Result: Newcastle 0-2 Arsenal
Competition: Premier League
Date: 2 May 2021
Venue: St James’ Park
Arsenal: Ryan, Bellerin, Luiz, Gabriel, Xhaka, Ceballos, Odegaard, Elneny, Willian, Martinelli, Aubameyang
Subs: Leno, Cedric, Chambers, Mari, Saka, Partey, Smith Rowe, Pepe
Goals from Mohamed Elneny and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang helped Arsenal to a comfortable 2-0 win against Newcastle at St James’ Park.
The Gunners took the lead inside five minutes courtesy of Elneny’s well-taken finish from the edge of the box and the points were sealed on 66 minutes when Aubameyang applied the finishing touch to Martinelli’s cross.
The home side’s afternoon went from bad to worse in the closing stages when Fabian Schar received a straight red card for a nasty challenge on the Brazilian.
Pre-game
With one eye on Thursday’s Europa League semi-final second leg, Mikel Arteta made eight changes from the side that started in Spain three days ago. Only Granit Xhaka, Dani Ceballos and Martin Odegaard retained their places. Mat Ryan made his third start between the sticks, David Luiz, returning from a knee injury, partnered Gabriel in the centre of defence, while Hector Bellerin, Mo Elneny, Willian and Gabriel Martinelli got run outs. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang led the attack.
First Half
Having lamented his side’s slow start on Thursday, Mikel Arteta will have been pleased by the way his players went about their business from the off at St James’ Park.
It helped that we bagged a goal with our first attack. David Luiz freed Hector Bellerin with a long ball over the home side defence and the Spaniard’s cutback, via an Aubameyang miskick, founds its way to Elneny who, on the edge of the area, produced a controlled finish to beat Dubravka. It was the Egyptian’s first Premier League goal since joining the club in 2016. (1-0)
We continued to create half-chances throughout the rest of the half without really turning to screw. Xhaka stung Dubravka’s palms with a fierce left-foot effort and, from the resulting Willian corner, Elneny had a header cleared off the line by Almiron. Another corner saw Luiz flick on a header that Wilson did well to clear with Aubameyang ready to pounce.
Martinelli’s pace was a useful outlet on the left-wing where he repeatedly fancied his chances against Jacob Murphy. On a couple of occasions, he tried to pick out Auba but our captain didn’t quite have the angle he needed to get a clear shot on goal.
At the back, we weren’t unduly troubled. Mat Ryan commanded his box well and made one noteworthy save to deny Saint-Maximin whose scuffed effort was heading into the top corner.
Second Half
Just back from seven games on the sidelines, David Luiz’s afternoon ended on 51 minutes when he went down holding his hamstring after knocking a long ball forward. Knowing his season might be over, he limped from the field looking very dispirited. Calum Chambers came on in his place and with his first touch had to clear a dangerous Matt Ritchie cross.
Xhaka having been booked in the first half was lucky not to earn a second yellow when he blocked Sean Longstaff off the ball. He didn’t look unduly worried; walking a disciplinary tightrope is nothing new for the Swiss.
After a patchy period of play where neither side was able to assert their dominance, the Gunners finally put together a move of quality to double our lead. Odegaard fed Martinelli on the left and the Brazilian played a brilliant cross for Aubameyang to convert on the volley from close range. (2-0)
Playing without the handbrake on for five minutes, we created further chances. Chambers headed wide and Bellerin had a shot deflected for a corner after a quick counter-attack.
The game petered out after that. We sat back and soaked up Newcastle’s half-hearted attacks using substitutions to further break up the rhythm.
The only negative was an injury scare for Martinelli who took a nasty challenge on the ankle from Fabian Schar. Mike Dean deservedly handed the Swiss a red card for his tackle from behind. Thankfully, our attacker got back to his feet.
The win sees the Gunners climb up to ninth in the table and provides a timely confidence boost ahead of Thursday’s crunch clash with Villarreal.
Strange match. No drama, bad mistakes or goals conceded. Hardly a save to make. Not like Arsenal at all!
Felt a bit boring tbh. Probably cos there’s f all to play for.
I have to disagree with that. This is The Arsenal we’re talking about, we ought to try to win every game and our current league position is an embarrassment.
Everyone should be trying hard to get us up the table even if Europe is too far, and some of these players should be playing for their futures, at Arsenal or otherwise.
The highlights for me were Arteta’s touch, Mat Ryan catching everything, and what was apparently a goose honking loudly whenever Newcastle got possession. Was it Steve Bruce?
Steve Goose.
Quack Ritchie
Allan Saint-Migration
Fedebeako Fernandez
This is getting wildly out of wing.
Alan Shearerwater. Malcolm DuckDonald.
Surely Quackie Milburn deserves an err…shout.
It’s an odd and unpleasant feeling, just slightly empty and detached as The Arsenal won 2 nil. Something isn’t right….
Schar’s Swiss
Good professional win
It really scares me to think we’ve got a further two seasons with Willian. The guy seems desperate not to break a sweat, the only time he sprints is when he gets the ball on the wing and runs back towards our defence. Spent the entire second half glued to Odegaard
William had a decent game.
Did you actually watch the match. He played well and worked hard too. Give him some credit.
One does not simply Credit Willian without lots of dislikes.
I wonder whether you are a real football analyst: was he the only player who played the ball backwards: common sense would dictate that if the press is slow and on receiving the pass and he is surrounded by many defenders he should still drive forward to lose the ball in d final third to d opposition.
Did you not see jim running at defenders and d opposing goalkeeper in the opponents half?
How bias can you be.
Listen racism is not just what you say or do penly but also includes such bias and baseless critisms
Terrible take.
It’s very obvious that he spends a lot of the match hiding in plain sight, taking up positions that aren’t blocking passing lanes and also make him unavailable for a pass. He does run at defenders and the goalkeeper, sometimes, but spends too much time being unavailable. He also has a habit of going in for a block or a tackle and then backing off and letting the player go past him, like a feint tackle. It makes him a very expensive squad player and not nearly good enough for the first eleven,and it has nothing to do with bias… Read more »
that escalated quickly
People who play the racism card to counter criticism should be prosecuted.
I am black and assure you, my criticism of Willian does not stem from his skin colour. I also have no animosity towards Brazilians if u wanted to go there next.
But if you think upon receiving the ball and repeatedly running sideways across the pitch then passing backwards is “playing well” then we have a difference of opinion on what good football is. We also clearly have a difference of opinion on what racism is.
Ridiculous comment!
10/10 Matt Ryan for the shithousery and waiting for Newcastle forwards to arrive at his feet before picking the ball
Proper Aussie shithousery.
It wouldn’t ruin my day to see him start on Thursday – admittedly it’s unlikely.
I don’t want to be mean spirited on a day we won, but there was one thing that pissed me off massively today: Arteta keeping Xhaka on. Every time we lose we hear ‘we will learn from our mistakes’ and today Arteta had the chance to prove that. Xhaka was out of position and on a yellow card vs one of the PL’s trickiest wingers, yet even when the game was obviously safe (and Xhaka committed another foul That could easily have been a second yellow) Arteta refused to sub Cedric on. It might seem petty to talk about this… Read more »
The extremely frustrated tone notwithstanding, this is a solid point Spanish Gooner makes.
Wasn’t about learning, it was stubbornness to prove he was right that a) Xhaka can play LB vs. a good winger and b) he didn’t need to take Ceballos off Thursday. Reminds me of Wenger’s stubbornness when it came to some obvious things.
A nice stroll in the sun against a rubbish Newcastle side.
We got a great result today: Auba got a run out and scored too. He’ll start on Thursday. Good.
All that matters now is Thursday: let’s turn up and see off Villarreal!
Ceballos does his best to kick us out of Europe and is rewarded with a start today. He should never play for us again. Can’t stand him.
His diving and play acting is pathetic. He lowers the tone in so many ways
Credit also to Mat Ryan. Doing a decent job whenever called upon.
At first I thought Schar tore through Martinelli’s Achilles tendon but watching the replay it looks as if he got him lower on the heel.
He deserved a red card still though. The game was obviously gone and he had nothing the gain except injuring a young player who has just got back to fitness. Arsehole.
Schar-hole
Scharsehole?
I reckon if KT had been on the pitch he would have had a few choice words to say
A thoroughly professional performance considering Newcastle’s recent results
Good, if unexpected, win. Auba scored and we had an almost incredible (for us, anyway) five shots on target as well. What’s not to like?
Hopefully, it will set up the team/squad for the most important game of the season so far that’s coming up.
Not to forget a clean sheet!
Heard about the Man U protests. Let’s keep on protesting these owners who obviously only care about money. Good win and good to see auba get on the scoresheet. Hopefully more protests to come and more wins to come
I don’t want stupid scenes like that ahead of the most important game of our season on Thursday, acting like fucking arseholes. Do that in the Europa League and they’ll probably abandon the match and we’ll be out. I know there’s a section of Arsenal fans who’d like to destroy everything to get rid of Kronke but for me the team comes first. Demonstrate outside before the match by all means, but leave the pitch alone and let all the players through. Maybe even sing them a song from outside, but please, not like this shitshow this afternoon.
Mate if you put the team first and kroenke is destroying our team don’t you want kroenke protests?
Depends what you do. You’re not putting the team first if any protests were to risk them being thrown out of the competition. Punishing the team to get at the owner (if that would work, which I doubt) seems a curious logic to me.
Protesting outside, perfectly fine as far as I’m concerned, is one thing but possible disruption of the game itself is quite another. It’s a potentially slippery slope once if that happens.
No. Kronke isn’t destroying the team, he’s not the best but he’s not the worst, we’ve spent shedloads of money very badly, we’ve fired Sanllehi and we’ve hired Garlick. I’m prepared to see what happens next season.The ESL thing was stupid but I don’t want a bald bloke saddling the club with 2 billion of debt either, and I don’t want scenes outside the stadium unsettling the team ahead of the biggest game of the season.
Read the post your commenting on?? He says by all means protest vs the owners but NOT in ways that could negatively affect our team that is trying to win us a European place next season.
How difficult is that to grasp???
Mate, no one is more passionate about getting Kroenke out of town – but we need to keep the voices and the flares loud and proud outside the stadium – and no violence.
Make a fucking great din and give it loads with the red smoke bombs, but do it peacefully without giving the old bill any grief.
Let’s keep the values of the club and use our next protest as an example of The Arsenal Way. Loads of passion, loads of noise – but without any unnecessary aggro.
This opinion may get destroyed, but I very much credit Arsene for the fact that our fans sat outside and sang loudly while other hooligans break into stadiums and cause massive damages. That is one thing he was adamant about from day one until the day he left, and that was to respect the values of both the club and common decency. What today proved, to me at least, is that he was successful in entrenching that outlook not only in our players but our fans as well.
Standards. 😉
You may have a point – he certainly did/does take that line. That said, I’m not sure anyone thinking of doing something stupid was actually dissuaded from it by thinking about our former manager’s philosophy. It’s possible, but not that likely I’d suggest. Given what has happened elsewhere, the test will be against Villareal. If there was to be a protest inside the ground of some kind we could well be in very serious trouble (particularly as we’re not on UEFA’s Christmas card list anymore!). Whatever prevents people from taking that kind of action is fine with me, whether it… Read more »
Well put.
Although the bar is set pretty low with that Manure lot – hardly surprising that they’d shit on their own doorstep.
All the more reason to show them how it’s done – properly.
Short memory re Wenger. I remember we had a peaceful protest (along with fans at many grounds) in the stands during games back in 2016 against the TV broadcasters constantly re arranging fixtures last minute causing massive disruption to match going fans.
He openly criticised us saying we shouldn’t voice our opinions during matches!
https://dailycannon.com/2016/02/wenger-urges-fans-not-to-protest-during-games-but-why/
That Xhaka did not get sent off is against the values and traditions of Arsenal FC. Nice game, and you see what difference Martinelli can make. I’m just praying we somehow turn up on Thursday and acutally start a striker.
Well played lads, a nice Sunday afternoon win. What would in a normal, respectable season for this club be a routine win, was probably made all the more possible due to a lack of pressure, but, nevertheless, an away win is an away win, three points are three points and to complain would be churlish indeed.
Now, Thursday. Auba has to start, and, if he is fit enough, Martinelli. We need goals and given our propensity to self destruct, plenty of them – although the only person who probably needs reminding of that is Arteta….
Well, they didn’t have Willock to bail them out so not unexpected
You, sir, win the internet today.
Why, after everything I posted today, was THIS comment the one that got moderated?
Reports suggest that MA may well bring him back to The Emirates rather than sell him in the summer window. I think that would be good news as he’s obviously a talent, but we’ll have to see as the lure of getting a reasonable fee will be strong.
Abject Newcastle side made us look good. We showed some directness and dynamism first half. after the second, it was keep ball more than ambition for more goals. Good show by Elneny today. Also Martinelli made a difference engaging play and providing a catalyst. Was anxious when he got the knock, felt Arteta should have just taken him off. Ceballos I felt was very busy today. Covered a lot of ground for us. You can see him in a twin AM role next to Odegaard which is why he has been selected with Elneny holding on his own being supported… Read more »