Mikel Arteta’s finishers rewrite story in inspired comeback win over Newcastle | OneFootball

It was the same penalty box where Gabriel Magalhaes had ended up sprawling on the Tyneside turf some 90 minutes earlier. This time, he was rising highest, heading in Martin Odegaard’s corner, capping a dramatic fightback, securing the kind of flagship win that tends to be the hallmark of champions.

The Brazilian may have been culpable for Newcastle’s opener, when Nick Woltemade headed in as he fell. He might have been sent off for an elbow on the giant German. He survived a VAR review for a penalty for handling Anthony Elanga’s cross. He ended up the match-winner as David Raya ran 100 yards to join in the celebrations. It was that kind of confusing, chaotic afternoon.

“Unbelievable feeling,” said Mikel Arteta. “That is what football is about.”

For Newcastle, beaten in the 100th minute by Liverpool and the 96th by Arsenal when deserving to lose neither game, it was a horrible action replay. For Arteta, it was the sort of sequel he can savour.

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Arsenal’s season is starting to revolve around the substitutes. Arteta’s finishers are giving him a chance to rewrite the story of each match. If Arsenal’s £250m summer spend, spread across each area of the group, gives them arguably the deepest squad in the division, it is also providing Arteta with the options to change every game. He has rescuers in reserve.

Odegaard was one replacement. Mikel Merino, scorer of the equaliser, was another. After Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard in Bilbao, after Martinelli and Eberechi Eze against Manchester City, it was a third major match that showed Arsenal can procure goals and assists from the supporting cast. Arteta may have savoured the fact, perhaps even the irony, it was Merino here: if he had seemed to make a statement by omitting his fellow Spaniard, he may have actually made it by introducing a player who can appear a comfort blanket to his manager.

Arteta had done what much of the wider world wanted by abandoning his policy of fielding three defensive midfielders and liberating Eze to operate as a No 10. Often deemed too negative, he turned defeat into victory by overloading with attack-minded players but with the aid of the defensive midfielder who can be clinical in front of goal, as he showed with a glancing header from Declan Rice’s cross. “Mikel Merino comes in, who is a massive threat in the box, and delivers a winning moment for us,” said Arteta. “Martin Odegaard made a difference for them, he started to penetrate our lines more,” said Eddie Howe.

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Each was a catalyst in a turnaround Arsenal needed. They capitalised on Liverpool’s defeat to Crystal Palace, but only when it appeared they may not. After taking one point from a possible six against Liverpool and City, they pilfered all three in a potentially season-defining match. When they could have been five points behind Liverpool, they were suddenly only two. “With the start we had already and the difficult fixtures we had, today we had an opportunity to close that gap and in a stadium that had a difficult past for us,” said Arteta. When Arsenal looked likely to be condemned to defeat by their own superpower – a set-piece – they instead won via two more.

In the process, Arsenal provided the right kind of response to a feeling of grievance. Such emotions have stalked Arteta at St James’ Park before. When Arsenal saw a penalty first awarded and then revoked, the eventual verdict being that Nick Pope had taken the ball and not fouled Victor Gyokeres, Arteta had his head in his hands, smiling in disbelief. This time, however, there was no post-match rant, no prospect of an FA charge for his words.

“To go the next level, you have to learn from the past,” Arteta argued. “We find a way to win the game. The team is still emotionally very, very, very calm and very composed. And that’s a lesson that we took as well, probably from a few years ago. Today was an opportunity to show who we are, who we want to be and the way we want to play.”

And Arsenal had begun by looking freed with Eze as a No 10. They ended with 20 shots, with Leandro Trossard crashing one against the post; this time, Arteta did take the handbrake off. That was just as well. His gambit of picking Cristhian Mosquera ahead of William Saliba backfired, with the Spaniard needlessly conceding the corner for Newcastle’s goal.

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Woltemade scored it on what, despite the final score, felt a coming-of-age performance for a player who looked a worthy replacement for the sold Alexander Isak. The giant German may have some of the skillset of a No 10 but Newcastle are using his height: both of his goals so far have been headers and, from a well-worked corner routine, he converted Sandro Tonali’s cross. “His goal was a brilliant example of what he can be,” said Howe.

Some £69m looked very well spent. Woltemade has an adhesive quality, the ball sticking to him. Newcastle lacked an outlet when he went off: if Arteta’s changes worked, Howe’s did not.

Yet one was enforced by an injury to Tino Livramento that left Newcastle fearing the worst and which helped hand the initiative to Arsenal. “Seeing him go off in that manner was really distressing,” said Howe. Newcastle were on course for a fifth Premier League clean sheet before the full-back departed on a stretcher. Malick Thiaw was a huge presence. Dan Burn won his duel against Bukayo Saka. Pope made a string of saves before his misguided decision to go for a quick kick in injury-time led to the corner for Gabriel’s winner.

It left Howe rueing what might have been. “Winning 1-0 would have been the perfect boost for us,” he said. “But the number and weight of corners told in the end. The last one is a killer blow.” Set-piece again. And again.