A four-goal swing is what the difference is between the Newcastle side who beat the Gunners by two goals in May of 2022 and the Arsenal squad that Mikel Arteta masterminded a victory by the same scoreline at St James’ Park just under a year later. The win secured Arsenal’s top-two status, kept them in the hunt for the title and turned up the pressure on Manchester City.
Arteta faced incredible pressure after his side missed out on Champions League qualification following the defeat at Newcastle last season. The negative energy from that he has channelled into an almighty response this season with the current Premier League title race that Arsenal have continued to push for.
The game on Tyneside provides a great insight into the changes that Arteta has made to personnel, attitude and fortune in the contextually small gap between the two games. football.london takes a look at what the three main changes were that aided in the Gunners' avenging of last year’s defeat.
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Street smarts and dark arts?
What Eddie Howe has done to this Newcastle side supported by the new financial muscle remains one of the big successes of the past two years. Even the investment has not been what can be coined now as Todd Boehly-esque in its approach and instead smart and savvy in nature to construct the squad.
As the second half of the season draws to a close, Howe turned the defensively resolute Magpies into a side capable of blowing teams away with more expressive, dominant football. Arsenal knew they’d expect their opponents to again have plenty of the ball and momentum from the visceral St James’ Park crowd.
Being in the ground I can attest to the piercing noise made and it really does make an impact on the players. Therefore Arteta’s side approached the game with great resilience and what could be defined as ‘street smarts’ or the ‘dark arts’ depending on whose perspective you ask.
It was a very stop-start game, much down to the Arsenal players taking long pauses after challenges which, with respect to the Gunners players, were very physical in nature with late fouls and flying elbows a regularity. Yet when Arsenal could they nicked the ball off what looked a total contrast to the timid Newcastle side which looked to frustrate when they visited north London.
Martin Odegaard’s clinical long-range strike gave Arsenal the perfect foothold after riding out the early Newcastle wave from the kick-off. Odegaard was aided by Jorginho and Granit Xhaka in particular who helped grant their side control of the game’s flow and pace.
A manager’s choices
Granted, when Arsenal travelled to Newcastle in 2022 the options available to Mikel Arteta were limited. Thomas Partey and Kieran Tierney were both out injured. The centre-half duo of Gabriel Magalhaes and Ben White played through existing injuries along with Takehiro Tomiyasu who was replaced in the first half.
Rob Holding was suspended for the match and although available this time around Arteta again showed faith in his new Polish centre-half Jakub Kiwior. The former Spezia man demonstrated superior technical quality to Holding and an assurance that had perhaps been lacking in some of the games the Gunners dropped points in.
Although Partey was fit and ready, Arteta again opted for Jorginho who was a composed and calm figurehead in the middle of the park, adding just the right experience to the team where it needed it. Gabriel Jesus featured where Eddie Nketiah started last year in his purple end-of-season run, and the Brazilian showed similar composure to Jorginho in holding the ball and linking play.
Changes by Mikel Arteta made a difference in this game. Kieran Tierney helped add defensive security when Oleksandr Zinchenko’s contribution was reaching its limit and in Arsenal’s own half gaps were forming.
Three games are left and the line-ups and substitutions need to be on point for them all. Win them and who knows what is possible?
Riding his luck
Arsenal have seen their fair share of misfortune from the video assistant referee. Few will be able to forget the VAR blunder against Brentford which cost Arsenal dearly at home when Ivan Toney’s goal was allowed to stand.
Newcastle hit the post on two occasions from Jacob Murphy early on in the first half and Alexander Isak again early in the second period. Against Liverpool, Arsenal watched as Jordan Henderson’s mishit shot landed at the feet of Mohamed Salah to score a huge goal before half-time and on Tyneside lady luck clearly had the Gunners’ side this time around.
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