At full-time the manager punched the air and gave it a ‘Vamos!!’ that could just about be heard in the seats on the lower tier of the West Stand. On the field the players fell to their knees. In the section in front of the press box, the supporters hugged and some seemed vaguely tearful.
All a bit much for a scrappy single-goal win over Newcastle, you may think. But this is what a Premier League title race does to people, especially those who have a habit of coming second in them. It tugs at your innards until you fear they may come apart.
So this was another stomach-churner for Arsenal and their fans and it was all very understandable. After recent struggles and a defeat here to Bournemouth two weeks ago that handed the initiative to Manchester City, this was another day of intense emotion in north London.
Arsenal had started the game well – their goal in the ninth minute from Eberechi Eze was simply beautiful – but they just couldn’t sustain it. So they did what they had to do. They hung on. They scrapped. They ran. They worked. And eventually the calamity of more dropped points was avoided.
It was a close call. Newcastle have problems of their own – this was a fifth successive defeat for Eddie Howe’s labouring team – but they have attacking talent in the ranks and when one substitute, Nick Woltemade, set up another, Yoane Wissa, with ten minutes left, Arsenal’s season felt as though it was on the line.
Wissa should have scored. The chipped pass dropped beautifully for him ten yards out and he was onside. But Wissa has had a miserable debut season for Newcastle since his move from Brentford and this volley – high and hopeless – pretty much summed it up. He so far has one Premier League goal to show for his £55m transfer fee.
Arsenal climbed back to the top of the Premier League with a 1-0 win over Newcastle
Eberechi Eze’s wonderful curling effort in the first half gave Arsenal a crucial lead to defend
Soon after that, Arsenal were home. They had done what was necessary. From here they must simply make sure they don’t hand the title to City. They must make their great modern rivals win this race. It’s a test of mettle as much as anything and here Arsenal just about passed it.
There were surprises in the team – Ben White started for example – but so too for Newcastle who had Dan Burn rather than Lewis Hall at left-back. Noni Madueke rinsed him for a while and it was a dash down that side that led to Arsenal’s early goal.
Prior to that, Newcastle almost struck inside the opening 30 seconds.
Midfielder Joe Willock eased forwards and released William Osula through the middle. Osula was one on one with David Raya and Arsenal were wide open. Sadly for the Dane, as he pulled his left foot back to shoot, the ball bobbled off his right and the air kick that followed was just as embarrassing as it sounded.
An early let-off, then, and Arsenal went on to make Newcastle regret it. At this stage Arsenal appeared to have rediscovered some fluency on the back of an improved performance in losing at City last Sunday. Their football was slicker and carried some confidence. It wasn’t to last as the game progressed but it was evident for a while.
Twice early on Arsenal won corners that came to nothing but in the ninth minute they broke through after Malick Thiaw had to come across to tackle Madueke who had left Burn in his wake.
Some of the home crowd actually groaned as it became clear Arsenal were going to play this corner short. It’s not usually in the playbook. But they needn’t have worried. The lateral pass played to Kai Havertz took at least two Newcastle defenders out of the game and when the German laid the ball back to Eze, he had time to curl one of those unstoppable outswingers across Nick Pope and in to the top corner. It was a beautiful and thrilling goal that came straight from the training ground.
Given their recent problems, Newcastle could have folded but they didn’t. Indeed Raya was forced to change direction and dive low to his right to parry a wicked Sandro Tonali shot that arrived through a crowd of bodies from fully 30 yards in the 30th minute.
It was a nervy second half for Mikel Arteta’s side but they got the job done with a clean sheet
Havertz departed the scene soon after and that could be damaging for Arsenal’s season and indeed his own World Cup hopes. It looked like another knee injury and Havertz looked pretty inconsolable as he was replaced by Viktor Gyokeres.
There was also to be a subsequent injury to Eze – with England manager Thomas Tuchel watching on – early in the second half. He was replaced by the Brazilian winger Gabriel Martinelli. Nobody can say Arsenal don’t have strength in depth.
As the afternoon turned into evening here, though, Arsenal did start to lose a grip on their control of this game. In truth they reverted to recent type.
Newcastle manager Howe sensed it and sent on attacking substitutions while a late surge from the home team brought only a weak Martin Zubimendi shot, a Martinelli overhead kick that was gathered by Pope and then a low drive from Martin Odegaard that was saved at the near post.
Pope – preferred once again now to Aaron Ramsdale – had earlier got in a pickle, hauling Gyokeres down after coming out and missing his clearance. The Emirates hollered for a red card but yellow was the right call as there had been a covering defender.
Amid all of this, Newcastle were in the game but just not quite good enough. Had they been, this could have been another trip down Heartache Lane for Arsenal.
As it was, Wissa’s volley turned out to be the moment of the game. It may yet have a profound impact on Arsenal’s season.
