Anthony Gordon apologises as Newcastle United’s fiery affair ends in scuffle with Arsenal

Anthony Gordon apologises as Newcastle’s fiery affair ends in scuffle at Arsenal

Lee Ryder

5 – 6 minutes

Newcastle United’s fight for the Champions League will go right until the final game of the season after this painful 1-0 defeat at the Emirates Stadium.

Despite being offered a series of gift-wrapped opportunities to leapfrog the Gunners, those moments to win the game came and went even though Eddie Howe’s side created 14 goal attempts. Denied on numerous occasions by David Raya, Newcastle’s performance can be deemed unlucky in some ways, but when the muck and bullets were flying it was Arsenal who stood tallest.

And Declan Rice’s 55th minute goal means that third place is the best Newcastle can hope for when all the points are calculated. It will make for a nervous end to the season with Jordan Pickford standing in the way next weekend as Everton head to Tyneside for the final day.

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Forced to go into battle at the Emirates Stadium without the services of Alexander Isak, Newcastle, who lined up with a 4-2-3-1 formation, handed Callum Wilson his big chance from the start. The service to the no.9 was under the microscope in North London, but it was a poor clearance from David Raya that almost handed Newcastle an early lead.

Raya’s ball was intercepted by Sandro Tonali who found Wilson before it fell for Bruno Guimaraes with the Arsenal keeper forced into an early save – a look back at the replay showed the Brazil international should have done better. He did manage a second bite of the cherry but Arsenal cleared their lines. On 11 minutes it opened up for Tino Livramento but he struck it straight at Raya for another good chance.

Four minutes later, Bukayo Saka swung in a corner with Thomas Partey’s flick pushed away to safety by Nick Pope. With 16 minutes played, Harvey Barnes broke through the middle, but his shot took a deflection with Raya saving well again.

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Raya was again called into action on 17 minutes to deny both Blyth lad Dan Burn and then Sven Botman after Tonali’s dangerous corner. Remarkably, the game reached the mid-way point of the first half locked at 0-0 despite Newcastle having five shots on target with Raya a busy man.

But the two sides went in level at the break after an opening 45 minutes in which Newcastle managed 10 goal attempts. They were hardly daunted by Arsenal but then a failure to take one of those chances meant everything was on a knife-edge.

Newcastle were arguably boosted at half-time as William Saliba went off injured and was replaced by Riccardo Calafiori. Having wasted a host of first half chances Newcastle then handed Arsenal the chance to go ahead on a silver platter.

Gordon, facing his own goal, was dispossessed by Saka on 54 minutes before Martin Odegaard picked out Declan Rice, who gratefully swept home. In the immediate aftermath, Gordon raised his hands apologetically but the crispest of finishes from the England star, who guided it home from the edge of the dee, punished Newcastle for those first half misses.

Howe responded just after the hour mark by introducing William Osula, Emil Krafth and Lewis Miley with Wilson, Botman and Murphy going off. Krafth was booked immediately for a hefty challenge on Gabriel Martinelli.

The most remarkable thing was that Gordon survived the hook with Howe in a ruthless mood. Instead, as Howe made a fourth change it was Barnes, who’d just missed a decent chance but scooped over, who made way for former Arsenal man Joe Willock.

It was the Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta who ended up in the ref’s notebook with 10 minutes left after he dinked a ball back towards his players and in doing so was deemed to have delayed the game.

Willock twisted and turned as the game edged towards a conclusion but he blasted high and wide at his old club. Newcastle pushed hard in the closing stages and Willock won a corner deep into stoppage time.

Pope stormed forward but Raya held on one last time to gather the ball. The game ended in a scuffle between the two sets of players with Jakub Kiwior and Burn booked before a VAR check resulted in no further punishment.

Sadly, Newcastle’s chance to win this one and finish second had been and gone thanks to those squandered chances. Arsenal were there for the taking in the first half and United failed to take their shot at second place.

Referee: Simon Hooper (Wiltshire)