Arsenal and Newcastle faced each other yesterday at St. James’ Park and the game was 2-0 for the visitors. The match was worth a lot to both: the Gunners didn’t want to lose track of Manchester City, now league leaders, and the Magpies battled to keep their ground on the next season’s Champions League.
The game was very exciting, with several chances on both goals but the scoring quickly opened with a long shot from Martin Ødegaard after a pass from the Brazilian Jorginho. In the second half, Newcastle saw a great improvement, but at minute 71 and after a great play by Gabriel Martinelli, defender Fabian Schär put the ball into his own goal, thus sealing the game.
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It was precisely Martinelli who was chosen by the press as one of the great figures of the match: “He was a constant threat with his movement and speed, he had a bit of bad luck in the final definition with balls on the posts”, the The Sun stated.
The tabloid also had praise for centre-back Gabriel Magalhães who had to deal with Newcastle forwards and was won most challenges against them: “He deserves credit for having Callum Wilson tied up during the match and scoring a clean sheet at St. James’ Park, a task that is not easy this season,” the website maintained.
For his part, Gabriel Jesus did not have such an outstanding game where he focused more on fighting with the referee and the rivals than on actually playing: “Some clever touches near the area but he could not show his full potential,” concluded The Sun.
With this victory, Arsenal reached 81 points and expects a stumble from Manchester City to be able to sneak into the first position, while Newcastle was left with third place with 65 points, closely followed by Manchester United and Liverpool.
