes after the restart, though this would not come without controversy. From a Newcastle goal kick, Bendtner was slowly jogging back into play, but the Arsenal defense won the ball. The pass sprung Walcott ahead with a brilliant through ball. Walcott was onside, but Bendtner, by miles, was not, so he cannot get involved in the play. Walcott was clear through on goal and chipped a shot over the charging Krul to make it 2-0. The controversy surrounds whether Bendtner impeded a defender, specifically Mike Williamson, from getting involved in the play. Walcott was off the races already and nobody was going to catch him anyway, but Williamson could have made it close. Instead, he was checked out of the play by Bendtner, who was offside.

So, the question is how you interpret the (exceedingly complicated) offside rule. In a split second, the assistant referee would have had to determine both whether Bendtner impeded Williamson and whether Williamson could have become involved in the play in the first place. Since Walcott was onside and running well ahead of everyone anyway, I can see why the goal was given, in spite of the gray area. 

Newcastle started pouring everything forward in a desperate attempt to equalize. They made offensive minded substitutions, bringing on the likes of Andy Carroll, Jonas Gutierrez, and Joey Barton. The Toon threw everything they could at Szczesny, who kept the door shut in magnificent fashion. He's talked the talk before and it's good to see that he can walk the walk as well. As a separate aside, I love that, considering he's got an impossible name for a chant, we at the pub have started chanting his name as "Mr. Smith."

As mentioned in the opening of this post, Arsene Wenger clearly wanted this win, as he brought Cesc Fabregas in off the bench, up 2-0, in the 71st minute. After about ten more minutes of Szczesny slamming the door shut (including a point blank save while on the ground off a corner,) Arsenal nabbed a third, as Fabregas slid a perfect ball for Bendtner, who lashed a shot into the top right corner. Walcott picked up a brace five minutes later, after a similar run straight up the middle of the pitch as his goal earlier in the half.

All in all, a great effort, against a side that certainly came to play, and an enjoyable match on the whole. There's a 6 in 7 chance that Arsenal will play another Premier League side in early December's Carling Cup quarterfinal, and two of those six sides were finalists in this competition last year (that's Manchester United and Aston Villa, by the way.) It's four straight wins across all competitions for the Gunners, a feeling that this team could actually win something this year that is growing with each and every win, and a string of players returning from injuries. Let's just keep this rolling, boys.

Hipster Gooner Man of the Match: Theo Walcott

Preview: Newcastle United v. Arsenal, Carling Cup 4th Round

Nicklas Bendtner beat the Magpies with this 83rd minute goal in 2007. Pic via Arsenal.com.

St. James' Park, Newcastle upon Tyne

Wednesday, October 27

19:45 BST, 2:45 p.m. EDT

• Referee: Andre Marriner
• Last League Match: Newcastle 1 - 3 Arsenal; March 21, 2009
• All-Time in All Competitions: 64 Arsenal wins, 65 Newcastle wins, 36 draws
• All-Time in League Cup: 3 Arsenal wins, 0 Newcastle wins, 0 draws
• Arsenal's League Form: W-D-L-L-W-W
• Newcastle's League Form: L-W-L-L-D-W

News and Notes

• Jack Wilshere will serve the second match of his three match ban for the straight red card he picked up against Birmingham City.
• Arsene Wenger has stated that the side's strength will be similar to the side he sent out at White Hart Lane in the third round.
• A lot of first team players need to get games in, so we're fairly likely to see the likes of Kieran Gibbs, Emmanuel Eboue, Carlos Vela, probably Abou Diaby, and maybe Denilson and Tomas Rosicky at some point.
• Nicklas Bendtner and Theo Walcott, both coming back from injury, will likely see a lot of time.
• Wojciech Szczesny will start in goal; if he didn't start this one, he probably wasn't going to start any this year.
• Henri Lansbury, Craig Eastmond, and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas may also make the named squad.

Match Facts

• Arsenal have met Newcastle three times in the League Cup; all three have been in London and all three were Arsenal wins (2-0 in 2007/08, 2-0 in 1995/96, and 4-0 in 1971/72.)
• Arsenal took all six points from the Magpies in 2008/09, winning 3-0 at the Emirates and 3-1 at St. James' Park.
• Arsenal beat Newcastle in both domestic cups in 2007/08.
• The last time Arsenal lost a cup tie against Newcastle was the 1952 FA Cup Final. At a time where substitutions were not allowed in the game, Arsenal had to finish the match with seven players due to injuries, and conceded late to lose 1-0.

The Referee

• The referee is Andre Marriner.
• This is his first time working an Arsenal match this year; last year he handled the 3-0 loss to Chelsea at the Emirates along with two matches won by Nicklas Bendtner in injury time: 2-1 at Hull and 1-0 against Wolves.
• Earlier this year, he took charge of Newcastle's 1-0 win at Goodison Park. He handled only four Championship matches last year, but one was the Geordies' 0-0 draw at Leicester.

Other Fourth Round Ties
(P = Premier League, C = Championship, L1 = League One, L2 = League Two)

• Tuesday: Manchester United (P) v. Wolverhampton Wanderers (P); Old Trafford, Manchester
• Tuesday: Birmingham City (P) v. Brentford (L1); St. Andrew's, Birmingham
• Tuesday: Ipswich Town (C) v. Northampton Town (L2); Portman Road, Ipswich
• Tuesday: Leicester City (C) v. West Bromwich Albion (P); Walkers Stadium, Leicester
• Tuesday: Wigan Athletic (P) v. Swansea City (C); DW Stadium, Wigan
• Wednesday: Aston Villa (P) v. Burnley (C); Villa Park, Birmingham
• Wednesday: West Ham United (P) v. Stoke City (P); Boleyn Ground, London

Oh. They're Back.

Ummmmmmmmmm... Pic via Daily Mail.

Thanks to Nottingham Forest's 0-0 draw with promotion playoff rival Cardiff City, Newcastle United have clinched at least a top two finish in the Football League Championship, and with that, automatic promotion to the Premier League for the 2010-11 campaign.

Last year, Arsenal beat Newcastle in both meetings, winning 3-0 at the Emirates and 3-1 at what is currently titled something along the lines of stupidsportswebsitenamething.com @ St. James' Park Stadium.

It'll be nice to have another team that actually has a New York City supporters club in the top flight, even if they do have an annoyingly loud drum that they bring with them that you can hear from upstairs even when they're downstairs. And an unnecessarily gigantic flag. The Toon Army is back...