As the last few seconds of this largely forgettable game played out, as Arsenal knocked the ball around with abandon and Newcastle chased them without conviction, a strange and discomfiting sensation seemed to descend on the Emirates. You might call it, for want of a better word, satisfaction. Not happiness, as such: Arsenal don’t really do happiness. But the soft and sleepy contentment of a game well won, an afternoon without qualms or catastrophic injuries or late drama or existential angst: this was the unfamiliar part. You could legitimately point out that things have gotten pretty rough for Arsenal fans when the yardstick of a successful afternoon is one not spent screaming. But as ever in these faltering early days of the Mikel Arteta era, you have to take your little triumphs where you can find them.This was one: a victory secured with class and swagger, gilded by those two late strikes from Mesut Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette that elevated this from a functional win to a rout. A victory with caveats too, to be sure: how Bernd Leno managed to emerge from the game with a clean sheet is a question that will flummox the statisticians of the future. Indeed, for all their dominance of possession Arsenal occasionally did their level best to make Newcastle look like a functional attacking side. Had Steve Bruce’s side been a little more clinical, particularly in the first 20 minutes when terms were still being negotiated, it might have been a different colour of game entirely. By the time they meaningfully threatened again, around an hour in, Arsenal were already 2-0 up through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe, and largely safe. Related: Arsenal 4-0 Newcastle: Premier League – live! Related: Tottenham go fifth as Son Heung-min punishes late Aston Villa error Continue readingreadfullarticle
