From minute one to ninety, Arsenal totally dominated in every aspect of the game as they went about their business in a fashion that exemplified their position as title contenders while Newcastle failed to get possession of the ball, never mind out of first gear.
Having faced criticism for their performance in midweek when they floundered against Porto in their Champions league tie; Arsenal responded with a performance of high intensity from start to finish that Newcastle simply couldn’t match.
There was an inevitability about where the points were heading when Sven Botman put the ball into his own net on 18 minutes after Gabriel’s header was saved well by Karius only for it to rebound off Botman as Livramento failed to clear his lines.
That inevitability was compounded on 24 minutes when Newcastle’s defence was again found wanting as Kai Havertz slotted home after some sloppy defending by Fabien Schar.
52 minutes and the game was over as a contest when Saka turned Livramento inside out once again before firing his shot across goal and seeing the ball nestle into the bottom corner having gone past at least four statuesque Newcastle defenders in the process.
Newcastle simply had no answer to Arsenal’s flowing football and while they did have a short period of possession that resulted in half chances for Alexander Isak and it was no surprise when the ball was once again sitting in the back of Karlus’s goal courtesy of a deflection following a corner dropped into the six yard box by Declan Rice. The goal was first attributed to Lewis Miley but that was soon overruled and awarded to Jakub Kiwior.
What did come as a surprise however was Newcastle’s consolation goal on 84 minutes when Joe Willock was on the end of a fine move involving Gordon, the overlapping Dan Burn with the late arriving Willock producing a looping header that flew past Raya and into the far corner.
For Michel Arteta it was smiles all round when he spoke to TNT Sports after the final whistle. "Everything was good. The way we started, the aggression, the positivity that we showed in our play from the beginning, the team did not want to stop. They kept going for goals. Today the atmosphere was phenomenal to play against a really really good opponent, so I'm really pleased.”
For Eddie Howe however this was as humiliating an evening as he has faced during his tenure at Newcastle, and he must now respond by getting a performance out of his squad when they face Blackburn Rovers in their FA Cup fifth round tie at Ewood Park on Tuesday evening if their season is not to peter out under a chorus of what ifs and ah but’s!
Speaking after the game Howe said "They played well, we played poorly. We're very honest with ourselves, the first 45 minutes was not good enough. We were second best and didn't react well under pressure. Sometimes you go away and you're under pressure, but we had to be stronger, withstand the pressure and it led to a disappointing 45 minutes. We can't take too many positives from today.”
“From 45 to when they scored their third goal, we were good and the better team, but the goal kills the game. If we scored the next goal we're back in the game and anything can happen. But we didn't we and conceding the third summed up our recent weeks - we haven't been good enough defensively."
For the record perhaps Eddie might like to reflect on the fact that the period in question from 45 minutes until Arsenal scored their third goal was seven; yes, seven minutes.
And if Eddie genuinely thinks that if we scored during that seven minutes the game might have become a bit of a contest then we must question what game he was watching as his team produced nothing of any significance in either that seven minute spell or the other 83 minutes plus time added on, to show that they could compete with the pace, energy or intensity that Arsenal displayed. Humiliated at the back, outpaced and outplayed in midfield and lacking any form of cutting edge upfront sums up their performance.
What Eddie also needs to analyse is why we played badly. What was it about his chosen 11 that collectively resulted in such a flat ‘chasing shadows’ performance. Why did Arsenal find it so easy to break through his midfield five with such ease. Why were they incapable of breaking up Arsenal’s play; why did they fail in tracking, marking, tackling, and passing. Why did his defensive unit seem so disorganised that they were incapable of completing the basics and put in a performance that made them appear that they had collectively just met for the first time on the bus on the way to the ground.
He also needs to sit with his backroom team of coaches and analysts and question why his team seemed so unprepared and struggled so badly to handle Arsenal’s set piece threat; particularly as prior to last night’s game Arsenal had scored 11 goals from corners this season.
A simple piece of research on google would have identified to Howe that Arsenal packs the six-yard box at corners more than any other team in the league; thus, causing disruption for the keeper and his fellow defenders. Their preference is generally the in-swinging corner. Cue Arsenals first and fourth goals.
After such an abject performance all round it would be easy to put this down as simply a bad day at the office. Whether that assessment will wash in the boardroom however is another matter that Howe may soon be forced to grapple with.