Arsenal bested Newcastle 1-0 at the Emirates to take step one of five in Operation Win Out. The Gunners could do with gaudier scorelines from here on out, but the most important part is securing the full three points, and they managed it. Today’s fixture was either the first or second-toughest remaining on the schedule — a West Ham side fighting to stay in the Premier League will throw everything AND the kitchen sink at the match in May.
For all the nerves that defending a 1-0 lead in a must-win match create, in actuality, Arsenal were in pretty firm control in the second half. Newcastle really didn’t threaten David Raya’s goal in the second half. You’d like to see Arsenal score a second goal to put the match beyond a bad bounce, boneheaded mistake, or questionable referee decision, but when you’ve basically kept the ball out of your box for an entire half of football, you’ve done enough.
The Gunners had a handful of excellent opportunities to extend the lead throughout the match, but none of them came off. For one, if you were playing a drinking game where an Arsenal player, often Martin Ødegaard, failed to put a teammate by hitting an aggressive, early ball, you’d be in trouble. Noni Madueke and Declan Rice both took too many touches on promising attacks. Viktor Gyokeres failed to pick out Bukayo Saka on a three-on-one that would have put the winger in on goal. It was BAD, bad folks.
The Swedish striker was also wrestled to the ground by Nick Pope to prevent an opportunity to shoot at an empty net. The Newcastle goalkeeper was only shown a yellow card, ostensibly because there was a covering defender. Y’all are going to get on my case if I belabor the point too much, but plenty of people far more objective than I am expressed surprise, even shock, that Nick Pope was not shown a red card.
Gyokeres, who did not start the match, was on the pitch because Kai Havertz picked up what appeared to be a groin injury in the first half. I’ll be honest — Kai’s body language as he walked off was worrying. Fortunately, Mikel Arteta said that both Havertz and Ebere Eze were muscular niggles that they didn’t think were too bad.
Hopefully the pair are back in action sooner rather than later. The Arsenal attack desperately need both. Everything looked so much more fluid with Havertz leading the line compared to Gyokeres. And you needn’t look further than the only goal of the day to see what Eze brings. He’s one of the few players Arsenal have who can create a goal out of little to nothing. In Eze’s case, it is often with a shot from just outside (or barely inside) the box. He’s far and away the best shooter the club have, and I’d wager those short corner routines were designed specifically with freeing up Eze in mind. Well done, Nicolas Jover. I wonder what he saw in the Newcastle tape that had them take their first three corners short. Whatever it was, he was right.
The good news for Arsenal is that their other magical moment player, Bukayo Saka, returned to action today. The winger was immediately involved, forcing a corner with his usual cut inside to create space for a shot move. Saka’s return should ease the pain of any time Havertz / Eze have to miss. Noni Madueke has been fine this season. Not great, not terrible, and he’s been struggling a bit more of late. Either way, Noni ain’t Bukayo. Teams have to defend Bukayo Saka more carefully than they do Noni Madueke and that affects all areas of the pitch. It creates time and space for other attackers. It takes a bit of pressure off the midfield and defense because the opposition is more concerned about being able to cover back against a superstar. And so on.
Look, I don’t care if Arsenal look dominant, horrible, or somewhere in between as long as they win four more Premier League games. That may not be enough to get things over the line but they’ve got to give themselves the best chance at it. Try to score a bunch of goals along the way and let the chips fall as they may.