NEWCASTLE, England — Anything Liverpool can do, Arsenal can do just as well, and Mikel Arteta’s players now have the evidence to prove it after a 2-1 stoppage-time victory away to Newcastle United answered so many questions about the Gunners’ ability to win the Premier League title.
Could Arsenal take advantage of Liverpool’s defeat at Crystal Palace on Saturday? Could they overcome the physical challenge of facing Eddie Howe’s muscular and direct team at St James’ Park, and could they deal with the adversity of falling behind against a side with a recent winning record against them?
The answer to all three was an emphatic yes, and Arsenal’s victory means that Arteta’s side have now proved to themselves, as much as their doubters outside the Emirates, that they roll with the punches and come out swinging just as convincingly as Liverpool.
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“We discussed about going to the next level and how we have to learn from the past,” Arteta told reporters after the game. “And today was an opportunity after a big Premier League week to show who we are and our ambition.
“The team has done that today in a remarkable way. There are moments in a season and this was one of those, after a difficult start in a stadium where we had a very tough recent record.”
When Arne Slot’s team visited St James’ Park in August, a 97th-minute winner from 16-year-old wonderkid Rio Ngumoha, after the champions had thrown away a 2-0 lead against a home side reduced to 10 players following Anthony Gordon’s first-half red card, was viewed as a testament to the unique spirit and resolve of the league leaders.
Those late winners had been a theme of Liverpool’s season until they were on the wrong end of one when Eddie Nketiah, a former Arsenal striker, scored in the 97th minute to seal a 2-1 win for Palace at Selhurst Park.
In an instant, Nketiah’s goal gave his old team a huge helping hand in the title race, but at the same time, it heaped on the pressure ahead of a game that would already have been marked in red on the calendar by Arteta due to the difficulties Arsenal have had at St. James’ in recent years, losing without scoring on each of their last three visits.
But at the end of it, Arsenal had fought back from conceding the first goal to Nick Woltemade’s first-half header — they had also seen a penalty shout ruled out by VAR after Viktor Gyökeres appeared to have been fouled by keeper Nick Pope — by scoring twice in the final six minutes to claim the win.
And with Gabriel Magalhães winning it six minutes into stoppage time following Mikel Merino’s equalizer, Arsenal displayed the resolve and tenacity that all potential champions need. They kept pushing and chasing, with the substitute introduction of captain Martin Ødegaard on 82 minutes making all the difference to Arsenal’s creativity, threat and control.
But ultimately, it was two goals from two set-pieces — their 35th and 36th goals from corners in the Premier League since the start of the 2023-24 season — that took Arsenal across the winning post.
With their 2-1 win over Newcastle United, Arsenal move up to second place in the Premier League table, only two points behind leaders Liverpool. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)
Newcastle gave Arsenal a serious test of their credentials, however. While Pope was the busier of the goalkeepers, Howe’s team pushed Arsenal to the limit with their physicality.
Gyökeres, in particular, was forced to withstand a barrage of muscular challenges from Newcastle’s towering defenders, while Gabriel was involved in a lengthy battle with Woltemade — a battle that boiled over in the first half when the Arsenal defender appeared to strike the Newcastle forward in the neck with his forearm.
The blow of seeing VAR rule out an Arsenal penalty when Pope was judged to have connected with the ball rather than Gyökeres was something else that Arsenal had to deal with.
But whereas in the past Arsenal would allow such incidents to distract them, they held their nerve on this occasion and once again, Arteta used his substitutes to make a key difference in the final stages, with Ødegaard, Merino, and Gabriel Martinelli all making a significant contribution.
Arteta has said that his “finishers can be more important than the starters,” and that is proving to be the case.
Whether he is making inspired changes or rectifying earlier selection mistakes is a subject for debate, though, and time will tell what the reality is. But that question is for another day. Arteta and Arsenal answered plenty of other ones at St James’.
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And when this season’s Premier League title race is run, their dramatic win at Newcastle will be the defining moment if the Gunners emerge as champions for the first time since 2004.
It proved they can win when the pressure is on and it also sent a message to Liverpool that Arsenal are ready to take them on. The latter could be the biggest positive of all from this huge win.
