With the surprise inclusion of Eddie Nketiah up front, and Dani Ceballos in the middle, Mikel Arteta’s new look side put 4 past Newcastle at The Emirates on Sunday afternoon.
Having sickeningly witnessed Sp*rs winning with a last gasp goal at Villa, courtesy of their cheatiest of all their players, a win was even more important to keep our slim hopes of a top four (or five) finish.
After half an hour, it looked a bit like Emeryball was back and that win would not be forthcoming after all, but late in the first half and especially after the break, the positive signs where there as we clicked into action and demolished Newcastle.
In the early exchanges, it was actually the away side who were pulling the punches, and we were lucky to be level at the break.
Then on 54 minutes, we finally broke the deadlock, Nic Pepe floating over an innocuous looking cross, but Aubameyang powered home a header for 1-0. The just two minutes later Saka skinned a couple of defenders down the left, and cut the ball back for Pepe to drill home for 2-0 and The Emirates was rocking.
After that, Newcastle rallied slightly and were unlucky not to pull one back after heating the post and also Clark missed a sitter, but our defence and keeper played well to maintain our second clean sheet on the bounce – yet more proof if you need it that Arteta is definitely turning things around slowly but surely.
A resurgent Ozil, who had a great game even managed to get on the scoresheet from close range, and then Lacazette on as a late sub, someone else who has found goals hard to come by, completed the rout in injury time to end the game 4-0.
Sadly, Nketiah was fairly poor and struggled to get into the game but it would have been a confidence boost for the youngster to start the game ahead of our biggest names.