Premier League 2018/19: 2 things we noticed from Arsenal's 2-0 victory over Newcastle
Arsenal leapfrogged their Champions League rivals by defeating Newcastle by two goals to nil courtesy of Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette strikes. The Gunners are third on the Premier League table with 63 points - the total number of points they accrued last season under Arsene Wenger.
They have now won 10 consecutive home games for the first time since the 1997/98 season. This was indeed a vintage performance from the gunners, keeping a third consecutive clean sheet at home this season in all competitions and scoring goals, and striker Alexandre Lacazette stressed that Unai Emery emphasized this during his team talk during the game:-
It was a big game tonight. We knew it was going to be a tough game but we listened to the coach. He said we had to be patient and efficient in the two boxes. We did that today.
However, there are a number of things we observed during the game. Let's take a look at some of them.
#1. Arsenal's high pressing game
Unai Emery wants his team to press the opposition with high pressing and also the desire to quickly win the ball back quickly when they lose it.
This was evident all through the team for 90 minutes as they were seen harrying the opposition players off the ball, giving them little time and space on the ball, something that Raphael Benitez team struggled to cope with.
The defenders were close to the Newcastle attackers such that even when the ball breaks forward for a counter attack for Newcastle, there was always one player for Arsenal to snuff out the danger. The likes of Nacho Monreal, Sokratis Papasthopoulos and even Shkodran Mustafi did to good effect,