We arrived at St James’ Park ready to write the obituaries on Arsenal’s fading chances of winning the Premier League.
This was the weekend when it could have ended. This was the weekend when, let’s be honest, we expected it to end.
This was the weekend when Manchester City stretched their lead to four points, with four games to go, and switched their attention to that momentous Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid.
This was the weekend when Newcastle United were expected to prove that Mikel Arteta’s side really are young and callow and just not ready.
This was the weekend when their golden opportunity lost its lustre for good. After all, how could they hope to win in this cathedral? Arsenal did not appear to have a prayer.
Instead the 2-0 victory proved not only that they can take this title race down to the wire but just how far they have come. This was the beachhead that Arsenal had to cross.
They are not bottlers or chokers. Arsenal showed they are fighters in what was arguably their best and most mature performance of the season.
It was outstanding and it was marked by the subtlety of Martin Odegaard and the cynicism of Granit Xhaka. Two contrasts that again highlight their progress.
Stay in the game. That was the message. Not just for the match against Newcastle but the battle with Manchester City. Stay in the game until City face Real. Then see how much the epic two legs of that tie takes out of them. Physically but also emotionally. Stay in the game and see how City cope.
Arsenal accomplished the first part in impressively swatting aside an admittedly awful Chelsea last Tuesday and completed the far more taxing leg in taking the three points against a vibrant, resurgent, expectant Newcastle.
This is the response that Arsenal have found to the crushing defeat they suffered to City only a couple of weeks ago. Going into that game they had suffered three frustrating draws. That is where, if they lose it, the title was lost.
That and, interestingly, the games before the last time they played City. Prior to the defeat at the Emirates in February, Arsenal drew and were beaten in the league and were knocked out of the FA Cup by City.
It means their two blips, their two stumbles, came before playing the champions.
That is where the mental block lies, if there is one. Maybe they, like the rest of the league, just do not see a way past Pep Guardiola’s juggernaut. Just ask Liverpool how taxing it is to face off against them.
After 35 games Arsenal have 81 points. Only in their unbeaten Invincibles season have their ever hit 80 plus points at an earlier stage (after 33 matches). And yet it is a trajectory that probably will not be enough to be champions again.
But Arsenal have not thrown this away. They have performed superbly to even provide us with a title race and the way they negotiated this encounter shows not just that they are here to stay but that they have learned quickly during the campaign.
In essence Arsenal did to Newcastle what Newcastle did to them in gaining a draw at the Emirates in early January. In that goalless game it appeared Arsenal’s emotions ran away from them, with Arteta guilty of almost being out-of-control on the touchline.
They looked childish as Newcastle did a number of them. The dark arts, their game-management, their alleged time-wasting. Arsenal were left complaining in the way that Newcastle did in the aftermath of this defeat.
With that in mind the chant of “cheat, cheat” from the angry home fans that greeted Arsenal at the half-time whistle will have been music to Arteta’s ears.
The manager will have savoured it as much as the resilience shown in surviving the inevitable storm; in responding to the Var reprieve they received after a penalty was awarded and rightly over-turned and in Odegaard’s accomplished strike which came only 207 seconds after referee Chris Kavanagh had pointed to the spot.
Xhaka provoked the boos as Xhaka so often does. Four times in the first-half he went down ‘injured’. On not one occasion did Arteta ask any of his substitutes to warm up.
The third time Xhaka fell he continued to watch how the play unfolded – and sprung to his feet as Arsenal countered. He also sprinted back to make an excellent goal-saving block on Callum Wilson. And then stayed down again.
Into the second-half and Xhaka was clashing with Wilson; he was accusing Joelinton of elbowing him and then he was accusing his Swiss international team-mate Fabian Schar of doing the same to Gabriel Jesus.
When Odegaard went off, having tired after driving his team forward, creating chances and almost scoring a second goal, Xhaka took the captain’s armband. And he was there gesturing to his team-mates to play the ball deep into the corners of Newcastle’s half in search of throw-ins as they ran down the clock.
What to make of all of that? Yes, it was cynical. But it was also successful. It showed that Arsenal have come a long way. It showed their race is not yet run.
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2023-05-08 08:30:00Z
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