Ødegaard, own goal lift Arsenal over Newcastle
Arsenal keep title hopes alive with 2-0 win at St James' Park.
Coming off a pretty commanding victory over Chelsea during the week, Arsenal were looking to keep the good times rolling as they traveled to St James’ Park to play Newcastle, a team that had lost just once in their previous 16 home matches this season.
Behind an early goal from Martin Ødegaard, Arsenal nabbed a 2-0 victory that pushed them back within a single point of league-leading Manchester City.
But the game was not without its dramatic moments, as that’s what makes soccer truly fantastic. Something is always bound to creep up and remind you that assurances don’t exist on a pitch.
The match started heavily in the home side’s favor as Arsenal tried to regroup from a constant barrage of pressure early on. But Arsenal saw their share of warts sneak up, and almost gave away a costly penalty if not for a VAR (Video Assistant Referee).
Jakob Kiwior, who got his second straight start at right center back in place of Rob Holding, was whistled for a handball, and it appeared that Newcastle was about to trot to the spot to take an early lead. Instead, replay saved the day.
On the initial view, it does appear that the ball strikes off of Kiwior’s right forearm. However, this is where VAR came in.
Referee Chris Kavanagh was called to the replay monitor, and 99 percent of the time a referee gets summoned to the monitor, the initial decision that was ruled on the field is about to be overturned. That’s just how it seems to go.
When Kavanagh looked at the monitor, he saw that the ball struck Kiwior’s right thigh instead of right arm, thus negating the handball shouts and overruling a penalty in favor of Newcastle.
After that, Arsenal, courtesy of captain Martin Ødegaard, nabbed a goal against the run of play to take an early 1-0 lead and silence the home crowd.
Much like last week when he tallied two goals, Ødegaard was granted way too much space. However, unlike last week, this goal came from well outside the box, and a lot of that has to do with how Newcastle themselves love to set up their defensive foundation.
No team in the Premier League had allowed fewer goals than Newcastle this season as The Magpies surrendered just 27 goals to the opposition before Sunday’s match.
A large reason for that is what you see below.
Newcastle loves to sit all 10 outfield players behind the ball in an effort to stifle any chance at breathing room that the opposition might be able to sniff out, or more well-known as a “low block” tactic. But what has made Arsenal so good this season is finding those seams when they present themselves.
All 10 outfield players for Newcastle are either in the box or on the edge of it, with Arsenal having only five players inside the box themselves, and another two outside of it.
Ben White is performing an overlapping run while Bukayo Saka operates in possession. That overlapping run helps draw a defender away from Saka so that Newcastle is unable to double-team and trap the gifted young winger.
When a defense is this compact, an ideal way to attack them is on the edge. While it doesn’t yield the best xG (Expected Goals), it can work quite well if the ball lands at the feet of a dangerous weapon. Say hello to Martin Ødegaard.
Jorginho has the ball, and the mistake that Newcastle makes is that they’re too late to close him down. You can’t give someone this much space and time on the ball.
The other problem is that Newcastle’s defenders are still stuck too far in the box. Joelinton needs to make the run from the box all the way out to Ødegaard, but that’s far too much distance for any player to have to make up in a short period of time.
By the time Joelinton gets out there, it’s too late. There’s no deterring this shot.
Ødegaard has too much space and time to get the shot off and, while it isn’t the strongest effort from distance, it finds the back of the net before a sprawling Nick Pope can get a hand on it, lifting Arsenal to a 1-0 lead.
Arsenal would hold on to this 1-0 lead before nabbing a 71st-minute own goal courtesy of Newcastle defender Fabian Schär after Gabriel Martinelli rocketed the ball across the face of goal.
In Schär’s defense, had he not stuck his foot out, the ball likely finds Ødegaard for an easy tap-in that would have still put Arsenal up by two.
Newcastle had their chances though, as Arsenal keeper Aaron Ramsdale had to make a couple of tough saves to preserve a clean sheet.
Ramsdale was credited with five saves on the day, three of them coming on shots inside the box. Due to the shutout, Ramsdale is up to 10 clean sheets away from home this season, the most in the Premier League by a country mile. It also made Ramsdale the third keeper to reach double-digit road clean sheets in Premier League history.
While the home side finished with a higher xG in this one, Arsenal dominated in xGOT (Expected Goals on Target), finishing with a 1.63 to 0.47 advantage, according to FotMob.
Now, Arsenal will need to get ready to deal with a very tough Brighton squad next Sunday as The Seagulls presently sit eight points out of a Champions League place while also having two games in hand of Manchester United in fourth.
The good news for Arsenal is that by the time kickoff happens next Sunday, they’ll know exactly what their chances are of a Premier League title since Manchester City will have already played their match against Everton.
City sit a point clear of Arsenal but with a match in hand. Arsenal will need them to drop points expeditiously.
You’re never out of the race until you’re out of it. Arsenal will have to keep trudging along.
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