ARSENAL’S late, late show at St James’ Park saw them climb to within two points of Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table.
The Gunners trailed for much of the contest, having fallen behind against the run of play via Nick Woltemade‘s 34th minute header.
But Mikel Arteta‘s side didn’t panic, and continued to bang on the door.
They were finally rewarded just six minutes from time when substitute Mikel Merino beat Nick Pope to level.
The Toon couldn’t quite cling on for a point, with relentless Arsenal pressure eventually leading to Gabriel Magalhaes‘ 96th minute winner.
Let’s take a further look at how the Gunners were able to outfox the Toon.
ARSENAL’S ‘SCRAMBLED EGGS’
Debate was going on in commentary online about which formation Newcastle were playing. Was it 3-4-3? Was it 4-5-1? Was it a 4-3-3?
In all of those formations, the midfield three was Joelinton, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes. A three-man midfield.
Arteta’s plan was to disrupt, scramble and break that midfield three. And it was really, really cleverly done. The way they did it in build up was why they had so much territorial domination early on and why they should have been out of sight.
Trossard, who started on the left of Arsenal’s front three, came right back into midfield at times between Martin Zubimendi and Declan Rice.
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And what he was trying to do was bring a midfielder with him. So not necessarily the full-back, which would have been Tino Livramento. It would have been Joelinton or Guimaraes.
In bringing one of those two with him, Trossard was therefore creating space for Viktor Gyokeres.
With the ground he covers, Declan Rice virtually does the job of two players in one.
As Arsenal set up, Rice was in a two with Zubimendi as the double pivot. When Trossard came in, he made that Newcastle midfield line not be a flat line of three. He made them jagged and all over the place. So they weren’t solid.
And then as the ball went in the air or wide, Rice just charged through the middle and therefore became the holder in a set shape and the man who was then going to win the second balls up the field, something that overpowered Newcastle.
With Arsenal on the attack, Trossard brilliantly moved into an inside left position, which meant Riccardo Calafiori moved up the outside.
So Trossard and Rice were doing a tango dance between them, which meant Newcastle’s midfield were baffled about who was picking each up, whether they were sticking to their position or twisting and going out to press.
It was really, really clever from those two and obviously Mikel Arteta to make Newcastle not as solid as they have been.
EZE AND GYOKERES’ PARTNERSHIP
Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyokeres pressed as a two. It was really good to see that Mikel Arteta trusted Eze to play centrally, having deployed the England man out wide in recent weeks.
With Leandro Trossard as the left ten, and Eze the right ten, Riccardo Calafiori was able to bomb up his flank, with Bukayo Saka providing width on the other side.
Gyokeres, because of the runs he makes, has been getting isolated in recent games. Arsenal have wanted to see some of their other forward players get closer to the Swede.
This meant not leaving their wingers parked on the wings, because that would have then left Gyokeres alone against two centre-backs.
The striker was battered and bruised a little bit. But Eze was the man who got really close to him, and that created indecision among the Newcastle back line.
Trossard joined Gyokeres and Eze from his inside left position, and there were three or four times when we saw that triangle very close together in attack.
If Eze got dragged out wide, Saka was clever and tucked inside to get closer to Gyokeres.
They knew what they were doing. It was very, very deliberate the way they set up. Newcastle had Dan Burn in the left back position a lot of the time, with Arsenal feeling they did not need to account for him.
This meant that the Gunners almost had an extra man everywhere.
Eze picked up that position closer to Gyokeres very deliberately, he was told to be there.
SUPER SUB ODEGAARD
Martin Odegaard as a sub. I mean, what a sub. Even if the Arsenal skipper had started, they’d still have had Gabriel Martinelli, Trossard or Eze to bring on, wow.
The great thing about it from Arsenal’s perspective is that they can change it up slightly with all those players in different ways.
In a game they can move positions and they can be adaptable rather than it being what it became last year – quite predictable.
Arsenal last season were brilliant at what they did, but you did know what they were going to do.
This season, and particularly in this game, there were four or five signs that they’re doing something new, something different.
When Odegaard came on for Zubimendi, he didn’t just go into a deep lying role replacing what the Spaniard was doing.
Instead he engaged that line and gave Newcastle a different problem. Three or four times Arsenal tried to scoop the ball up over Newcastle’s two compact lines and Odegaard was the one who could play through it.
Odegaard goes into that first line and takes the ball under pressure. It drags somebody out and then he can move the ball off quickly and it opens the space up for somebody else.
There was an amazing pass into Myles Lewis-Skelly where he actually passed it through both lines.
Zubimendi wasn’t bad by any means, but Odegaard just brings that something extra to that situation.
SET PIECE PROWESS
Arsenal are brilliant at set pieces. But what was interesting here was that Newcastle are also brilliant at set pieces.
Both teams have identified that short corners can prevent goalkeepers from being protected by a shell of defenders.
In the coming weeks, we’re going to see twice as many short corners as we’ve seen in the first five, six games of the season – like we saw for Mikel Merino and Nick Woltemade’s goals.
While defending a set play, you really don’t want to be in your six-yard box. So as soon as someone takes a short corner and knocks it back to somebody who’s going to cross it the other way, everybody steps up.
There’s nothing wrong with that. They step up. But what that does is create this space and both teams targeted it.
It must be said that Gabriel was woeful for Woltemade’s goal. The way he went down was embarrassing. But the way Newcastle created that extra space was impressive.
Then Arsenal did the same thing for Merino. They sent their initial set play back to Declan Rice.
This created space in front of Merino for him to attack another brilliant header.
And then, of course, the winner. William Saliba and Gabriel are a nightmare to deal with at set plays.
While everyone was focusing on Gabriel’s header, if you actually look very closely, Saliba has done Nick Pope. He’s not fouled him. He’s done him. He’s got into a position where Pope can’t come and claim.
Pope would have liked to think he would have got that most of the time, but Saliba’s clever positioning stopped him from doing so.
ARTETA’S BRAVERY
Arsenal definitely got what they deserved, they were the better team all the way through. Their intent was so much better. They needed to win one of these close games.
They were the better team against Manchester City and didn’t win the game. They were the better team at Anfield for large parts of the game, but were just safe.
Everyone’s talked about Mikel Arteta’s handbrake. Well, he took the handbrake off here. The Arsenal boss played four different formations in the game. And so he had not only just a plan B, but he had a plan C and a plan D as well, which was absolutely brilliant.
When the board is just about to go up to reveal eight additional minutes at the end, Arteta was waving his men forwards – that’s not what he’s done before.
Maybe in previous years or previous weeks, he’d have believed that 1-1 from a goal down was a good result, that’d do.
My criticism, and lots of people’s criticism of Arteta has been that he has had a plan and not deviated from it.
In this game, he had different plans. He saw what was going on in front of him and reacted – he had the substitutes to do it. And that’s why they went on to win the game.
