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Small steps, but perhaps, in a sense, a significant step. Arsenal’s return to the top half is not a cause for unbridled joy, but the way they sailed home hung the promise of better times. Their struggles during the fall went hand in hand with a damaging drought by their captain, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but that seemed like a distant memory as he scored his second goal of a win with such ease that it felt like something of a novelty.
He was the first to really blow the cobwebs. Aubameyang had seen the ball in more threatening areas during the first half than in some full matches this season, even if the final product was missing and he had shot dazzlingly at the post from Arsenal’s best chance. Newcastle had kept them at bay, but they broke five minutes after the break when, characteristically, a rare attempt to keep up some pressure broke and Arsenal accepted their invitation to release.
Thomas Partey, imperious during his return to the starting lineup after injury, had already sent Aubameyang down the left with a quick, low pass. On that occasion, early in the evening, the forward finally ran into traffic. This time he had a clear run at Emil Krafth, a scenario Arsenal had evidently tried to create from the start, and saw their options increase when the defender fell back. Rather than cutting in, he opted to pass the ball to his left foot, uncorking a rough drive that offered Karl Darlow little hope and jogged more than a few memories.
It felt like a signature Aubameyang goal, combining high speed with elite execution, and he hadn’t come up with one of such quality since the season’s opening day. Shortly after his 15th minute miss, which saw him slam into the right post after Bukayo Saka’s Darlow save gave him an open goal, Aubameyang jumped on Krafth in a futile attempt to win a penalty and now frustrated. familiar appeared at risk of crossing it. This time, he tossed it aside.
“That is what he has done throughout his career,” said Mikel Arteta. “Mentally you have to be very strong to do that. You have come out of a difficult period. We have missed his goals a lot and I am very happy for him ”.
Aubameyang last scored twice in a match when deciding the FA Cup final. His second goal, Arsenal’s third, entered an empty net after Cédric Soares kept the ball in play by a millimeter and cut it. After such a torrid streak, he now has four in his last six games; You can’t do it all on your own, but the other defining moment of the night showed that you may not need to do it anymore.
Saka and Emile Smith Rowe are the academy favorites who, more than anyone, have brought Arsenal’s winter to life, and they combined in exciting fashion in the hour to double the lead. Smith Rowe glides and explores, but he does so with exceptional energy and speed; this time he made ground on his own in that area to the left before teeing off Saka for a low finish for the first time. He has spent a long time worrying about the dull form of Nicolas Pépé and Willian, but the two youngsters are beginning to consistently elevate Arsenal above average to a degree where their more experienced colleagues seem incapable.
“In general, the team looked confident, solid, compact and very clear about what we had to do in defense and attack,” Arteta said. “I’m very satisfied with the clean sheet, the goals, the streak and the momentum we’re in.”
Arsenal have now kept five clean sheets in a row in all competitions for the first time since 2009. It should be noted that they will rarely face a threat less than their target. Steve Bruce made eight changes following Newcastle’s abandoned loss to Sheffield United, promising “we don’t have gloves anymore” and preparing with a much more offensive system than the one that nearly clinched an FA Cup victory here nine days earlier. For all their good intentions, perhaps a tougher perspective would have resulted in an equally tight game against the hosts who took time to get started. Newcastle was incoherent in attack and hardly seemed resistant further back; caught in the middle, what followed was inevitable.
“We got caught twice on the fast break and it’s about striking that balance,” Bruce said, dismissing any notion that he couldn’t stop an alarming drop in form. “I’ve been at this for a long time and managed to do it before.”
The pressure that Arteta was under a month ago appears, on the contrary, to have lessened. The smiles are becoming general, an example of this is his expression when he explained that Aubameyang was replaced 3-0 by “a stomach problem”. This performance shouldn’t be too difficult to digest.
