Should this fixture be repeated next season, Newcastle might need some cajolement into making the journey. They have now lost 11 straight games at the Emirates and, on the basis both of past performances and current form, most elements of their latest reverse could confidently be predicted at the outset. Arsenal were not especially convincing but ultimately proved too strong, scoring twice in the third quarter of the game, and once Bukayo Saka had put them ahead any doubts about the outcome were banished. Mikel Arteta’s players continue to tick off the lesser assignments and maintain designs on the top four, but the scale of Eddie Howe’s task is starkly laid out.
Howe’s debut in a Newcastle technical area was not an unqualified disaster and, in fairness, he oversaw a competent first-half display that could have even brought the lead. But Arsenal returned from the break in a palpably different gear and deserved the win their shift in tempo ensured, even if their opponents contrived a sense of injustice. Shortly before Gabriel Martinelli made sure of the points, having only just come on, Callum Wilson had gone to ground under the attentions of Nuno Tavares. The pair had been shoulder to shoulder inside the box, Wilson failing to get a shot away, and the enduring impression was that Tavares had simply been too strong.
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