Declan Rice headed down the tunnel shaking his head and muttering to himself. Arsenal had just forfeited precious ground in the title race, Mikel Arteta looked incapable of smiling again and Rice seemed to be struggling to comprehend his inability to exert any sort of real control over midfield.
With Arteta’s defence incapable of suppressing the excellent Anthony Gordon and the outstanding match-winner Alexander Isak on a day when Arsenal made a litany of uncharacteristic unforced errors, Eddie Howe’s team remembered how to be streetwise and reaped deserved rewards. After five Premier League games without a win Newcastle look upwardly mobile once more.
