If this weekend has hammered home a specific point with painful urgency, it is that for all so much of modern football has evolved into tactical and physical warfare, success still depends so much on individual class.
Eberechi Eze took his big chance for Crystal Palace at Wembley while Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush failed to turn up for Manchester City; Oliver Glasner’s side took home the FA Cup as their reward. West Ham offered absolutely nothing against Nottingham Forest for over 80 minutes, only for Jarod Bowen’s brilliance to turn a 2-0 deficit into a massive scare that Nuno Espirito Santo’s men had to survive.
So the news that Alexander Isak had not been passed fit to play a part for Newcastle United’s trip to Arsenal will quite rightly have sent a chill down black-and-white backs. Those fears proved to be well-founded.
A thoroughly entertaining first quarter of the game went from end to end, but it was Newcastle who provided the biggest frights to their opposition. Aside from giving it away to allow the visitors their first big chance on goal, David Raya was on course for an absolute worldie – even atoning for that mistake twice over with a brilliant double save.
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The Arsenal goalkeeper did not have to do too much more after another double save on 17 minutes from a Newcastle set piece, however, and it was hard to escape the feeling that if Isak had been fit to make the trip, things might have been different.
They had their moments of fluid attacking football, but only to a point. Increasingly as the half wore on, whenever the Magpies did get an opportunity to push forward on the counter-attack, whoever had found themselves at the spearhead invariably found themselves having to slow down and wait for support to get forward.
The result was 20 minutes of disappointing dullness from both sides to end the first half, in which Arsenal to asset some control over the game, even if they did little with it. Immediately upon returning from the dressing rooms, they well and truly hit their stride – and Newcastle shrank out of sight.
Declan Rice’s superbly-finished goal came from Arsenal springing exactly the kind of trap on Newcastle that will have made Mikel Arteta do a little wee of delight. Numerous red shirts crowded out Anthony Gordon on the wing inside his own half, forcing him to retreat back towards his own goal, only to find another horde blocking his path. Arsenal won possession, quickly worked it to Rice, curled in towards the far post, one-nil, thank you very much.
What did Eddie Howe’s side have in response? Nothing, really. The manager’s triple substitution a few minutes later did nothing to change that; it took until the 75th minute for Newcastle to even manage a shot on Raya’s goal. They had plenty of numbers forward, but no ability to make it count for anything. Not quite having all their gear left them with no ideas.
That sounds familiar, doesn’t it, given the opposition? Arsenal fans gave a warmly welcoming response to the returning Kai Havertz when he popped off the Newcastle bench to begin his warm-up in the first half, which became a rapturous applause when he was introduced as a substitute for the final 15 minutes in place of Bukayo Saka.
While we feel Havertz’s influence on this Arsenal side has been a tad unappreciated over the past couple of years, the fact he got that reaction in spite of a general view that Arsenal badly need to upgrade him speaks volumes. Absence well and truly made those Gunners’ hearts grow fonder towards the German.
Now Newcastle know the feeling. While Arsenal have all but assured themselves of a Champions League place for next season, United’s hopes now hang incredibly precariously in the balance; just one point separates them in third from Nottingham Forest in 7th.
Their needs are very different; bolt the front end of this Newcastle side onto the back end of Arsenal’s, and you have a proper contender for Liverpool’s crown. Arsenal have the steel, but not a sharp enough blade.
Newcastle meanwhile have a cutting edge, but not quite enough behind it to be more than just mostly-brilliant-but-sometimes-a-bit-blah. That’s especially accentuated when Isak is absent; this was their fourth Premier League game without him this season, across which they have scored just a single goal and taken just a single point.
However that final day goes, both these sides will go into the summer knowing they need more reinforcements to upgrade themselves from a distant second and third to becoming genuine title challengers.