Section:GDN 1N PaGe:47 Edition Date:190812 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 11/8/2019 20:16 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Monday 12 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •
47In mitigation Bruce’s players argu-
ably had the better of things until
injury necessitated the withdrawal
of Shelvey and Sean Longstaff from
central midfi eld and they, fatally, lost
shape. That reshuffl e also cut the sup-
ply lines to Joelinton, Bruce’s marquee
£40m Brazilian signing from Hoff en-
heim, whose debut proved as quiet as a
young Arsenal XI’s opening half.
If Emery’s side felt unsettled by the
security issues which dictated that
Mesut Özil and Sead Kolasinac did not
board the fl ight to the north east, their
hosts seemed to derive reassurance
from the reasonably secure looking
3-5-2 framework within which Bruce
had initially confi gured them.
That structure proved suffi ciently
robust to keep the score goalless at
half -time on a day when Mike Ashley,
Newcastle’s owner, will have been
fairly satisfi ed to note that a proposed
boycott of the game fell more than a
little fl at.
Almost 48,000 still fi led into the
52,000 -capacity stadium while a pre
kick-off protest march from Ashley’s
Sports Direct in the nearby city centre
to the ground attracted only around
300 dissenting fans.
They missed the sight of Bernd Leno
making a smart one -handed save to
prevent Joelinton scoring and the Isaac
Hayden interception which possibly
denied Henrikh Mkhitaryan a goal.
Bruce will have been mighty
relieved to see Mkhitaryan curl an
inviting opening wastefully off tar-
get but gratifi ed by both his team’s
initial strength down the left and his
new public’s early generosity of spirit
towards him.
Signifi cantly Rafael Benítez’s suc-
cessor was the recipient of warm
applause as he, rather niftily, subdued
a dropping stray ball with a heel as it
fl ew into the technical area. Mkhitar-
yan’s lack of similar assurance seemed
to be playing into Bruce’s hands. Tell-
ingly Emery looked disgruntled with
far more than the raindrops beating
down on his Arsenal anorak.
The moment had arrived for
Aubameyang to issue a reminder that
his presence, alone, is often suffi cient
to undo teams by beginning his pursuit
of another golden boot.His 33rd goal in 50 Premier League
appearances began with Dummett’s
slapdash pass selling Willems horri-
bly short and enabling Ainsley Mait-
land-Niles to seize possession and
advance down the right before picking
Aubameyang out with a luscious pass.
What followed from Aubameyang
was an amalgam of adhesive control,
technical excellence and exquisite
incision all in the space of two touches.
With his fi rst the Gabon striker tamed
the dropping delivery and with the
second he dinked a half -volley over
Martin Dubravka, his boot connect-
ing at precisely the right moment.
Ars enal’s season has lift-off but Bruce
is contemplating ignition problems.It was a day Steve Bruce had dreamt
about for decades but his fi rst Premier
League game in charge of Newcastle
United ended in bitter disappointment.
“The big disappointment is to lose
in the way we did,” Bruce said. “We’ve
defended fantastically, I can’t remem-
ber my goalkeeper [Martin Dubravka]
making a save – and against Arsenal
that’s a big positive – but we’ve left
ourselves open and got punished.”
Rafael Benítez’s successor has fi ve
summer signings to integrate into
this side and early teething problems
arrived when Jetro Willems came
off the bench and briefl y took up the
wrong position. Bruce bellowed invec-
tive from the technical area but sub-
sequently played the incident down.
Unfortunately, Willems was swiftlyOpening blow
‘Disappointing
to lose in the
way we did’
involved in the error which preceded
Aubameyang’s goal.
“It was just a lack of communi-
cation,” Bruce said. “It was quickly
sorted out, not a problem. I under-
stand there’s always going to be criti-
cism here but I think it would be wrong
to criticise us for having a go in the last
15 minutes when we left ourselves a
little bit stretched. But we’ve only been
working together for four or fi ve days.”
He seemed similarly unfazed by
the slightly quiet top-fl ight debut of
Joelinton, Newcastle’s £40m striker
signed from Hoff enheim. “I’m quietly
convinced Joelinton will do very well,”
he said. “But he’s got to get used to his
new surroundings. ”
Last season Arsenal took until April
to collect a clean sheet away from
home in the Premier League , but Unai
Emery did not seem overly excited by
getting one here. “It’s good to have a
clean sheet but fi rst we always want to
win,” said Arsenal’s manager.
Emery said he “did not know”
whether Mesut Özil and Sead Kolasi-
nac would be available this weekend
after they remained at home because
of security threats. “The club is man-
aging this circumstance,” he said.
“We want them to be with normal-
ity in training and playing as soon as
possible.”Newcastle United
3-5-2
Dubravka; Schär,
Lascelles, Dummett;
Manquillo, Hayden,
Shelvey (Willems 54),
Longstaff (Saint-
Maximin 67), Ritchie;
Almirón•, Joelinton
Subs not used
Darlow, Clark, Muto,
Krafth, FernándezArsenal
4-2-3-1
Leno; Maitland-Niles,
Sokratis, Chambers,
Monreal; Xhaka•,
Guendouzi; Nelson•,
(Pépé 71) Willock
(Ceballos 64),
Mkhitaryan• (Martinelli
84); Aubameyang
Subs not used
Martínez, Lacazette,
Torreira,David Luiz
Referee Martin Atkinson Attendance 47,635Louise Taylor
St James’ ParkPépé cameo
gives Gunners
real grounds
for optimism
Analysis
Jonathan Wilson St James’ ParkA
substitute appearance
lasting 20 minutes
plus injury time and 10
largely unremarkable
touches may not seem
like much, but in them
were encapsulated Arsenal’s reasons
for optimism. In time, Nicolas Pépé
will script his own narrative and will
be judged on those terms but, for
now, his value is largely symbolic.
The £72m record signing is the totem
for this new age for Arsenal. His
arrival from the bench was greeted
with a huge roar from the Arsenal
fans gathered high in the Leazes
End and his presence was enough to
transform an essentially workaday
Arsenal win into something of
potentially far greater signifi cance.
For 58 minutes at a wet and gently
mutinous St James’ Park, Arsenal
perhaps wondered whether the
optimism of deadline day had been
justifi ed.
As they so often were last season,
when they picked up only 25
points away from home – the worst
record in the top six – they seemed
vaguely tentative. But then Ainsley
Maitland-Niles capitalised on a slack
pass, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
scored and the picture suddenly
looked much brighter.
Yet this was still a side with a pre-
season feel. Perhaps seven of this
side would not expect to start if Unai
Emery had a full squad available and
was not hampered by injuries and
a lack of match fi tness among his
new signings. As well as Pépé, Dani
Ceballos and Gabriel Martinelli, two
of the other summer arrivals, were
given their debuts.
In practical terms, at least as
important as the promise of the new
men was the clean sheet. Arsenal
kept only one away from home last
season but here, after two fi rst-half
chances from Joelinton, they were
barely threatened, with Maitland-
Niles outstanding at right-back, calm
in his defensive work and lightning
fast when he broke forward.
Context, of course, is essential.
Newcastle United lost 11 of their
12 games against the top six last
season. Arsenal won here 2-1. This
is a Newcastle side with plenty of
problems of their own and very
few obvious answers to them.
Nobody should think this result or
performance is anything like enough
to begin to suggest that Arsenal are
back. For much of the fi rst half they
were fl at, as though a combination of
the home team’s high press and the
persistent rain had unsettled them.
But the goal changed everything.
It was the result of Maitland-Niles’s alertness to intercept Paul
Dummett’s pass to Jet ro Willems,
his pace and the quality of his
delivery, which is not always a
given, and then Aubameyang’s
fi nish. Other than that, and one
precisely weighted chipped
pass over the defensive line
from Henrikh Mkhitaryan to
Aubameyang in the fi rst half,
there was little in the way of
creative coherence.
It is expecting a lot for Joe
Willock, who had started only
two league games before this ,
to operate as the central creator.
There were some neat touches
and a general air of alertness
but his wider impact was slight.
Reiss Nelson had his moments
at Hoff enheim last season,
admittedly largely from the
bench, but was involved only
fl eetingly here.
And then there is Mkhitaryan,
who continues to be a frustrating
presence. His through-pass for
Aubameyang was superb in both
conception and execution but
again and again he gave the ball
away cheaply – 12 of his 45 passes
failed to fi nd their target. And that
is without mentioning his bizarrely
clumsy fi nish as the ball fell to
him following Nacho Monreal’s
23rd-minute run. That the same
player can be responsible for
both a touch as deft as his chip to
Aubameyang and such a clunking
fi nish defi es belief.
But the truth is that none of that
really matters. Two of those three
are teenagers and none of them are
likely to be regular starters. That
is the oddity of this performance
and the likely reaction to it. The
three points are important but
they were secured with personnel
unlikely to be much involved
in the coming weeks.
What was actually impressive
about it, what brought the
win, what was a marked
improvement in last season, was
the professionalism to dig in and
get the win, ruthlessly to punish
a slight slip to pinch the goal and
then stifl e Newcastle. But the
importance of the victory is in
infl ating the sense that there is a
bold new Arsenal in production.
Just as Pépé at the moment feels
a player more important for what
he symbolises than what he is, so
the victory was important more for
maintaining a sense of Arsenal’s
upward momentum than for the
specifi cs of how it was achieved.Nicolas Pépé’s arrival
was far more signifi cant
than a workaday win▲ Steve Bruce shows his frustration as his team slide to defeat in his fi rst match
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