Arsenal 1-0 Newcastle (Eze 9’)
EMIRATES – In the heat and the hedonism of the early evening sun, it was easy to pretend the last fortnight had been some kind of fever dream. Arsenal back on top of the Premier League, after 20,160 minutes of agonising since Bournemouth. Six days of sweating since the title was supposedly snatched away.
They knew, Arteta accepted, that there was no “path of roses and beautiful music” ahead. Instead, two more mini-setbacks, but one moment of sumptuous quality to trump them all.
A week ago at the Etihad, Declan Rice muttering “it’s not done” was in no way performative. In the dressing room players genuinely felt they had deserved more; consequently, the result did not prompt panic despite a potentially season-defining defeat.
Against Newcastle, Eberechi Eze’s ninth-minute goal ought to have settled the nerves. Still, the difficulties came one after the other, Kai Havertz and then Eze then forced off through injury. Arteta was incandescent that Nick Pope was also spared a red card for hauling down Viktor Gyokeres 40 yards from his goal, although Malick Thiaw’s covering run meant it was the correct decision.
The Havertz-Eze double whammy felt particularly cruel. Not least because it robbed Arsenal of a jigsaw that was poised at last to come together with the return of Bukayo Saka, who instantly improved the attack upon his introduction. Arteta has needed a combination of Saka, Eze, Havertz and Martin Odegaard to form a dynamic quartet but never seems to have them all available.
Two fresh injuries came just as he had stumbled upon a winning formula – albeit it did not actually produce a win at City. Havertz was poised to replace Gyokeres for the remainder of the season as the focal point. Eze, meanwhile, was no longer seen as an alternative to Odegaard in the No 10 role but a complementary asset on the left.
Somehow, as the drums boomed from the Clock End and Arteta punched the air, that could be forgotten. Before City play Everton on 4 May, Arsenal could be six points clear again.
David Raya roared towards the fans behind him. Piero Hincapie flew into the feet of Anthony Elanga with all the urgency and determination that has been been lacking since the turn of spring. Nine years after Troy Deeney accused this football club of lacking cojones, it is still a taunt that hangs in the air of the Emirates, an expectation that vulnerability will set in.
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In the first half, Newcastle had nine shots to their three; they finished with the greater possession, xG and attempts on goal. When it mattered, they nevertheless left both Havertz and Eze unmarked, taken totally by surprise by the notion that Arsenal might try and score from a set piece.
The goal was a glimpse into Eze’s mercurial brilliance. That matters too, because the way this particular doom loop works is that Arsenal suffer technically, then psychologically, and one reinforces the other. However gritty midweek’s Champions League semi-final against Atletico Madrid proves to be, somewhere in there Arsenal have the mettle to overcome it.
