Arsenal 4 Newcastle 1: Goal-mad Gunners keep up red-hot scoring form as they go two points off league leaders Liverpool
For Arsenal and Mikel Arteta, revenge was a dish best served cold on a Saturday night in February.
When Newcastle ended the Gunners’ unbeaten start in controversial fashion at St James’ Park nearly four months earlier, Arteta had a meltdown.
This time his team coolly and clinically dispatched Eddie Howe’s desperately limited side and kept their title challenge right on the boil.
With delicious irony Arsenal were helped on their way by the goal-line technology they felt had let them down in the North East.
On that occasion, the cameras could not conclusively show that the ball had gone out of play in the build-up to Anthony Gordon’s winner.
This time there was no doubt that Sven Botman had inadvertently given the Gunners the lead.
It was a moment of misfortune, but Newcastle’s whole approach felt like an own goal from the start.
For most of the game, all they seemed to have to offer was the dark arts that Arteta said his team needed to learn in order to become winners.
Instead Arsenal just imposed their superior skill and vision, creating a lovely second goal for Kai Havertz.
And after what had to be classed as an improvement from Newcastle early in the second half, Bukayo Saka grabbed a classy third and Jakub Kiwior’s header from yet another set-piece was helped in by Lewis Miley.
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Visiting goalkeeper Loris Karius was at fault for none of the goals on an unhappy Premier League debut for the visitors.
His only previous appearance had come almost a year before, when Howe took the club to its first major final for a generation.
How things have changed since that Carabao Cup final..
The men in black and white who surged to third place and back into the Champions League now look out of legs, ideas and belief.
And unless something dramatic changes, Howe is likely to be out of a job.
This was a wretchedly poor display, lacking desire and basic competence throughout.
The only people in black and white you felt sorry for were the visiting fans.
Yet again treated like dirt by the Premier League and TV schedulers, there was nothing to warm their cockles as they made their way home into the small hours or coughed up for over-price lodgings.
Arsenal captain Odegaard used his programme notes to appeal to the home fans to bring the same noise that had soundtracked their statement victory over Liverpool.
The Emirates obliged and the team repaid them again.
It could so easily have been another frustrating encounter with Howe’s side.
The Magpies started stealing time from the opening minutes, taking an age over throw-ins and goal kicks.
On one occasion, assistant boss Jason Tindall threw the ball away from the waiting Arsenal player in a way made to seem accidental. It’s petty, childish stuff, designed to get under your skin.
To their credit, neither the home crowd nor their players took the bait.
Poor decisions in the final third meant clear-cut chances were few and far between, with Declan Rice hitting the best straight at Karius.
Yet again a set-piece provided the breakthrough. You have to hope for the sake of specialist coach Nicolas Jover that he is in line for a particularly big bonus if Arsenal go on to win the title.
You can’t plan for the pickle that the Newcastle defence got themselves into from the corner.
But you can practise the delivery and running patterns that allowed Gabriel to connect with Saka’s tempting in-swinger.
Karius made a fine save, only for Tino Livramento’s efforts to clear the ball to fail miserably when it rebounded off Botman’s knee and comfortably over the line.
Serves you right, will have been the sentiment of most neutrals.
1-0 to the Arsenal became 2-0 six minutes later.
And this one was a beauty.
After a poor Newcastle clearance, Jorginho looked up and clipped a pass into the path of Martinelli, who was running at pace across the penalty area.
In what felt like almost one flowing movement, the Brazilian turned the ball back into the six-yard box.
Havertz swept it home, with Kieran Trippier caught on his heels after initially playing Martinelli onside.
It could and probably should have been more before half time.
Odegaard failed to capitalise after robbing dozy Fabian Schar deep in the Newcastle half, Martinelli headed over and Karius beat away a Saka effort.
Newcastle had done absolutely nothing going forward, zero, zilch. Havertz should have killed the game within two minutes of the restart but dragged his shot wide after running clear.
The visitors immediately posed their first threat of the game, but Alexander Isak failed to produce a shot and when Anthony Gordon did, Raya saved easily.
The game drifted for a while. But it was all over after Newcastle again surrendered the ball cheaply in their own half.
Saka still had plenty to do, but no-one in a black-and-white shirt could really be bothered to stop him doing it and he found the far corner with a low shot.
Former Arsenal player Joe Willock grabbed a late consoltation, Newcastle’s first goal at the Emirates since 2014.
Dan Burn cleared off the line from Emile Smith Rowe in stoppage time to stop things getting any worse.
But otherwise, in terms of Arteta’s revenge, this game was a set-piece in itself.
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