{"id":11255,"date":"2025-05-17T15:50:48","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T14:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11255"},"modified":"2025-05-18T22:38:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T21:38:21","slug":"gunners-seek-to-consolidate-second-place-versus-upstart-barcodes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11255","title":{"rendered":"Gunners Seek to Consolidate Second Place Versus Upstart Barcodes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This Sunday afternoon Arsenal host Newcastle United in their last home game of this frustrating season in which the Gunners have come so close to achieving much greater heights than a series of major injuries and atrocious refereeing decisions have permitted.  Last weekend\u2019s 2-2 comeback draw at Liverpool left Arsenal two points clear of third-placed Newcastle with two matches remaining for each club so the Gunners can seal a second-place league finish by beating Eddie Howe\u2019s side in this match. A firm beating would of course be quite preferable, but any beating would do quite nicely, and a draw would not be the worst result either in the circumstances.  But please let\u2019s keep the focus on that firm beating because these opponents have been sticking it to us recently, and a tad of revenge would be most satisfying indeed.

The<\/strong> Opposition<\/strong>

Newcastle beat Arsenal home and away by identical 2-0 scores each time on their way to winning the Carabao Cup earlier this year.  In November\u2019s reverse league fixture, Arsenal also failed to score a solitary goal, losing by 1-0.  Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon, among others, formed a dangerous presence in the Geordie attack in all those games, while the Geordie defence was top notch.  Newcastle have won seven of their last nine matches, and come looking to bag their first league double against the Gunners in 30 years.  Just about the only good news from this fixture\u2019s recent past is that Arsenal won last season\u2019s home encounter by 4-1 over the Geordies.  But a more long-term view should put Gooners into a more positive frame of mind because Arsenal have not lost at home to Newcastle in their last 15 league matches, with the Gunners winning 11 of their last 12 encounters at the Emirates.

Ever since December when they were mired in 12th with only five league wins, Newcastle have kept their noses firmly to the grindstone, and a run of nine wins in all competitions pushed them into top-five contention as well as a League Cup final, where they beat Liverpool 2-1 at Wembley to finally end a 56-year trophy hiatus.  After they beat European rivals Chelsea last weekend by 2-0, manager Eddie Howe is also on the verge of achieving the club\u2019s best league placing since 1997, as victories in their final two games would see them claim second spot from under Arsenal\u2019s noses.

Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As one astute Gooner said this week, this is the game where Mikel Arteta needs to show he can out-think Howe, who is beginning to be a tad annoying.  According to Arteta in his pre-match press conference, Kai Havertz is likely to be back in the Arsenal squad for the first time in four months. The striker returned to training this week, nearly four months after he sustained a hamstring injury during the Dubai training camp in January, when it was expected that he would miss the remainder of the campaign.
On whether Havertz will play against the Magpies, Arteta said: \u201cWe’re going to decide that tomorrow.  He’s done certain parts of the sessions in the last two days and looks in great shape, but I think it’s more of a shout for all the medical staff, the doctor especially to give the clearance and then how Kai actually feels to contribute if he’s required.\u201d

As for other Arsenal players whose availability is an issue, Declan Rice missed the game against Liverpool with a hip problem, with Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli both picking up issues during the 2-2 draw last Sunday.  Jurrien Timber has also been struggling with injury lately, and Arteta will assess them all before deciding on who will face the Magpies.

Commenting on the challenge of facing this opponent at this stage of the season, the manager added that \u201cWe’re going to need a big one and be very clinical because we know the qualities of Newcastle.  We know the results that we had lately against them and how thin the margins are with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on recent team selection and a guess on which players will be healthy, Arteta is likely to field a side something like this XI:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White  Saliba  Kiwior  Lewis-Shelly<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d8degaard  Partey  Zinchenko<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka  Trossard  Nwaneri<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikel Merino misses out after receiving a red card last week at Anfield so unless Havertz makes a chancy return, despite being an injury doubt Trossard is my best guess as to which player is likely appear in the center forward position, especially as I can\u2019t think of an experienced alternative.  Looking at Arteta\u2019s bench last week, he doesn\u2019t have a lot of options in midfield either, so this could be a game for Zinchenko to make an appearance there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeing as three points are essential I think Arteta is likely to try to keep this one tight, so the good old 1-0 to the Arsenal is my prediction.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the game, \u2018holics, and if we land the magic three points be sure to enjoy celebrating a happy end to this nearly glorious but frustratingly odd season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Sunday afternoon Arsenal host Newcastle United in their last home game of this frustrating season in which the Gunners have come so close to achieving much greater heights than a series of major injuries and atrocious refereeing decisions have permitted.  Last weekend\u2019s 2-2 comeback draw at Liverpool left Arsenal two points clear of third-placed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11255"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11255"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11268,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11255\/revisions\/11268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}