Every game in the Premier League is a great game, but this season that’s truer than it has been for a long time.
Tonight’s encounter with Newcastle is a first against a third matchup, and the stakes go beyond extending a lead over a nearby challenger. If Arsenal take three points later, we’d move 12 points past tonight’s opposition, and 10 points past Man City, who don’t play again until Thursday when they take on Chelsea.
That is a big opportunity. With that comes some pressure, but so far this season this team has responded well to these types of scenarios. When City lose points, there is additional pressure for what it means, and we have fixed that. When City have closed the gap, there is added pressure from the fact that everyone considers them the favourites, and we have fixed that. This is a little different, but make no mistake, the coach and the players will know how much is left to play.
As for our own team, I don’t expect anything different from the starting XI that Mikel Arteta chose against Brighton. The full-back substitutions that he made in 60 minutes in that game caused us a bit of instability, but I think they were made with tonight in mind. Similarly, Thomas Partey’s withdrawal as soon as he made it 4-1 told him it was all about managing minutes for important players.
The sight of Emile Smith Rowe in full training is very welcome and hopefully he is ready enough to make it to the bench. It is clear that we still lack some depth, but adding the second highest scorer from last season to the team will give us a little more of that. It only remains to be seen how quickly he can catch up after playing just 47 minutes of first-team football so far this season.
As for Newcastle, they arrive tonight with the best defensive record in the Premier League, and we know they will be a tough nut to crack. I think it’s fair to say that Eddie Howe has done a very good job since he took over and, like any manager, has spent money to improve his roster. It’s just that the source of that money is different, and it’s not something we should ignore. I think we are about to enter an era where a club like Newcastle starts to transform into something else. Think of the feud you have with Chelsea or even Man City, whose façade of sleek, ultra-professionalism is a façade for something else.
We’re not there yet with Newcastle, but it’s coming. There is an inevitability about it. Can not it be a different way. They will dig into the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund to spend big, and they will skew and distort the market for everyone else while doing it. Most of their fans won’t care, but this is a club that will try to become England’s PSG. These are not plucky underdogs with an innocent, fresh-faced English manager. The sooner attitudes towards them change, the better.
I don’t think he’s part of Mikel Arteta’s team talk tonight, but if he can fuel the atmosphere at our venue, all the better. I hope there is a feeling within the team that we need to fix the game at St James’ Park last season. That stung, and while it was mostly due to us running out of fuel and in-form players at the end of the season, Arteta’s fury afterwards was evident in All or Nothing. If he hurt her then, it will be something she won’t have forgotten.
The Brighton game saw us falter a bit in the second half. Let’s hope it’s that perfect scenario where the problems you have don’t cost you points, because you’ve done other things well. I suspect tonight’s game will be pretty tight. I doubt we’ll have four goals to make up for defensive mistakes, so it’s important that we toughen up. Newcastle will be energetic and push high; we have to be precise with how we deal with it. If we do, as the last two games have shown, this is a team that can exploit space with real ruthlessness, and we have four strikers who are in the mood for goals.
Fingers crossed.
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As always, we’ll have live blog coverage of the game for you and all post-game material on Arseblog News. Until then.
Come on reds!
