For all the talk of penalties not given, towels borrowed without permission, goals scored from corners, Germans elbowed, and points won and lost, the biggest difference between Sunday’s win at Newcastle and previous Arsenal games there was how this one felt. It was the rarest of things at St James’ Park: a match played on the terms of the visitors.
Sometimes other languages just have better words for the same things we say. “Angstgegner” (literally: fear opposition) is the German way of saying bogey team, something Newcastle, and especially Newcastle away, have been for Arsenal in recent seasons.
When Arsenal lost there in November 2023, the post-match talk surrounded Newcastle’s controversial winner. Mikel Arteta barely mentioned the performance that day but it was not a performance that warranted anything: Arsenal, in a tough environment against a good team, managed just one shot on target. A year later, Arsenal lost 1-0 again, once again managed just one shot on target, and Arteta did talk about the performance of his team.
“We weren’t good enough and didn’t have enough answers to get out of that, especially creating the threat that we needed, so at the end, you are reliant on two or three big chances … not enough threat to change the game in any moment and win it … think the team should have generated more and that’s my responsibility.”
It was a similar story when a 2-0 defeat saw Arsenal knocked out of the League Cup last season. Arsenal had three shots on target and the manager lamented the same old issue that just keeps rearing their head for the Gunners in that part of the world.
“We didn’t generate momentum, especially in the first half … we didn’t generate enough situations in the final third and the game started to get away from us.”
Things couldn’t have been more different on Sunday. Arsenal didn’t just win at Newcastle, but they dominated. Newcastle’s total of eight shots is, bar one game when they played an hour with 10 men, the fewest they’ve had in a league game at home since the start of 2022/23. At the other end, having created nothing on three consecutive visits, Arsenal hit the woodwork, had a penalty claim, and forced what was a man of the match-worthy performance out of Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope before scoring two late and well-deserved goals.
So why were things so different this time around?
There have been two major issues for Arsenal in this fixture of late. One has been breaking down the Newcastle press, not letting them pin Arsenal in their own half. The other has been creating chances when Newcastle are in their organised defensive shape in their own half. The Newcastle press has been aggressive and set the tone, then the excellent low block has not had to work that hard to keep Arsenal at bay.
This time, Arsenal looked to bait Newcastle in and outnumber the press before choosing whether to play through them, with options between the lines unlike last weekend, or go direct and look to either hold the ball up or win second balls.
One thing David Raya didn’t ever do was something in between.
The key against Newcastle is probably to avoid getting into a fight with their midfield, where they have incredible amounts of energy, physicality, and an insatiable appetite to use both. That leaves you with two options: either go short and tempt them forward to play through them, or play right over the top of them. On Sunday, Raya played the fewest medium-length (15-30 yards, as defined by FBRef) he has played in a Premier League game since joining Arsenal. Just 4 of his 36 pass attempts were 15-30 yards, last season at Newcastle 17 of his 32 attempted passes fell into that bracket, it was 8 of 30 the season before.
When Raya went long, Arsenal could either look to join Gyokeres as he held the ball up or launch attacks by winning second balls that bounced down into midfield. That’s bread and butter for Declan Rice and it comes with the advantage of having the Newcastle midfield facing their own goal as they head into the challenge for the ball. If you’re going to go into 50-50s with Newcastle, with their notorious intensity and physicality in duels, at least make them do it running backwards. If Arsenal win the duel, it’s a chance to run at the defence. If Newcastle win it, they’re facing the wrong way.
Eze’s early left-footed shot, forcing a save from Pope, was from a long ball forward from Raya. Newcastle nod it down and Arsenal win the second ball in to launch an attack.
And it wasn’t the only time that Declan Rice pounced onto an opportunity like that.
These opportunities to break with long balls weren’t only from Raya either: Leandro Trossard’s effort that hit the post with the game still goalless came from Arsenal winning the ball near their own corner flag, clearing it, then capitalising on the loose ball and flooding forward.
Playing short from the back, Arsenal were calm and looked to outnumber Newcastle through the centre of the pitch and manipulate the press. Newcastle marked man-to-man and Raya’s calm with the ball at his feet made it an 11v10 in Arsenal’s favour. In the example below, for instance, Cristhian Mosquera is free as Nick Woltemade closes Raya down, and a simple couple of passes, into and from Declan Rice, mean Arsenal can find Mosquera as the spare man with time on the ball.
In that scene pictured above, you can see the narrow positioning of Leandro Trossard causing Newcastle another issue: centre-back Malick Thiaw doesn’t know whether or not to follow him.
With the presence of Viktor Gyokeres up front now, teams look reluctant to defend as high up the pitch against Arsenal, unwilling to give the Swede space to make runs in behind. With that threat, the chance opens up for other players to do what Arsenal’s strikers have tended to do in recent years and drop into the space behind the opposition midfield.
Here, Eberechi Eze is keeping his marker Joelinton as far away from the press as possible, stretching the Newcastle midfield to create space for Trossard to drop into. Malick Thiaw does track the Belgian from the defence at first …
… but, understandably, doesn’t want to keep following as Trossard continues to drift deeper and further across the pitch. With Trossard free and Newcastle eager to apply pressure, Joelinton asks for help from the backline to take Eze off his hands so he can close down the Belgian …
… only for Trossard to pull Joelinton back upfield as soon as that happens, giving Eze space to drop into an area when defender Sven Botman is reluctant to follow too closely.
If nothing else, these rotations and this flexibility kills the opposition press. At best, it could pull players out of position and expose otherwise organised teams, giving Arsenal chances to play through them.
With Arsenal outnumbering them in the middle and pulling players — here, Joelinton back and a defender forward — away from where they want to be, Newcastle’s press gave them no real success all game. It’s these sort of rotations that cause issues for the opposition who either take a risk by continuing to press, or give up territory and control by dropping off.
Newcastle still attempted to press but their efforts were fruitless and Trossard’s roaming in particular continued to see him find himself in space.
With Arsenal taking the sting out of the Newcastle press so effectively, the next question was obvious: is there a plan to be more threatening than in previous meetings when they’re organised in their own half? Troubling an organised defensive shape is something Arsenal have really struggled with in recent seasons but there was a big improvement here by offering bodies between the lines.
Against a block, you have to find a way to make them ask themselves questions. If you stand between three or four players, whose job is it to close you down? If they leave it to each other, you’re in space. If the wrong player goes, or more than one player goes, you’ve opened up a space somewhere else.
Arsenal have not had players getting between the lines anywhere near enough in recent years — it was a huge issue against Manchester City last week when playing out and an even bigger issue in this fixture in the past — but there was a marked difference on Sunday, with Trossard in particular tucking inside, almost lining up alongside Eze as a second number 10 between the Newcastle midfield and defence.
You see above how Trossard is pointing to Riccardo Calafiori to advance to pull Tino Livramento back and give Arsenal even more space to find Trossard so he can turn and run at the defence.
A goal down, Arsenal doubled down, tucking even more players into those spaces between the defence and the midfield. Including Jurrien Timber here …
And, increasingly, Bukayo Saka …
For a while this approach didn’t bring any chances in itself, though it was the quick feet of Eze and a sharp one-touch pass from Trossard, both in central areas, that teed the ball up brilliantly for Martin Zubimendi to play a gorgeous scooped pass for Timber’s header, forcing a save from Pope. Eze and Trossard can play in those small spaces and the deftness of their touch attracts opposition players towards them, opening gaps.
When Mikel Merino was introduced, it was him and Eze between the lines who combined brilliantly to put Gyokeres in front of goal before he slipped as he pulled the trigger.
And, ultimately, it was Rice in space, between midfield and defence in space, who made a run into the channel and won the corner that brought the equaliser.
Combinations didn’t often come off inside the block but the fact that Arsenal’s most technical and creative players were in those spaces was promising. In previous seasons, organised teams have defended leads without always having to work too hard to keep Arsenal out. When the game is tight and tough away from home, and things get attritional, it’s the ability to keep the pressure on that helps eventually bring rewards. We’ve seen it from Liverpool this season as they do not stop knocking on the door when they need a goal — it’s too simplistic too attribute so many late goals to luck — and on Sunday it was Arsenal’s turn to show they can win games in the same fashion when required.
The first half set the tone, and the platform, for Arsenal to believe they could dominate a game and create chances away at Newcastle, the closing stages saw them deliver on that promise. This team has done a lot over the last few years but they hadn’t done that until Sunday.
Mikel Arteta deserves credit for Trossard’s role from the left, which should be considered a blueprint for how Arsenal can use Eze from that flank, and even Saka from the right at times, and the offensive nature of the substitutes (Arsenal were playing without a left-back for a little while when trailing) was the right call at the right time. Martin Odegaard’s clean touch and probing passing — that delicious through ball for Lewis-Skelly was as good as you’ll see all season — added a bit of tempo and incision just when the belief may have been starting to ebb away.
And a word too for Viktor Gyokeres’ for his best Arsenal performance — in terms of battling, holding the ball up, combining with his team-mates — by some distance so far.
After dropping points to City, Arsenal quickly learned the lessons to deliver their best performance of the season so far, away against something of a bogey team, with the added pressure of having to deliver 24 hours after Liverpool suffered their first defeat of the season. Arsenal have beaten their Angstgegner deservedly and closed the gap to the top, which is now less than it was two games ago, in the process.
With the team getting used to a lot of new signings, new signings getting used to the manager, and Arsenal adapting the way they play to be more unpredictable, it should be no shock that the start to the season has not seen everything click immediately.
This, though, was a huge step in the right direction.
