There are only two teams in the English Premier League which only suffered a single league loss so far this season, league leader Arsenal as well as the third-place Newcastle United finally met each other in a league clash last night at the Gunners’ home of Emirates Stadium. The exciting matchup saw both teams played out a nil-nil draw, which gave other teams in the league, including both Manchester clubs to catch up with the top positions of the Premier League.
Newcastle on a 15-Game Undefeated Streak in All Competitions
Last evening’s draw may have allowed Manchester United to challenge for the Top Three in the Premier League with an impress four straight victories, but the Magpies achieved a remarkable feat of being unbeaten for 15 games in all competitions, winning nine matches and drawing the other six. This is the first time the team from St. James’ Park has done so as a top-flight team since more than than 27 years ago. On the other hand, the draw meant the Gunners failed to win at home for the first time in 11 games, with them last dropping points at the Emirates Stadium against Brighton in April last year.
Magpies Fended Off Gunners’ Attack
Arsenal dominated their opponent at home throughout the 90 minutes plus added time, but they could not beat past Nick Pope’s gloves with their 17 shots in total, including four on target ones. Bukayo Saka, who played superbly well for England in the World Cup had numerous chances in the game and was spearheading the Arsenal’s attack once again, but not even the third youngest scorer for the Three Lions in a World Cup had any idea to open the score line for the league leader. Tension arose between both sides as feisty tackles and challenges were observed, prompting the referee Andrew Madley to book a total of nine players in the match, four from Arsenal and five from Newcastle United.
The Magpies did have their chances against Arsenal in the match, as although their attack was not solid as compared to the latter, set-pieces and counterattacks poised enormous dangers to the Gunners, with the dead-ball specialist and last season’s signing Kieran Trippier leading the way. On the other hand, his teammates could not capitalise on those precious opportunities as only managed one shot on target with eight trials in the entire 90 minutes. The goalless draw meant Manchester City can reduce the point deficit to five, should they be able to beat Chelsea tonight in Stamford Bridge while Manchester United is now level on points with the Magpies, with an advantage of having one more game in hand.
Mikel Arteta was furious after Arsenal weren’t awarded two “scandalous” penalties against Newcastle.
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— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) January 4, 2023
Newcastle: A Serious Contender for Top Four, Maybe Even the Title
During the post-match conference, Newcastle’s head coach Eddie Howe had asked the squad to focus on being better, stated that “We need to improve, we are working hard every day to do that with the players that we have. That is our main goal. We wanted to attack the game, we wanted to be ourselves. I don’t think we quite were — but I think that is credit to Arsenal. They forced us to play a little deeper than we normally do. Sometimes you have to do that in these games, you have to slightly tweak the way you play to stay in the match. We did that and I think the players deserve lots of credit for coming through that test.”
Since being taken over by the Saudi Public Investment Fund officially in 2021, Newcastle United made drastic changes to its management staff and squad, and the effort seems to have shown immediate results since the Magpies is in the third place of the Premier League at the moment. If they continue to achieve what they had accomplished this season, with the usual big clubs struggling, we might be seeing them playing for the UEFA Champions League next season. Considering the squad will receive huge boost through the Arabian fund, the Magpies will only get better as time passes.
