Arsenal batter Newcastle in sixth straight win as title race hots up - 6 talking points

Arsenal made light work of Newcastle United to keep their title tilt alive with a 4-1 win at the Emirates on Saturday night.

Despite the amount of distance between them both geographically and the table, this fixture has become somewhat of a rivalry in recent times. January 2023 saw a touchline dispute between the respective coaching staff, while November’s meeting ended with Mikel Arteta the subject of an FA hearing after he labelled Anthony Gordon’s winner a "disgrace".

In turn, the Emirates faithful were in full voice ahead of kick-off and the Arsenal players matched the energy of their fans early on. The jeers for Newcastle's timewasting started early, with the Magpies taking plenty of time from each stoppage.

Those jeers soon turned to cheers however, when Sven Botman was unlucky enough to deflect the ball just over his own goal-line and had the hosts a deserved lead. Six minutes later and it was two, with Kai Havertz granted the freedom of the penalty area to double Arsenal's advantage.

The German ace really should have put his side three goals up immediately after the break when he went through one on one with Loris Karius only to slot his strike the wrong side of the upright. Arsenal lost a bit of their rhythm after that, with the visitors enjoying their best period of the game during the first 15 minutes of the second half.

Arsenal soon put an end to that, with Bukayo Saka netting his 13th league goal of the campaign to quash the last of the Magpies hopes. The England ace dealt a hammer blow to the visitors when he rifled a low-driven left-footed strike that saw Karius stand and watch it hit the back of his net.

Four minutes separated Arsenal's third and fourth. Jakub Kiwior's header deflected off of Lewis Miley to