This was a night for heroes and hanging in. Arsenal, despite an abject performance, were just about managing the latter until, for the second time in five days, finding a way to make villains of themselves.
Nuno Tavares could hardly have expected the ball to be in the Gunners’ net within seconds of his foul throw deep in the Newcastle half. It was the kind of mistake which, 99 times out of 100, goes unpunished, but it was a needless surrender of possession and territory in a game where his side had struggled to get much of either.
Ben White was unfortunate to turn Joelinton’s cross home, with Callum Wilson lurking, having been the visitors’ best player on the night, defying the constraints of injury and an early yellow card with a manful display. Gabriel alongside him, similarly dogged by fitness concerns, battled hard, too.
The risk Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta took in starting both centre-backs was one he almost had to and had nothing to do with his team’s sorry showing. Without them, in fact, things surely would have been much worse, because whether through a lack of character or, much more likely, exhaustion, few others appeared up for the fight.
“Normally, I can sit here and defend what we’ve done, but today it’s not easy,” said Arteta. “Newcastle were 100 times better than us.”
Instead, the gamble that has backfired so spectacularly came in January, when the foundations were laid not only for this final and surely decisive implosion — Tottenham now need just a point at already-relegated Norwich on Sunday to clinch fourth — but also the run of three straight defeats to Crystal Palace, Southampton and Brighton that gave the top-four race the kind of tense conclusion that might otherwise have been avoided.
Arteta bet the house that a small squad could get over the line, not merely failing to reinforce but streamlining (think for instance, how useful Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ versatility might have been in recent weeks), only for injuries to Thomas Partey and Kieran Tierney, whose fitness records suggested they could not be relied upon to see out the term, to rob him of two crucial players and his side its balance.
In a way, it is a miracle they got this far, players like Eddie Nketiah, Mohamed Elneny and Rob Holding, who were not getting a look-in in January, stepping up in the run-in to get Arteta’s men back on track, while the likes of Bukayo Saka have somehow continued to go to the well, despite being so visibly shattered and battered.
But last night, as at Tottenham on Thursday, the chickens came home to roost. Nketiah hardly had a kick and, in search of a goal, Arteta had to turn to Alexandre Lacazette, who has scored just one all year, the same return as Nicolas Pepe, also thrown on in hope more than expectation.
Elneny was part of an understandably spent midfield that went missing, swamped by Newcastle’s press and outclassed by Bruno Guimaraes, who scored the late clincher and who, it is lost on no one, was a January target for Arsenal, too.
The sight of the Brazilian hugging Newcastle director Amanda Staveley on the pitch at full-time was a reminder of the way in which the Toon have seen their own season transformed by the mid-term arrival of Saudi Arabian money, and one of the many reasons why securing Champions League football ahead of schedule would have been such a boon for Arsenal.
A top-four finish would have set the Gunners apart from the upstarts, whose own likely ascendancy to Europe’s elite competition may still be years away, but who will no doubt be competing in the transfer market as if well on their way there.
Arteta bet the house that a small Arsenal squad could get over the line, not merely failing to reinforce but streamlining
They would have stolen a march, too, on Spurs and dealt who knows what kind of additional blow in terms of the futures of Antonio Conte and Harry Kane. With the Italian at the helm and the England captain still leading the line, Spurs will be stronger next season, as you would imagine will Manchester United, although we have all been told that before.
The time will come, perhaps as soon as the home finale against Everton, to appreciate what this young Arsenal squad has done this season in mounting an unexpected challenge and reuniting a divided club. But midway through it, there was a chance to go all-in — and as it all goes horribly wrong at the end, it was then that the opportunity was truly missed.
