Newcastle 0-2 Arsenal (Odegaard 14′, Schar 71′ OG)
ST JAMES’ PARK — In exorcising their St James’ Park demons, Arsenal offered an emphatic reminder that they haven’t given up the ghost in the Premier League title race.
The significance of this stirring win for a bristling Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal charges should be lost on no-one. It was on Tyneside where they disintegrated almost a year ago to the day, blown away by a Newcastle side powered by pride but with nothing tangible to play for.
So there was something fitting about the fact that this was the venue where Arsenal posted arguably their most impressive win of the season to date.
And what a time it was for them to showcase the full fury of their newly-discovered devilment. A fired up Newcastle wanted to subject them to the same shock and awe tactics that had done for Spurs a fortnight ago but Arsenal absorbed the pressure and then proceeded to lob a grenade of their own into the title race.
Bottlers? If only you could bottle what Arteta has whipped up in this young, developing team. This win surely answers any lingering questions about character and mettle as they walked through a St James’ Park storm to claim a statement win.
Arteta could barely conceal his satisfaction afterwards. He had chosen the morning of the match to show his players clips from the “All or Nothing” documentary of the scenes in the St James’ Park dressing room after their surrender last season. He wanted them to see and feel the devastation in the room back then and the Arsenal boss sensed it had hit home with his players. His hunch was proved right.
“We had to feel it. It wasn’t enough just to talk about it, we had to feel it, we had to see it, we had to recognise our faces,” he explained afterwards.
“The word [the players said] was pain and then the desire for revenge. I think they had that today in their bellies.”
Let’s be honest, with Manchester City whirring as they are it is unlikely to prove decisive in the title race. They are not the first team to be engulfed by City’s monstrous momentum and will probably not be the last but if it is to be silver, it will arrive with a healthy silver lining for a group who have grown immeasurably this season.
It wasn’t just the win it was the way this was won. Ten minutes of Newcastle at their very best has been enough to see off Tottenham and Manchester United recently but after surviving Jacob Murphy clattering a post and then a penalty rightly being chalked off by VAR, Arsenal slowly began to unravel their game plan, constricting the momentum of their hosts with a savvy exhibition of the dark arts.
Game management is what managers prefer to call it but in practice it was breaking up the game, obstructing Newcastle’s momentum and ultimately frustrating a team that pride themselves on the mantra that intensity is their identity.
It wasn’t enough on its own. That they had the game’s outstanding player – Martin Odegaard – was critical. His opening goal, Arsenal’s first moment of enterprise in the contest, was a thing of beauty and helped swing the contest firmly in the Gunners’ favour.
THAT MAN AGAIN!
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 7, 2023
Martin Ødegaard with a brilliant strike to give Arsenal the lead pic.twitter.com/VKkedD2oem
He is a wondeful player and looked levels above the frenzy of this contest. Gabriel Martinelli wasn’t far behind and was the architect of the Fabian Schar own goal that put the game beyond Newcastle.
For the Magpies, the race for the top four has constricted significantly. They didn’t play badly here, forcing enough pressure to puncture Arsenal’s rearguard on numerous occasions.
But when they did get into good positions they were wasteful. Alexander Isak was shifted to the left to accommodate Callum Wilson but the balance wasn’t quite right. He struck the post with a header during Newcastle’s best spell but they lacked the authority of recent weeks.
“There were moments in that game where I thought we were going to explode and catch fire but it never quite happened,” Howe ruefully reflected afterwards.
The smart money remains on Newcastle grasping their top four prize while the odds are still stacked against Arsenal snatching the title. But the tremors felt in the aftermath of this tumultuous contest still feel significant.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/xBTGjUc
Post a Comment