Controversial Gordon strike gives Newcastle edge against Arsenal

The road has been heavily booby trapped with hazards at almost every turn but somehow Newcastle have developed a knack of navigating a safe passage towards the sunlit uplands.

No matter that Sandro Tonali, the £55m summer signing from Milan, is banned for 10 months for gambling offences, or that a raft of senior players including Sven Botman are injured – Newcastle continue to impress in all competitions.

A highly controversial goal created by Joe Willock and scored by Anthony Gordon before surviving three VAR checks not merely drove a dagger through the heart of a disappointing Arsenal’s title ambitions, but suggested that Eddie Howe’s wonderfully resilient team are here for the long haul.

Newcastle’s gameplan seemed to involve subjecting the left side of Arsenal’s defence to concerted pressure and when Miguel Almirón swiftly showed Takehiro Tomiyasu a clean pair of heels, a decent chance beckoned for the on-rushing Sean Longstaff.

On that occasion David Raya punched the midfielder’s shot clear but Newcastle had created sufficient uncertainty in the visiting ranks that, at first, Arsenal could not seem to quite decide whether to sit back and stay patient or attempt a high, hard press of their own.

Happily for their travelling fans, this period of self-doubt soon passed. Almost incrementally, Arsenal’s passing game began acquiring the sort of pleasing geometric incision capable of concerning Eddie Howe. With Declan Rice demonstrating his ability to dispossess Longstaff in central midfield, Newcastle lacked real control and looked a pale imitation of the side that thrashed Paris Saint-Germain here last month.

Nonetheless Howe’s team retained sufficient discipline out of possession to regularly disrupt the rhythm of their opponents to the point where, as they approached Newcastle’s 18-yard area, Arsenal were forced into a series of rushed, long, high balls.

It meant Nick Pope was surprisingly underworked but the home side were still conceding too many set pieces for their manager’s liking.

Indeed with Raya mainly untroubled, Rice looking good in a slightly more advanced midfield role, the injured Martin Ødegaard not being missed as badly as he might have been and Newcastle’s passing radar awry, Mikel Arteta looked quietly content. Or at least he did until Kai Havertz scythed through Longstaff on the touchline next to the home dugout.

It was not a great challenge but Havertz did appear to have been after the ball rather than the man and Stuart Attwell duly awarded a yellow card. That decision was endorsed by a subsequent VAR review but Longstaff, the otherwise excellent Fabian Schär and Anthony Gordon were so incensed that they too were booked.

If there were a new category of orange cards punishable by, say, the offender spending 10 minutes off the pitch in a sin-bin, that would arguably have been about the right sanction but, in the real world, a newly galvanised St James’ Park crowd chorused: “You’re not fit to referee.”

All this spikiness imbued Newcastle’s play with a positive edge and Gordon missed a decent half chance before all this emotion became too much for a volatile Bruno Guimarães who, having tackled Jorginho from behind, appeared to strike him on the back of the head. A VAR review detected no offence but the Arsenal bench were not alone in seeing a potential red card. When the Brazil midfielder subsequentlyslammed the ball straight at Havertz before apparently coming close to blows with Rice he looked in real peril of implosion.

Attwell must have been relieved to retreat down the tunnel at the interval, albeit with the complaints of Newcastle’s captain, Jamaal Lascelles, ringing in one ear and those of Howe’s assistant, Jason Tindall, echoing in the other.

As the second half began and unpleasantly heavy rain started falling on Tyneside it became abundantly clear that the watching England manager, Gareth Southgate, had chosen to watch a scrappy, niggly clash between two teams with little love for each other. As a former centre-half Southgate will probably have enjoyed Schär’s outstanding performance – how on earth is he not always an automatic starter for Switzerland? – and must have been interested to see the talented England Under-21 right-back Tino Livramento replace Dan Burn at the break when Kieran Trippier switched to the left. As Livramento began by winning his first battle with Gabriel Martinelli chants of “Tino, Tino” rang round the ground.

Home fans were similarly delighted to see the Arsenal old boy Willock run on and almost instantly the midfielder changed the narrative. As a shot from his fellow substitute Jacob Murphy seemed set to fly into the Gallowgate End, Willock somehow kept it in play before crossing for Joelinton, who rose above Gabriel to flick on for Gordon to apply the finishing touch.