Aaron Ramsey believes patience was crucial in Arsenal’s 1-0 win at St. James’ Park Saturday lunch time.
Following Aleksandar Mitrovic’s red card after just 16 minutes, Newcastle United were forced into a much more defensive approach, with the Gunners dominating the match. The breakthrough finally came in the 52nd minute after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s cross was deflected into the net by the home side’s Fabricio Coloccini.
Ramsey addressed the difficulty of playing against 10 men and said: “Sometimes it’s more difficult to play against 10 men because they dropped off quite deep and it was quite difficult to break down.
It was important just to be quite solid at the back, not to give them too many chances which we didn’t, to be patient and to take our chance where it came. Fortunately we were able to do that.
Ramsey believes anything can happen in the Premier League, proven by title rivals Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool all losing this weekend, and predicts it’s too soon to take any notice of the league table: “So many things can happen in the league.
My view is to look at the table after 10 games and then see where everyone is then. So many things can happen.
Arsenal have bounced back in positive fashion following the opening day home defeat against West Ham United, beating Crystal Palace and Newcastle away who have both significantly strengthened their squads this summer, and the midfielder hopes to go on a winning run.
Hopefully that will be our only upset, the one at the beginning of the season, and if we go on a winning run to win our next five or six games, then maybe we’ll be there or thereabouts again.
It’s important to just concentrate on what we can do.
You can’t take too much into how the table’s looking so far. Teams are going to have upsets and hopefully the opening-day upset will be our only one for a long time.
The Wales captain will now resume international duty ahead of his countries Euro 2016 qualifiers against Cyprus and Israel, with Wales sitting top of Group B.
We’re happy with the win before the international break, and now I have a big week for Wales.
