Arsenal suffered another major blow in their Premier League title hunt as transfer target Alexander Isak’s thundering header condemned Mikel Arteta’s side to a 1-0 defeat at Newcastle. The Gunners could find themselves eight points off the top of the league if Manchester City beat Bournemouth later today.
It was a hugely disappointing performance from Arsenal, who struggled to create after Isak’s 12th-minute goal. Trossard saw a tame effort cleared from underneath the crossbar, while substitute Ethan Nwaneri slammed a shot from range high and wide into St James’ Park’s Gallowgate stand. Declan Rice then headed wide with Arsenal’s best chance in added-time.
Six Arsenal players scored below a 5/10 in Express Sport’s player ratings. Find out how we scored Arteta’s players below…
David Raya – 5
The Arsenal goalkeeper had little to do besides pick the ball out of his net. One strong parry in the second half denied Isak from range.
Thomas Partey – 5
Partey looked uncomfortable at right-back and was perhaps fortunate that he had little one-on-one action with Joelinton moving infield from the left. The Ghanaian moved into midfield in the second half as Arsenal sought a goal.
William Saliba – 5
Newcastle star Isak had the better of the two Arsenal centre-backs. Saliba just about came through unscathed.
Gabriel – 4
Isak lost Arsenal centre-back Gabriel far too easily to thrash home a powerful header. This was an untypically underwhelming display from a man who has admittedly been carrying an injury of late.
Jurrien Timber – 4
Timber found himself up against the excellent Gordon, who was given far too much space to cross for Isak. The Dutchman was booked minutes after switching to right-back and was soon taken off.
Declan Rice – 5
Two extremely poor free kicks meant Arsenal were unable to make the most of their set-piece prowess. Rice was not up to his usual standards in a deep midfield role. But the 25-year-old gets marked up for being the man who looked likeliest to lead the Gunners’ comeback late on.
Mikel Merino – 3
An issue Arsenal have is that Rice and Merino are very, very similar. They instinctively do similar things and give Arteta a lack of balance when they start alongside each other in midfield. Newcastle found huge gaps in the middle of the pitch at times.
There was little surprise when the Spaniard was hooked on the hour, making way for Ethan Nwaneri having heard his supporters sing the teenager’s name for most of the match.
Leandro Trossard – 3
Trossard has had to continue featuring during a tough spell of form. The Belgian misplaced a simple pass on the counter-attack in the first-half, which just about summed up his performance. However, he was unlucky to have an effort cleared off the line from a corner.
Gabriel Martinelli – 3
Tino Livramento was excellent against Martinelli, completely nullifying the Brazilian’s threat. He was taken off on the hour having done very little.
Kai Havertz – 4
Newcastle did so well to prevent the support into Havertz. Martinelli and Saka were pinned wide, while Trossard was ineffective. The Magpies controlled the space around Havertz – this was an excellent performance masterminded by Eddie Howe.
Bukayo Saka – 5
Saka tried and tried but Newcastle had him nailed down. The stand-in captain was hobbling late on in another potential fitness worry for Arteta.
Substitutes
Oleksandr Zinchenko (for Martinelli) – 5
The Ukrainian gave Arsenal a bit more balance.
Ethan Nwaneri (for Merino) – 5
Nwaneri was positive in his approach play and had a bold effort which flew high and wide. The 17-year-old did more to impact the game than his far more senior colleagues.
Ben White (for Timber), Gabriel Jesus (for Trossard), Jorginho (for Partey) – NA
Three late substitutes had little opportunity to make an impact.
