Newcastle away a physical and technical challenge

Morning.

A late Eddie Nketiah goal to help Crystal Palace beat Liverpool yesterday makes today’s encounter with Newcastle even more significant. Arsenal have a chance to close the gap on the leaders, but face a real challenge against opposition who have become something of a bogey team for us when we visit St James’ Park.

Leaving aside the EFL Cup ties (in which we were pretty terrible), the last two seasons we’ve been beaten 1-0 on both visits there. The first one was the game when the Newcastle goal was so contentious (Arteta’s ‘¡desgracia!‘ outburst afterwards), and last season we lost to an early Alexander Isak goal and put in what was, at the time, our worst performance of the season.

So, there’s plenty to put right today, at a challenging ground where the atmosphere is going to be pretty intense. The manager says:

“We know the test, we know that we’re going to have to be much more efficient than we’ve been lately when we played up there to win the game and we’re going to work on that in the next two days.

It’s a really intense match. We will be prepared for that, we know that. But increasing especially our efficiency and two very specific key things, I think it gives you the best chance to win the game.”

He didn’t expand on what those two things were, but my guess is scoring goals and not letting goals in. My big tactical brain at work today, folks. Anyway, there are probably a couple of decisions to make with regards the team. I’m assuming Martin Odegaard is fit, and if he is, he plays. That leaves us with no discussion about midfield.

If there’s still something of an issue for him, you know my general preference would be for a player like Eberechi Eze or Ethan Nwaneri to come into the team. This Newcastle team is all about physicality though. They have a midfield that has plenty of energy, lots of running power, and carte blanche from the officials to pummel, wallop and clobber the opposition at will. So, with that in mind, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same midfield that started against Man City if Odegaard doesn’t make it, but I think this might be a moot point anyway so don’t get too stressed.

Arteta started Leandro Trossard on the left last week, perhaps in part for his goal contributions in the previous games, so it does make me wonder if Gabriel Martinelli might receive the same ‘reward’ today after his late strike against City. They have a right-back that will bomb up and down the line all day, and perhaps the Brazilian’s defensive workrate and his ability to exploit that space if we can get him the ball in those areas might be part of the plan. That would leave Eze on the bench, but I guess this is what happens when you have a big squad – some very good players won’t be in the starting line-up from time to time.

Service to/for Viktor Gyokeres today is something I’d like to see more of. He got little of it during our so-called ‘big games’ so far this season, and we need to change that to give ourselves the best chance of winning today. To be fair to him, he made a contribution to our goal last weekend, dropping deep to keep possession before Eze fed Martinelli, but we need to see more of him in the opposition box. Hopefully the return of a midfield creator like Odegaard can help us unlock the Swedish striker with more frequency. It’s probably worth noting that the captain missed both the Liverpool and Man City games, so we were less incisive than we might have been otherwise.

Overall, this is going to be a very, very tough game. It’s not an absolute must-win, because there’s such a long way to go this season, but it’s the kind of game where a team like Arsenal can throw down a bit of a marker when it comes to our title credentials. Fingers crossed that’s exactly what we do, but I’d also take a scabby 1-0 if that’s what’s on offer.

Right, I’ll leave it there for now. As ever we’ll have live blog coverage of the game for you, and all the post-match stuff – including player ratings and reaction – on Arseblog News. There’s also a preview podcast on Patreon if you need something to listen to.

For now, have a good Sunday, and come on you Gunners!