Unai Emery is on the verge of performing one of the most miraculous feat in the Premier League if he clinches a victory tonight.
Indeed, Arsenal can move up to third place in the Premier League table with a win when they take on Newcastle later today at the Emirates.
It’s a remarkable feat for a team some said were the 6th best squad out of the top 6.
In the history of the Premier League, the highest total required to finish in the top 4 and secure Champion’s League play was 79 points.
To get to that 79-point target, Arsenal would have to take 19 of a possible 24 points in the remaining 8 games. 3 of those games (including tonight) are at home.
That means we’d have to take 10 on the road against the likes of Wolves, Leicester, Watford, Burnley and Everton
That road to 19 points begins tonight as Rafa Benitez’s Newcastle come to the Emirates.
Arsenal last met Newcastle in September of 2018. The 2-1 at St James’ park was Arsenal’s third win under new manager Unai Emery.
It was anything but pretty, but it was a result that secured their first back to back wins on the road since May 2017.
The team struggled to get its feet under them in the first half of that match as they were still coming to terms with the new way Emery was trying to get them to play but as was typical of Arsenal at the time, the second half is where they came to life.
A free kick by Granit Xhaka four minutes into the second half broke the 0-0 draw.
Mesut Özil would secure the win with his first goal of the season. Ciaran Clark would grab the consolation goal, but it was a case of too-little-too-late.
Newcastle looked solid playing their 4-4-2 mid-block patiently waiting for specific moments to apply pressure to Arsenal.
They would look to aggressively press Arsenal when Cech was trying to play out the back.
Benitez wanted his team to exploit the Czech Republic Keeper’s discomfort on the ball and try and win it as high up the pitch as possible.
If Arsenal happened to beat the press, they would retreat to their mid-block.
They were effective at home where they limited Arsenal to two shots on target over the course of the entirety of the match.
Arsenal had the lion’s share of the possession.
They started in a 4-3-3- shifting occasionally into a 4-2-3-1 for their press with one of the strikers leading the press supported by the other forwards and Özil.
Emery’s tactic was to try and get the ball back as soon as possible and the counter-press the employed was quite effective.