15th September, 2018
Arsenal secured a third successive Premier League win under Unai Emery with a 2-1 victory over Newcastle on Saturday.
After a lacklustre first-half at St James’ Park, Granit Xhaka’s stunning free-kick (49) broke the deadlock before Mesut Ozil (58) doubled his side’s advantage on his 200th appearance for the club.
Substitute Ciaran Clark pulled one back in stoppage time (90+1) but it proved to be too little too late for the hosts as Emery’s side held on for all three points.
Victory sees the Gunners move up to seventh in the table, while Newcastle, who have just one point from their opening five games, stay 18th.
Rafael Benitez’s approach had been questioned earlier in the season but against Arsenal, Newcastle started on the front foot. In the ninth minute, Ayoze Perez’s pass released Jacob Murphy in behind Hector Bellerin but the winger’s cut back could not pick out a team-mate as Xhaka cleared.
Murphy had the chance to redeem himself in the 20th minute as Shkodran Mustafi’s slip let him in, but Sokratis got his central defensive partner out of trouble with an excellent covering tackle.
Sky Sports reports that the visitors slowly grew into the game and the pace of Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was causing the home side problems. Arsenal’s best chance though fell to Aaron Ramsey, who, with support waiting, sliced a cross high over the crossbar after being played in by Lacazette.
Emery reacted to the Gunners’ poor first-half display by sending on Lucas Torreira for Matteo Guendouzi, and it was a move that paid off as his side took the lead four minutes after the restart.
Referee Lee Probert handed the Gunners a free-kick 25 yards from goal after Aubameyang was adjudged to have been clipped by Federico Fernandez and Xhaka curled a left-foot free-kick past Martin Dubravka and into the top corner.
The visitors extended their advantage nine minutes later after Lacazette’s shot had been blocked, Ozil steered the rebound past Dubravka.
Benitez sent on Kenedy and Yoshi Muto as he looked to rescue something from the game, but it was Clark who pulled what proved to be a consolation goal back with a stoppage-time header from Fernandez’s cross.