FA Premier League
ARSENAL 0
NEWCASTLE UNITED 0

NEWCASTLE United began the year by providing the rest of the league with a manual on how to stop Arsenal – even if the final chapter doesn’t yet tell you how to beat them.

The Gunners once again began this first versus third contest with glossy passing and sharp attacking ideas, but were ultimately bounced out of step by resilient visitors.

Tactically or cynically, depending on how charitable you want to be, Eddie Howe’s team broke up any rhythm in the match with petty fouls, spells of time-wasting and a series of injuries which never seemed too serious but ate away at the clock.

Unlike the World Cup, the refereeing team struggled to calculate how many minutes were being sapped away.

Of course, Arsenal must learn how to cope with such strategies if they are to persuade fans that they can stay the course of an entire league season and turn an electric start into silverware, but perhaps it was surprising that another top four team could not muster more ambition than spoiling the match.

The Magpies are handy going forward and perhaps even had the best chance of the game to score when Joelinton missed a close range header from a corner in the final gasps of the first half.

For the most part, however, they were here to wreck the eye-catching offensive that Arsenal have provided this season. A nudge here, another there. If somebody told you that Howe’s pre-match team talk had demanded that somebody sit on the floor and ask for treatment every time Arsenal gathered pace, it would not have been a surprise.

Nonetheless. the nagging thoughts in the back of the minds of Arsenal fans who arrived at the stadium with buzzing anticipation but left with a frustrated feeling of a missed opportunity are simple and now exposed: how can this magical form be sustained with just eleven, 12 or 13 regulars, and where is the back-up when a puzzle like this needs a fresh idea late on to make a breakthrough.

Manager Mikel Arteta, with unending faith in deputy striker Eddie Nketiah, made only one change in search of the three points but it was hardly a shift to panic any wearying legs in the Newcastle back line: Ben White, excellent as he was, came off for Takehiro Tomiyasu. Maybe Fabio Vieira or Marquinhos would have been worth a shot, but Arteta is a manager who sticks to his guns.

Nketiah might have actually gone on and won the game for the Gunners when his turn and shot was blocked by the goalkeeper’s feet.

Up the road, Mauricio Pochettino learned too late how failing to integrate a wider squad can cost a team in the later stages of a season when his Spurs team ran out of puff in a broken title run a few years ago, and Arteta risks must be careful of not making the same mistake against richer teams. Inevitably, attention will now turn to who the club might bring in to fill in the gaps.

Supporters might be hoping the long pursuit of Shaktar Donetsk’s Mykhailo Mudryk reaches a positive resolution soon, even if he is not the direct centre forward they possibly need. Joao Felix at Atletico Madrid is also being reportedly being tailed, although those links do make you wonder about where Emile Smith Rowe, a fans favourite for sure, fits in.

Arteta appeared suitably frustrated afterwards, and would not comment on touchline disagreements with the Newcastle coaching team. He didn’t really want to answer whether he thought Newcastle were title contenders when asked, but said: “I know my team wanted to win. I’m proud of how we dominated the game and we had a lot of situations around the box. We just lacked a bit of spark in the final third.”

He remained insistent that a penalty shout in the final seconds – the ball came off Newcastle sub Jacob Murphy’s arm – should have led to a spot kick.

Howe said: “If it was the other way around I think I’d be shouting for it”, but added not with the expectation of getting it awarded and said Murphy was too close to the cross to be penalised.

He insisted that “there are moments in the game where you want to slow it down, when you want it to speed it up – I thought we managed the game really well”, adding: “We defended really well against a top team with a very good way of playing.”

Howe added: “There wasn’t many clear cut chances for Arsenal. There was one at the end and Nick [Pope, goalkeeper] did well with his feet. The second half was a long half for us. A year ago we’d probably have found a way to concede. We’ve managed to be resilient late in the game.”

ARSENAL: Ramsdale, White (Tomiyasu 76), Zinchenko, Gabriel, Saliba, Xhaka, Partey, Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli, Nketiah
Subs not used: Butler-Oyedeji, Elneny, Holding, Lokonga, Marquinhos, Tierney, Turner, Vieira

NEWCASTLE UNITED: Pope, Trippier, Burn, Botman, Schar, Guimaraes, Longstaff, Willock (Saint-Maximin 87), Joelinton, Almiron (Murphy 68), Wilson (Wood 68)
Subs not used: Anderson, Dubravka, Lascelles, Lewis, Manquillo, Ritchie