North London’s lobbyists for change are strangely silent. The arguments about Arsène Wenger supposedly being “past it” and ripe for replacement have been eclipsed by his reemergence as a most convincing continuity candidate.
If the chances of Arsenal winning another League and FA Cup double remain remote, fears they may fail to qualify for next season’s Champions League have been replaced by talk of a most unlikely title challenge.
That their sixth straight league win came at the expense of a club which has had 13 managers since Wenger took charge at Highbury back in 1996 only served to reinforce the case for stability.
Without being anywhere near their best, the class of 2014-15 did just enough to ruffle Manuel Pellegrini and possibly José Mourinho, too. Certainly Arsenal’s manager gave the distinct impression he would be slightly disappointed to settle for third place in May. “At the moment we’re picking up the points, we’re showing good consistency and it’s making it very interesting,” said Wenger, who struggled to contain a smile when someone asked him if his side were the country’s best. “That’s for other people to judge,” he said. “I don’t see all the games.”
Anyone watching this one would have seen a visiting side, tired after its narrow midweek Champions League exit against Monaco, score two efficient set-piece goals before doing just enough to deny an unexpectedly impressive Newcastle United a point.
Injuries and suspensions gave John Carver’s side a threadbare look but with Daryl Janmaat, a right-back, excelling at centre-half and Jack Colback, a central midfielder, quietly efficient at left-back, Arsenal were unable to achieve their customary fluency in open play.
Dead balls were a different matter. One constant at Newcastle since 1996 has been the team’s enduring vulnerability at set plays and so it proved here, Olivier Giroud profiting from a Santi Cazorla free-kick and then a whipped-in corner from the Spaniard to score twice.
Giroud has now scored 17 goals in 26 games and represents a key reason why Pellegrini and Mourinho have cause for concern.
If it seemed game over no one had told Carver. After a cute one-two involving the inventive Ayoze Pérez and Rémy Cabella prefaced the dynamic Moussa Sissoko shooting low, first time and right-footed past David Ospina, Arsenal struggled to weather an attacking storm full of pace.
“If you look at Newcastle’s stats, they score 75% of their goals in the second half,” said Wenger. “We knew it was important not to let them get back to 2-1 and what happened? We suffered after that for 40 minutes.”
As a holding central midfielder, Aaron Ramsey found himself on the frontline. “It became very difficult, we were under the cosh,” he said.
“It was nervy. We couldn’t quite get the ball down. Their fans started getting behind them and you could feel the tension building within us. We did well to keep them out.”
It was the sort of arguably underserved victory all teams record en route to first place and Ramsey is not dismissing Arsenal’s chances of leapfrogging Manchester City and Chelsea.
“We just have to try and maintain this run we’re on, win every game from now until the end of the season and see where that takes us,” he said.
“In the Premier League strange things happen, upsets happen. We have to believe the teams around us will be on the end of upsets.”
Back in 1996 Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle seemed set to be title challengers for years to come. Nearly two decades on the north-east landscape has altered, quite brutally, and their biggest games of the season are against Sunderland.
With the Wearsiders having won the last four derbies the next one at the Stadium of Light on Easter Sunday has assumed additional importance. “When I came into the dressing room at the end I immediately started talking about Sunderland,” said Carver. “Sunderland’s vital.”
Man of the match Daryl Janmaat (Newcastle United)