Arsenal Corner

I had to go outside and touch grass after that one my goodness. Arsenal come from behind magnificently to win 2-1 against Newcastle.

The build-up

What a weekend of football. Fans of schadenfreude will be elated. Chelsea losing in hilarious circumstances with dat guy Welbz getting a brace. Man United losing convincingly to Brentford. Tottenham dropping 2 points at home to an awful Wolves team and finally the highlight of the weekend with another former Gunner in Nketiah scoring a last-minute winner to ensure Liverpool drop points for the first time this season. Must be said, Crystal Palace should genuinely have been 4-0 up at HT.

So, with all those results out the way, what did Arsenal have in store for us?

The line-up

A couple of surprises in the line-up. Mosquera over Saliba, whose still getting over an ankle injury. I was surprised to see Trossard start given what I’ve written about him being a finisher now. That said, I thought he played well, and Eze was tremendous in the middle, so what do I know.

The match

Newcastle really have been a horrible team for us to play in recent seasons. In all 3 years we’ve finished 2nd, we’ve lost at SJP. It’s a match they always show up for, and are always physical in, without any referring intervention. After Joelinton clattered Saka 30 seconds in and escaped a booking I was thinking ‘here we go again’.

We started really well. The first 20 minutes was probably the best start we’ve had this season. We were direct, Gyokores was involved, Eze pulling the strings. Finally looked like we’d started to gel.

On the 14 minute mark, Newcastle get into some trouble playing out from the back. Gyokores gets the ball, Pope takes him out, the referee blows for a penalty.

What happens next is an absolute farce. The Liverpool fan on VAR asks the other Liverpool fan referring the game to take a look at the monitor. Darren England then spends 4 minutes showing Jared Gillett slow motion replays showing Pope gets a slight touch of the ball after Gyokores kicks it onto his foot, right before taking out Gyokores at the knee.

There are so many things I don’t understand about this situation.

• Why does Pope getting a touch matter? He’s not in control of the ball, he still takes out his man?
• If it takes 4 minutes to sort it out, it’s not a ‘clear and obvious’ error
• What even is a ‘clear and obvious’ error? I don’t think the PGMOL know
• Why isn’t Calafiori allowed to use towels?
• How can a Liverpool fan be allowed to officiate 66% of our games this season? Jared Gillett has watched his team lose the day before, and then gets the chance to officiate their main rivals. I typically lean more incompetence than corruption when it comes to the PGMOL, but how that’s allowed I do not know. He isn’t impartial.

Anyway, I won’t dwell. We won.

There was a funny sense at HT. Arsenal played well, better than they have at SJP in years. There were reasons to be positive, and yet it felt like there was zero chance of a comeback and all hope was lost. This was billed as an almost must-win game and although Liverpool’s loss changed that. It was still a game that feels like we’ve progressed enough to be champions if we win it.

Second half saw Mosquera make way for Saliba. Arteta has often been lamented for his subs – part of that is making them too late. Good to see him being more proactive with them.

I feel we started quite sluggishly, it took us awhile to get going. Ironically, some subs that Arteta was lamented for were the difference.

Saka and Calafiori off, Merino and Martinelli on isn’t something you want to see when chasing a game. But Arteta once again proved why he’s the manager and we are not.

The winner

Mikel ‘Defensive Midfielder’ Merino has scored 15 goals in 2025. More goals than anyone else at Arsenal. He really is such a difficult player to analyse.

One thing about him that is easy to analyse is his head. It’s good at hitting a ball into a net. On 86 minutes we finally draw back level. It’s a world class finish and world class get-the-ball-out-the-net play from Saliba. I also loved Rice cutting Merino’s celebration short to resume play.

There are few things in life as good as a last-minute winner. It doesn’t feel like Arsenal get many of significance. The last one that springs to mind is the 3-2 Nelson winner against Bournemouth a few seasons a go. Felt like we were going to win the league when that went in. It’s a similar feeling now.

Newcastle have been a bogey team for years, they’re physical without punishment, they always turn up against us, the referee was a Liverpool fan, we’ve had a player injured every game this season, we’re still adapting to new players and a new system, the REFEREE WAS A LIVERPOOL FAN, and yet, we found a way to win.

Pope rushed a kick, played the ball right back to us which lead to a corner. Odegaard takes, and a Big Gabby chasing redemption is there to head home. Elation.

I’d half expected it to be ruled out, because, you know, Liverpool fans. It wasn’t and we bring the 3 points back down south.

We now sit just 2 points behind Liverpool after our toughest run of games of the season. If you’d been offered that at the start, I think you’d have taken it.

Is this finally the year? I’ve no idea, we’ve been bitten before, but after moments like that……why not?