Arsenal 4-1 Newcastle United
by Layth Yousif
at Ashburton Grove
AN IMPERIOUS Arsenal side bounced back from their disappointing Champions League result in Portugal this week to rout Newcastle United 4-1 at Ashburton Grove.
In front of a boisterous Saturday night crowd in north London, Mikel Arteta’s side shrugged off their last-gasp 1-0 defeat at Porto in midweek to respond in style, to rout Eddie Howe's underwhelming side, and underline their Premier League title credentials.
An own goal from Sven Botman helped put the Gunners 1-0 up after 18 minutes. The path to a big win came after the Newcastle defender inadvertently cannoned the ball over the line with his knee, following Gabriel's header from Declan Rice’s cross that Loris Karius — playing his first league game for six years — failed to grasp.
A rampant Arsenal — who forced 11 turnovers of possession in the Magpies defensive third — doubled their lead when Kai Havertz added a second in the first half.
It was a joy to savour the panache of captain Martin Odegaard, who admitted after the match that he and his teammates “are living the dream” at the moment.
While the deft adroitness of Havertz, the reliability of Rice, and the intelligence of William Saliba at the back, which, aided by Bukayo Saka’s style and Martinelli’s verve, outplayed, outclassed and overwhelmed the visitors from the north-east — who failed to record a shot in the first half of a game for a full decade.
Saka added a third on 65 minutes to take his tally to 16 in all competitions this term — to become the first English player to score in five consecutive matches for the club since a certain Ian Wright — before Jakub Kiwior made it 4-0 four minutes later.
The hungry home side fizzed with ferocity as they made it six league wins on the bounce since their winter break, scoring 25 goals and conceding a mere three in the process.
While former Gunner Joe Willock scored a late consolation for the sorry Magpies, in truth they had been completely dismantled by then.
As for Arteta's effervescent side, with 12 games remaining, they delivered a stellar performance to show they are very much in a three-horse title race.
