The noise around Arteta and his perceived cautious approach in big games grew significantly louder after his side rescued a point late on against Manchester City last weekend. Including the defeat to Liverpool at Anfield, this was the second time in a month that it was perceived Arteta did not go all out to win a game against a title rival with his best players on the pitch.<\/p>\n
Declan Rice, Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Merino made up his midfield three in both games, with the lack of a creator from the start a sticking point for those wanting more invention.<\/p>\n
At Anfield, Martin Odegaard was coming back from a shoulder injury, so he came on after 70 minutes alongside Eberechi Eze, who was making his debut for the club. Against Manchester City, Odegaard was out again, while Eze came on at half-time and helped turn the game by assisting Gabriel Martinelli\u2019s equaliser.<\/p>\n
This week, Arteta answered critics who wanted to see the former Crystal Palace playmaker in the starting XI. \u201cCould he have played 90 minutes (against City)? That\u2019s a question I put to myself because none of you know the load that he can do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s easy to say he could have played from the start. Maybe not. Because he already played two games from the start, and he\u2019s never played as a right attacker in his field. So that\u2019s another new element for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even if the game came around too quickly for Eze to start, his impact against City was immediate. Merino spent most of the first half battling to win and keep possession, but Eze was receiving the ball on the half-turn and allowing Arsenal attacks to flow within minutes of his introduction.<\/p>\n
The example below is the second time after coming on in which Eze received the ball and found Bukayo Saka. He takes one touch with his left foot to receive the ball between the lines from Rice, and then easily uses his next to pass to Saka with his right foot. In three passes, Arsenal went from deep in their own half to inside the City box.<\/p>\n
Against Liverpool and City, the preconceived issue appeared to be the physical challenges of those games, which may also be one of the few considerations for Newcastle on Sunday. Arsenal have had difficulties playing through Eddie Howe\u2019s side in recent years, particularly at St. James\u2019 Park.<\/p>\n
Since beating Newcastle 2-0 in May 2023, in which they survived an early onslaught from the hosts, Arsenal have failed to score in three visits to St. James\u2019 Park in all competitions. The energy and atmosphere created inside the stadium play a huge part, but so does the defensive discipline of Howe\u2019s team. While Newcastle press Arsenal high at times, they are also well-drilled enough to hold their positions and make Arsenal work for their openings in an effective mid-block. It\u2019s something other Premier League sides have since adopted when facing Arsenal.<\/p>\n
This worked particularly well for Newcastle in the 2023-24 season, when they were the first of five teams Arsenal failed to have a shot on target against<\/a>. Below is an example of how they frustrated Arsenal from two separate goal kicks in the game, sticking three players narrow on the edge of the box, whether David Raya went long or short.<\/p>\n After defeat at St. James\u2019 Park in May 2022, when a 2-0 Newcastle win ended Arsenal\u2019s hopes of Champions League qualification, Arteta said: \u201cIt\u2019s about the understanding of certain situations in the game, not to continue to put the game into that mood.\u201d<\/p>\n The following season, Arsenal improved markedly in how they \u2018lived\u2019 away games<\/a>, which often meant quietening the home crowd before taking control of the game. Even if Arsenal try to settle things down on Sunday evening, Newcastle\u2019s players and fans won\u2019t make it easy.<\/p>\n Arsenal tried to do something similar away to Athletic Club in the Champions League this month, but neither Athletic\u2019s players nor fans let them. Arteta joked after the City draw that nobody questioned his decision to start Rice, Zubimendi and Merino as a midfield three in Bilbao. But that is not what won them the game, with Martinelli and Leandro Trossard adding different dynamics from the bench<\/a>.<\/p>\n That test run and Newcastle\u2019s recent changes<\/a> may make the need for more adventure even greater, though. While they have only scored goals in two of their five league matches this season, Howe\u2019s side have kept four clean sheets. They have also played with a back three\/five in two of their last three league games, although both of these matches were away from home.<\/p>\n When asked about Eze\u2019s positioning following the 2-0 Carabao Cup win over Port Vale on Wednesday night, Arteta said: \u201cHe played very centrally against a team that is 5-4-1, super compact. It\u2019s not easy to find the spaces, but he\u2019s very capable, as you saw with the goal and three or four other actions.\u201d<\/p>\n Eze\u2019s first month at Arsenal has proven that he is capable both centrally and out wide. Newcastle away may just be a case of Arteta deciding where he feels Eze can be most dangerous and who can be around him to give Arsenal the edge they need. If that is more central, then using Martinelli out wide could make sense, especially as he has previously created goals with direct running at St. James\u2019 Park. If that is out wide, then attention will focus on the midfield three Arteta selects.<\/p>\n Last season, Odegaard was still injured when Arsenal travelled to Newcastle in the Premier League, so Arteta played a 4-4-2, with Rice and Merino as the two central midfielders and Kai Havertz and Trossard up front. Arsenal generated just one shot on target as they lost 1-0. Nearly a year on, Odegaard is still a matter of days away from returning to fitness pre-Port Vale, but Ethan Nwaneri is also an option should Arteta feel comfortable fielding a more creative player.<\/p>\n Arteta can play this in a few different ways, but what he ends up doing will show everyone what he deems as important in these big clashes, at least for now. Fans will hope that it is more risk-taking, but that might depend on whether he feels this squad are ready to take the fight to a typically tough opponent.<\/p>\n (Top photo: Alex Pantling\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Does Mikel Arteta stick to what he is comfortable with or take a more adventurous twist against Newcastle United? The noise around Arteta and his perceived cautious approach in big games grew significantly louder after his side rescued a point late on against Manchester City last weekend. Including the defeat to Liverpool at Anfield, this … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Can-Arsenal-afford-to-be-more-adventurous-against-Newcastle.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4065,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063\/revisions\/4065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Arsenal-goal-kicks-vs-Newcastle.gif\")
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