Arsenal hosted Newcastle tonight looking to extend their lead at the top of the table to 10 points, while Newcastle had 2nd place in their sights.
Right from the first whistle it was apparent that Newcastle were going to be up against it with Arsenal looking in control from minute one, slick movement and passing with Newcastle just playing catch-up. The early possession stats were 85% – 15% in Arsenal’s favour in the first ten minutes which said it all.
However, the Magpies did grow into the game a bit and managed to regain possession, but their passing was well off what is expected with passes not making their intended targets on multiple occasions.
Thankfully, our defence managed to cope with everything the Arsenal attack threw at them and it was actually Newcastle who should have headed into the break in the lead after a last minute corner found Joelinton at the back stick but he wasn’t able to head the ball goalwards when he really should have done better.
The referee made life difficult for both sides by brandishing yellow cards early on for small infractions that meant that every slightly mistimed challenge after had to result in a yellow card.
The second half continued in much the same vein with Arsenal dominating the ball. For the longest time Newcastle could not get out of their own half, and when a break was on never looked like threatening.
If Newcastle were going to score it was going to come from a set piece, most likely a corner as that was where they caused Arsenal the most problems.
Newcastle once again had Nick Pope to thank for saving their skin when Nketiah found space in the box to get a shot away, but Pope stuck out a leg and saved the day.
In the last 5 minutes (plus five minutes of stoppage time) Arsenal turned it up to eleven and Newcastle hung on for dear life, and in the 95th minute the Toon Army had to hold their breath as Arsenal had a real shout for a penalty – maybe too real with Arteta taking things a bit too far on the touchline, to the point where even Eddie Howe got involved to tell him to calm down (although I’m sure his words were more tasty).
It would have been a harsh penalty in every sense of the word and thankfully, VAR agreed with the on-field referee that it wasn’t a penalty and the game finished 0-0.
That means that Newcastle haven’t conceded a goal in six games and we also become the first team to stop Arsenal from scoring in the Premier League this season.
Tonight was a big test for the Magpies as to whether we truly belong in third place, and I think it’s safe to say, we definitely do.
For my man of the match, again it’s a difficult one as we didn’t have much of the ball for anyone to really do anything, but I can’t see beyond Sven Botman tonight. An absolute rock at the back and some of his passing is just ridiculous.