ST JAMES’ PARK – A vivid reminder that big games aren’t always won by the biggest of players.
Newcastle United hammered another nail in Arsenal’s title coffin thanks to a header of rare quality by Alexander Isak but the architect of this vital victory was their unsung No 36 Sean Longstaff.
He was the balance Newcastle have been missing, the outstretched shin on the rare occasions Arsenal broke the lines, the cover Bruno Guimaraes needed and the energy Mikel Arteta’s flagging side couldn’t match.
Too often Longstaff is under the microscope at St James’ Park for what he can’t do. When the team sheet landed and Sandro Tonali – the dynamo of their season-altering midweek win against Chelsea – was omitted it felt like a big call from Eddie Howe.
But Howe is a believer in balance. What his critics sometimes mistake for loyalty or reverence for homegrown players is actual fact a recognition that Newcastle’s formula only fizzes if his stars have support. Tonali and Guimaraes works on paper but in practice, it is Longstaff plus another that yields the best results.
This win comes at the end of a week that has answered some big questions. Only the most incorrigible were seriously questioning Howe after they were left harpooned in mid-table but Newcastle needed results to illustrate the behind-the-scenes serenity wasn’t misplaced.
Wins against Chelsea and now Arsenal – both achieved with clean sheets – return them to the Champions League conversation.
Everyone in black and white was “at it”. Isak’s goal – his third in three since contract talks slowed – was evidence of his sharpening instinct while Anthony Gordon’s cross capped his best performance of the season. His heat map glowed white with the amount of work he got through.
And a word for another outstanding performance from the superb Lewis Hall at left-back, handed the role of nullifying Bukayo Saka. Hall could barely get in the Newcastle squad as he underwent a lengthy period of adjustment during his loan from Chelsea last season, now he looks every inch an accomplished Premier League left-back. Wherever Thomas Tuchel is sat this weekend, he should be paying attention to Hall’s progress.
Arsenal were so subdued you could be forgiven for forgetting what was resting on it for them. They lacked endeavour and creativity, unable to plug in the gaps left by the injured Martin Odegaard. They began with ferocity but had no answer after Newcastle’s first half opener: a terrific Isak header from Gordon’s cross which had echoes of that famous link-up between Keith Gillespie and Faustino Asprilla when Barcelona were downed nearly 30 years ago.
For Newcastle the “swarm” – the in-house epithet they use to describe a ferocious press that hunts in packs – is back. A midfield that had been bypassed with alarming ease at Stamford Bridge a week ago has been reconfigured and returned to a better balance of industry and enterprise. That Arsenal got stung raises fresh questions about the direction of travel under Arteta.
To sit five points behind Manchester City before kick-off is bad enough for a team that began the season with cast-iron title aspirations. To see that gap extended by the end of the first weekend of November feels terminal for their Premier League ambitions in an era where City have set such a high standard.
And they could have no one to blame but themselves. The long Arteta-led hangover from their contentious defeat on the same ground last season provided Newcastle with a perfect blueprint to repeat the feat: close down space, snap into tackles, break up play, frustrate and operate in the grey area that make decisions difficult for officials.
That Howe picked a team to do all of those things was a surprise to no-one. That Newcastle were rarely tugged out of their comfort zone was probably down to Arsenal starting with Leandro Trossard and Kai Havertz, who were contained with a measure of ease by a black and white barrier barely breached.
Ethan Nwaneri, summoned for the final quarter, is a man in form and has the unpredictability that Premier League defences dread. Why is Arteta not trusting him in big games like this?
The Gunners were utterly mediocre, not even able to fall back on injustice or ill discipline here. The stats suggested they’d had one shot on target but it was difficult to recall it. Theirs has been a peculiarly fragile title tilt.
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