A dream night time in North London for Newcastle United, as Eddie Howe’s magnificent Mags head into subsequent month’s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg with a 2-0 lead!
THE greatest win of the Eddie Howe period? I feel it’d simply be. A well-known victory (our SEVENTH on the spin), the right away efficiency and an evening we received’t neglect, capping off a merely unbelievable previous month for this workforce.
Towards an in-form Toon workforce lacking the suspended Bruno Guimaraes and Fabian Schar, we had been organised, courageous – each on and off the ball in our blocking, passing and urgent – and a menace in assault in opposition to an Arsenal facet who struggled to interrupt us down at one finish and couldn’t deal with the very best striker within the Premier League on the different.
6,000 Mags packed out the away finish on the Emirates – an outstanding effort on a chilly Tuesday night time the week so many went again to work – and so they had been deal with to a rock stable first half, the place large blocks from Sven Botman and Martin Dubravka had been adopted by Alexander Isak’s poachers end handy us a 1-0 lead on the break.
I had by no means seen William Saliba and Gabriel so nervous and Isak’s presence despatched us into dreamland within the second half, as his shot – by way of an outstanding ball from Murphy – was parried by Raya and tapped in by Anthony Gordon to make it 2-0. And that’s the way it ended, as we grew to become the primary facet since Aston Villa (April, 2024) to win on the Emirates.
The second leg will happen at St James’ Park on Wednesday fifth February and it seems like we have now one foot within the last, not that there’ll be a single ounce of complacency heading into subsequent month’s decider.
Howe made only one change from Saturday’s 2-1 win at Spurs and it was a slight shock. Regardless of media reviews claiming Sean Longstaff was in line to exchange the suspended Bruno Guimaraes, former Gunner Joe Willock got here into midfield alongside Sandro Tonali and Joelinton.
Botman began once more – his second in simply 4 days – and Tino Livramento stored his place at right-back after his very good show at Spurs, maintaining Kieran Trippier on the bench. Fabian Schar was absent once more, this time by means of suspension within the cup, but it surely was a reduction to see Botman alongside the usually-reliable Dan Burn.
The primary half was near-perfection from a Newcastle perspective. Our form was very good, we pressed them, restricted them to few probabilities from open play and did brilliantly to thwart them when openings got here their manner. Timber did head an enormous probability over from a nook, the place they’re notoriously harmful and Martinelli hit the publish after Willock’s poor giveaway, however we additionally noticed an enormous block from Botman to disclaim Havertz and an enormous save from Dubravka to dam Gabriel’s effort.
On the ball, Isak was scary the life out of the often unflustered Saliba and Gabriel. They couldn’t get near him and noticed us fail to capitalise on a number of openings as Joelinton and Tonali fired over.
However, regardless of our sturdy defensive displaying and talent to frustrate a blunt Arsenal assault, we had been inflicting them issues, displaying class on the ball – Tonali and Corridor oozed class – and we weren’t coming to simply see out a 0-0 draw, enjoying with large confidence in possession.
Then, on 37 minutes, Dubravka’s lengthy ball was flicked on by Botman and guided to Isak by Murphy’s deft contact. The Swede had solely Raya to beat and completed expertly, firing in off the bar handy us a 1-0 lead that despatched 6,000 Mags wild on the different finish! What a striker – that’s not 15 for the season in all competitions and his fiftieth aim for the membership on his 89th outing.
We now had a result in defend and, in true Joelinton trend, the Brazilian went into the e-book simply earlier than the break. One quarter of the tie full and we had been in an outstanding place, leaving Arsenal with all of it to do within the last 45.
If anybody feared we’d spend the second half camped in our personal half and settling for one, they’d be incorrect, as Gordon continued his gorgeous run in opposition to ‘huge six’ sides to double our lead. Tonali and Willock performed a key function within the construct up earlier than Murphy’s good low cross discovered Isak. The Swede’s shot compelled Raya right into a save and Gordon reactd first, tapping in on the again publish earlier than celebrating in entrance of 6,000 Mags going wild within the away finish. 2-0!!
Probabilities adopted for Arsenal – Havertz tousled an enormous headed probability by shouldering it large – earlier than substitute Gabriel Jesus headed over. However, we continued to throw black and white shirts in entrance of the ball every time Arsenal entered our field and had been combating for our lives to keep up that two-goal benefit.
Howe reacted by making three adjustments, sensing we had a number of too many drained our bodies on the market after barely rotating over a superb however busy festive interval. With that, he took off Willock, Isak and Murphy for Longstaff, Kelly and Barnes, giving us one other physique on the again and a few contemporary legs in midfield and assault.
One other change got here as Gordon – who had scored, labored his socks off and obtained a reserving – was taken off for Miguel Almiron, who got here on for a uncommon cameo and maybe his final if a January exit is to come back anytime quickly.
Extra huge blocks and towering headers to clear our strains adopted, as did 5 minutes of added time, which we noticed out expertly, because the excellent Corridor and Livramento stepped in with two extra very important clearances as Arsenal threw cross after cross into the field.
A last phrase for Martin Dubravka. If reviews coming from Saudi Arabia are right, this may increasingly have been his final sport for the membership as a transfer to Al-Shabab edges nearer. In that case, it’s been an unbelievable finish to his time at Newcastle United, with simply two objectives conceded in his final seven video games seeing the Slovakian fill in expertly for the injured Nick Pope over a festive interval and begin to 2025 we’ll always remember.
After the full-time whistle, it seemed like a wave goodbye as he bought emotional in entrance of the travelling Toon Military.
Newcastle XI: Dubravka – Livramento, Botman, Burn, Corridor – Willock, Tonali, Joelinton – Murphy, Isak, Gordon. SUBS: Vlachodimos, Trippier, Barnes, Targett, Osula, Almiron, Kelly, Longstaff, Miley.
Arsenal XI: Raya – Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly – Odegaard, Partey, Rice – Martinelli, Havertz, Trossard. SUBS: Porter, Zinchenko, Tierney, Kiwior, Calafiori, Jorginho, Merino, Sterling, Jesus.
Subsequent up, three-straight video games at St James’ Park, with Bromley (FA Cup on Sunday) adopted by Premier League video games in opposition to Wolves (Wednesday) and Bournemouth (Saturday) subsequent week.
Howay the lads.
The post Arsenal 0-2 Newcastle: A dream night time – THE greatest win of the Eddie Howe period first appeared on Foot & Soccer.
—-
Author : footsoccer
Publish date : 2025-01-07 22:26:35
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.