At the sweet sound of the final whistle, Martin Odegaard rolled onto the turf and lay there motionless. Ben White slowly sank down to the ground, too. Gabriel Martinelli was lying flat out. Piero Hincapie slipped to his knees in prayer. Declan Rice puffed his cheeks out for what could have been a world-record attempt in cheek-puffing.
Arsenal’s players were visibly felled by the intensity of it all.
Who knew duking it out at the top of the league could be such unadulterated torture?
On reflection a little while later, Mikel Arteta smiled dryly. Could he, and by extension his players, and almost 60,000 fans inside the Emirates Stadium, multiplied by the millions watching on globally, take another four games of this affliction disguised as sporting endeavour? The Arsenal manager invoked a bed of roses and the accompaniment of celestial music and formed an expression to suggest anyone expecting that was evidently disconnected from the reality of a Premier League title race.
In fairness, the emotional temperature of Saturday’s game against Newcastle had two contrasting phases — before and after the attacking injuries which robbed Arsenal of Kai Havertz in the first half and Eberechi Eze early in the second.
It was remarkable the impact it had, particularly when their experienced German focal point took his leave on 34 minutes. Havertz looked utterly forlorn, visibly distressed to pick up yet another injury after a year decimated by two serious surgeries and long spells of rehabilitation.
The optimistic mood inside the ground instantly deflated.
Eberechi Eze has been Arsenal’s best attacking player of late (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
Havertz and Eze had combined for what proved Arsenal’s winning goal early on.
In some ways, the pair of them have become symbolic of the hope that this team can rise again after faltering in recent weeks. If Arsenal needed a bit more attacking fluency, cohesion, threat, these were the kind of players capable of providing it.
Havertz’s smart movement, greater technical security, and a bit more nous in the duels help those around him to play better. Eze brings the possibility of special moments to break games open.
Together with Odegaard, also back after injury, and with Bukayo Saka in the matchday squad again after his own layoff, there was reason to believe Arsenal could finally begin to find some attacking connectivity and rhythm.
The number of attacking combinations Arteta has used this season is crazy. Arsenal have fluctuated between 21 alternative front quartets in the 34 league games. Critics wonder why they have leaned into traits of control, set pieces and resilience, but maybe it is not such a surprise.
It is not rocket science to work out why they have struggled to be a free-flowing creative force. All those statistics, such as how long it is since Havertz, Saka and Odegaard started a game together, or the minimal minutes Eze and Odegaard have shared, mean something. It is hard to have telepathic clicking when the machine is constantly changing its components. A recipe with ever-changing ingredients will not be consistent.
Arsenal started the match with the same group who played well in defeat at Manchester City last weekend, and had what Arteta called “the courage” to persist with the short corner routine that brought their goal after a few failed attempts. Eze unlocked the game with great finesse from range. He sprinkled magic dust on the match with a fizzer from outside the box which faded into the corner of the net.
Early goals are normally a wonderful antidote to pressure. But those attacking injuries redrew the landscape of the afternoon completely. Before long, we were back to the Noni Madueke-Viktor Gyokeres-Martinelli combination which has not purred much (partly because it is not, in an ideal world, the first-choice selection). Needs must.
Ultimately, given the impact of the changes, a narrow 1-0 win was secured. Three points were the fundamental requirement. Arteta was, though, disappointed not to further improve the goal difference. “We did the job. We should have finished with a bigger margin in certain moments of the game,” he conceded.
Saka’s late appearance from the bench was an undoubted boon, and a better pass from Gyokeres when Arsenal had a significant overload was one of those examples that could have increased the margin of victory.
Bukayo Saka’s return to action after injury is a boon for Arsenal (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
Arsenal returned to the top of the league. It was intense. After the angst of April, it is now time for the melodrama of May, where every moment feels loaded. Arteta made sure to mention one of them, where he was adamant that goalkeeper Nick Pope should have been dismissed for hauling down Gyokeres.
Now Arsenal head to Madrid for the first leg of a Champions League semi-final against Atletico on Wednesday, and then it is back to the next Premier League hurdle: Fulham at home in this same Saturday evening timeslot. Another dose of torture? Who would bet against it? But Arteta will take another win there, whichever way it comes. This type of torture is a means to an end.
This situation is like a 900-minute (plus stoppage time) penalty shootout. Five games each. Arsenal ran up for their first one on Saturday and succeeded. Now they and second-placed Manchester City have to deal with what comes next.
“It’s so hard to win in this league,” Arteta said. “We know that. That’s why the amount of points that the teams have now compared to all the years is different. And the reason is because it’s so competitive. It’s going to be like this, and we are ready for it.”
