Ten minutes of normal time remained when Mikel Arteta withdrew the outstanding Martin Ødegaard and the almost equally impressive Gabriel Martinelli. Arsenal’s manager had judged his team’s two-goal lead sufficiently secure to protect this magnificent match’s two principal catalysts, resting their legs for the challenges ahead.
Manchester City may be a point ahead at the top of the Premier League with a game in hand but Arteta’s players are not about to surrender their title pursuit just yet – and certainly not after coming through a significant test of character and courage on Tyneside with flying colours.
Newcastle pushed Arsenal all the way, doing enough to suggest they will grace next season’s Champions League. It spoke volumes that Aaron Ramsdale needed to excel in the visiting goal while Arsenal frequently resorted to the sort of streetwise time-wasting tactics Arteta has previously accused Eddie Howe of choreographing.
It was the only way Arsenal could resist the home side’s momentum, the sole hope they had of interrupting the flow which had threatened to overwhelm their collective talent.
Ultimately though, Ødegaard and Martinelli imposed that quality. And, as notorious “game managers” themselves in the very recent past, Newcastle were arguably hoist by their own petard.
Yet Howe’s players started at their high-intensity, hard-pressing best with Jacob Murphy’s second-minute shot cannoning off a post following his collection of Joe Willock’s cross.
Shortly afterwards they thought they should have been awarded a penalty when Bruno Guimarães’s shot struck Jakub Kiwior’s hand. Despite the referee, Chris Kavanagh, initially awarding that spot-kick he changed his mind after viewing a pitchside monitor.
Replays indicated it was the correct decision, the ball having struck Kiwior’s knee before rebounding on to the Poland defender’s hand. But the normally measured Howe was so incensed that his assistant Jason Tindall felt it necessary to extend a restraining arm and prevent him confronting Anthony Taylor, the fourth official.
Indeed Newcastle’s collective emotional equilibrium seemed disturbed to the point where they lost concentration at a crucial moment, allowing Arsenal to score with their first attack.
Source: The Guardian
BDST: 1152 HRS, MAY 08, 2023
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