TACTICS EXPOSED

MIKEL ARTETA’S “scrambled eggs” tactic baffled Newcastle and helped Arsenal climb to within two points of Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table.

The Gunners needed a late, late show against the Toon, having fallen behind against the run of play via Nick Woltemade’s 34th minute header.

But Mikel Arteta’s side didn’t panic, and continued to bang on the door.

They were finally rewarded just six minutes from time when substitute Mikel Merino beat Nick Pope to level.

Newcastle couldn’t quite cling on for a point, with relentless Arsenal pressure eventually leading to Gabriel Magalhaes’ 96th minute winner.

Let’s take a further look at how the Gunners were able to outfox the Toon.

ARSENAL’S ‘SCRAMBLED EGGS’

DEBATE was going on in commentary online about which formation Newcastle were playing. Was it 3-4-3? Was it 4-5-1? Was it a 4-3-3?

In all of those formations, the midfield three was Joelinton, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes. A three-man midfield.

Arteta’s plan was to disrupt, scramble and break that midfield three. And it was really, really cleverly done.

The way they did it in build up was the reason they had so much territorial domination early on and why they should have been out of sight.

Trossard, who started on the left of Arsenal’s front three, came right back into midfield at times between Martin Zubimendi and Declan Rice.

And what he was trying to do was bring a midfielder with him. So not necessarily the full-back, which would have been Tino Livramento. It would have been Joelinton or Guimaraes.

In bringing one of those two with him, Trossard was therefore creating space for Viktor Gyokeres.

With the ground he covers, Declan Rice virtually does the job of two players in one.

As Arsenal set up, Rice was in a two with Zubimendi as the double pivot. When Trossard came in, he made that Newcastle midfield line not be a flat line of three. He made them jagged and all over the place. So they weren’t solid.

EZE AND GYOKERES’ PARTNERSHIP

EBERECHI EZE and Viktor Gyokeres pressed as a two. It was really good to see that Mikel Arteta trusted Eze to play centrally, having deployed the England man out wide in recent weeks.

With Leandro Trossard as the left ten, and Eze the right ten, Riccardo Calafiori was able to bomb up his flank, with Bukayo Saka providing width on the other side.

Gyokeres, because of the runs he makes, has been getting isolated in recent games. Arsenal have wanted to see some of their other forward players get closer to the Swede.

SET PIECE PROWESS

ARSENAL are brilliant at set pieces. But what was interesting here was that Newcastle are also brilliant at set pieces.

Both teams have identified that short corners can prevent goalkeepers from being protected by a shell of defenders.

In the coming weeks, we’re going to see twice as many short corners as we’ve seen in the first five, six games of the season – like we saw for Mikel Merino and Nick Woltemade’s goals.

While defending a set play, you really don’t want to be in your six-yard box. So as soon as someone takes a short corner and knocks it back to somebody who’s going to cross it the other way, everybody steps up.

There’s nothing wrong with that. They step up. But what that does is create this space and both teams targeted it.

While everyone was focusing on Gabriel’s header, if you actually look very closely, Saliba has done Nick Pope. He’s not fouled him. He’s done him. He’s got into a position where Pope can’t come and claim.

Pope would have liked to think he would have got that most of the time, but Saliba’s clever positioning stopped him from doing so − Sun.