Arsenal faced off against Newcastle United at St. James’ Park earlier today as they hope to grind out a positive result on their travels. The Gunners made a dream start to the game and took the lead in the fifth minute courtesy of Mohamed Elneny’s goal. Mikel Arteta sat on their narrow advantage well and went into the half-time interval one goal to the good.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang stepped up and scored Arsenal’s second goal with a great finish which put daylight between the two sides. Fabian Schar was sent off in the 90th minute to compound Newcastle’s misery as the match finished with the North London outfit securing an impressive 2-0 win away at Tyneside.
Let’s take a look at how each Arsenal player performed during the match against the Magpies.
GK: Matt Ryan – 7/10
The Gunners goalie made a crucial save to deny Allan Saint-Maximin in the first half. He was relatively untroubled in the second 45 minutes and secured an easy clean sheet on the road.
RB: Hector Bellerin – 7/10
The Spanish full-back was defensively solid and created two good chances in the opposition half.
CB: David Luiz – 6.5/10
The Brazilian defensive ace maintained a good shape at the back but had to go off early in the second half after picking up a hamstring injury.
CB: Gabriel – 7/10
He didn’t put a foot wrong in the game and performed well enough to restrict the Magpies from finding the back of the net during the 90 minutes.
LB: Granit Xhaka – 7/10
The Swiss international made a couple of interceptions and was quite lively going forward.
CM: Mohamed Elneny – 8/10
Elneny opened the goal-scoring for Arsenal from the edge of the penalty area and went close to adding to his goal-tally soon after but his attempt was cleared off the line. He worked hard defensively as well.
CM: Dani Ceballos – 6.5/10
The Spanish midfield ace orchestrated two good chances but could have offered a bit more in the final third.
RM: Willian – 7.5/10
The Brazilian playmaker caused all sorts of problems for the Magpies defenders. He engineered plenty of decent openings in the attacking end of the field.
CAM: Martin Odegaard – 7.5/10
He was a constant menace for the opposition and managed to create several inviting chances for his teammates up top.
LM: Gabriel Martinelli – 8/10
Martinelli cut open the Newcastle quite a few times during the game and ended the game with an assist to his name.
ST: Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang – 8/10
The Gabon international set up Elneny’s opener before going on to score a good goal himself in the second half.
Substitutes:
CB: Calum Chambers – 7/10
He did enough to see out the win with the clean sheet intact.
RM: Nicolas Pepe – 6/10
Pepe struggled to influence the game after coming off the bench.
CM: Thomas Partey – N/A
He didn’t have enough time to make an impact.
