Almost a year to the day of Arsenal's most controversial defeat of last season, Mikel Arteta returned to St James' Park with his side's title challenge beginning to wobble.
90 minutes later it was a repeat of last year's 1-0 defeat, with Eddie Howe springing a tactical masterclass that Arsenal simply couldn't overcome. Adam Clery looks how The Magpies worked both on and off the ball, to show exactly how they did it.
90 minutes later it was a repeat of last year's 1-0 defeat, with Eddie Howe springing a tactical masterclass that Arsenal simply couldn't overcome. Adam Clery looks how The Magpies worked both on and off the ball, to show exactly how they did it.
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00:00Hello there everybody, Adam Cleary from 442.
00:06Welcome to another week on Planet Earth.
00:09The nights are dark, the mornings are darker, but at least you have YouTube.
00:14Now today we are going to be looking at Newcastle United and at Arsenal and specifically how
00:19Newcastle United beat Arsenal.
00:20But you may be thinking, don't you normally do the big Sunday game?
00:24And wasn't it like Man United versus Chelsea yesterday?
00:27And yes, you're right, we would normally be covering that.
00:29But I'll tell you why we're not, OK?
00:32It was crap.
00:33It was just so crap and I fell asleep.
00:36So instead, up the mags.
00:40Alright, so obviously Newcastle versus Arsenal at St James' Park last season, probably the
00:46most discussed game of the season from a controversy perspective, but this time equally newsworthy
00:53I think, but from a tactical one.
00:55Now on the one hand, we have Arsenal here in this sort of like makeshift 442 that Arteta
01:00has settled on because of the numerous injury problems they have.
01:04They don't have Martin Oerdegaard because he's hurt his ankle.
01:06They don't have Ricardo Calafiore because he's hurt his knee.
01:09And they don't have Alexander Isak because he plays for Newcastle.
01:12Now in the real world, this is obviously not an injury crisis, but the players they are
01:17missing are very important for how they play.
01:19So it's forced this sort of quite awkward reshovel.
01:22And as for Newcastle though, no such worries on the injury front, although obviously you
01:25would want Sven Botman here if possible, but instead they returned to their classic piss
01:31boiling 11 from two years ago.
01:33You've got Joe Linton and Willock pretty much job sharing over on the left hand side and
01:37Anthony Gordon answering the age old question of what would this team look like if Almiron
01:43was good?
01:44Now immediately straight off the bat, these formations are a bit of a win for Newcastle
01:47because what Mikel Arteta likes to do with this 4-4-2 is still find a way to dominate
01:52the centre of the pitch, both physically and numerically like they did against Liverpool.
01:57And how that works is that Mourinho will sit, Partey will invert, Rice will push on, Havertz
02:02will drop back and you'll kind of end up with what they normally like to go with, which
02:05is sort of like this three box three.
02:07And this Newcastle midfield is just not the sort of team you should be expecting to do
02:12this against because Joe Linton will so happily follow Thomas Partey back into the middle.
02:17Then you've got Bruno sitting at the base, who's one of the most combative all-action
02:20number sixes in the Premier League.
02:22Sean Longstaff's reading of the game really makes up for a lack of physicality.
02:26And then there's Joe Willock, who's just sort of legs and energy and progression breaking
02:30out of these areas is a real nightmare for teams that want to dominate the ball.
02:34Like Newcastle fans, you might have seen that start that Newcastle have never lost a game
02:38when Joe Linton, Willock, Bruno and Longstaff all start together.
02:42And that is because in terms of complementing skill sets for a midfield battle, they're
02:46basically like the Avengers of the midfield.
02:49And if you go look at the stats from the game and you rank all eight of these players in
02:54terms of the number of individual duels they won, the top four ranked players are Newcastle's
03:00four players and the bottom four ranked players are Arsenal's players.
03:05So this matchup of systems and personnel just immediately gave Arsenal two fairly major
03:10problems.
03:11There's a lot of caverts and party both coming into this area where they're not really contributing
03:15anything.
03:16Newcastle are dominating that midfield battle, meaning they're fairly redundant.
03:19And the knock-on effect of that is unable to mix it up in the middle.
03:23It meant the vast majority of possession they had, now overlay all their passes here, tended
03:27to be just in front of Newcastle.
03:30They had no real way of getting in between them and they had no real intent.
03:34And we're going to talk about this later on getting around them.
03:37Now, this is obviously extremely messy, so it's quite hard to see the point I'm making.
03:40But if I just show you all of Arsenal's passes for the last 30 minutes.
03:45So when they're really on top, they're pushing for that equaliser, Newcastle are getting
03:48deeper and deeper.
03:49This is every successful pass they made.
03:52And what should be glaringly obvious looking at this is just how safe it all is.
03:57There's a complete lack of incision between any of Newcastle's lines.
04:02They can't get through the middle, they can't get round the sides.
04:05It's just going from left to right across the pitch before eventually somebody sticks
04:09across in or somebody has a shot.
04:11It's not opening up the opposition at all.
04:14And this was Newcastle's game plan, like right from the very first minute, like be really
04:18difficult for Arsenal to break down, maximise the fact that Urdegaard isn't there to unpick
04:24a defence, fight them for the middle of the pitch and win that fight.
04:27And when you do get the ball back, get it up the other end of the pitch as quickly as
04:32you can, turn them, make them face their own goal and just revel in the chaos.
04:38Because weirdly, for all of Arsenal's successful passes shows you the problems they were having,
04:43right?
04:44Newcastle's unsuccessful passes sort of shows you what they were doing well.
04:48So this is also sort of like the last 30, 35 minutes of the game when Newcastle were
04:52defending really deep, right?
04:53This is every unsuccessful pass they had.
04:55And what do you notice about all of them?
04:57They're getting the ball back so often in this central area and then they're going long,
05:02they're going direct, they're going through Arsenal, they're going over Arsenal.
05:06And yes, all of these balls do get returned, but it just shows you the intent.
05:11It shows you how they're trying to find Gordon, find Isak, find Joe Linton.
05:14The thing is, it wasn't really a game plan that was sort of based around a team's passing.
05:18It was way more about the running for Newcastle.
05:21And there's one chance that sort of illustrates this better than anything.
05:24Like this is right at the start of the second half, Arsenal are just again knocking it left
05:28and right, no real idea how to get through Newcastle.
05:31Note as well, despite the fact they're in Newcastle's half, just how many Arsenal players
05:35are behind the ball, how few risks they're taking.
05:38But anyway, as they did for pretty much the whole game, Newcastle then get into that central area with them,
05:42win the ball, and it's not then about retention or recycling it or moving it back and resetting.
05:48It's about getting forward as quickly as possible.
05:51Like as soon as they've got the ball, Joe Willock is off charging up the other end of the pitch.
05:55And just make a note of this, these are the Arsenal players immediately around Willock.
06:00When he gets the ball, they work it up the other end of the pitch, they get a chance out of it.
06:04And when that ball does come back to Willock, these are those same players.
06:09Like the intent, the drive, the determination to get up the other end was not being matched by Arsenal.
06:15And now, I'm not really sure what order to do the rest of this video in,
06:19because we do need to mention...
06:22Nah, f*** it.
06:23Sean Longstaff.
06:24So for the second season in a row, Sean Longstaff has lost his place in the Newcastle United starting XI.
06:30And for some reason, they just don't look anywhere near as good.
06:33And then he comes back in and immediately they can just play again.
06:37How weird.
06:38And as was pointed out by my good pal TT9M over on Twitter,
06:42someone in the Guardian comment section after the Chelsea game called him the onion in the bolognese.
06:49And that is so perfect.
06:50I am insanely jealous.
06:52I did not think of that.
06:53And I know it sounds underwhelming and it's really easy to miss when you watch the game.
06:57But just think about the goal, right?
06:59Longstaff's not involved and that really plays a really simple pass out to the right-hand side.
07:03But just rewind it a little bit and really look at what he's doing.
07:07Newcastle are attacking here and Anthony Gordon, who's playing on the right,
07:10has come into the centre to try and do some stuff on the ball, right?
07:14But Isak drives a goal and loses possession.
07:17Now what Longstaff is trying to do here is cut out this ball from, I think that's Saliba to Martinelli.
07:22But Arsenal do that too quickly.
07:24He can't get there in time.
07:25So what does he do?
07:26Do you stand there and watch it roll past him?
07:28No, he curves his run.
07:30He does not know Gordon has made up all this ground.
07:32He's still looking at the ball to get back and double up on Martinelli.
07:36Not leave Liveramento exposed.
07:37Now Gordon and Liveramento both work really hard and they get back in here.
07:41They force Martinelli to cut back inside.
07:43But because he's made the run, look who's there to now pinch the ball off him
07:48rather than giving him a really easy pass back into Saliba or back to his fullback.
07:52And it's just a small thing.
07:54It's really easy to miss when you're actually watching it live.
07:57But that's really good reading of the game.
07:58That's really good application of running.
08:01He gets that ball back for Newcastle and from there, they score the goal.
08:04And there is even subtler stuff than that.
08:07Like Newcastle's goal comes initially from this long ball by Fabian Schär, right?
08:11And when Schär gets on it, Longstaff is here.
08:14But then, weirdly, he trots into a position where he can't possibly receive the ball.
08:20Like when he initially gets it, he could receive a defeat.
08:23He could drop short.
08:23He could be an option for him.
08:25But instead, he jogs behind Martinelli, taking himself out as an option.
08:30Why?
08:31Well, because Mourinho is not only marking him tightly,
08:34he's also standing directly in this passing lane between Schär and Isak.
08:40So Longstaff, recognising this, moves out of that area to see if he can take Mourinho with him,
08:45which he does.
08:46Now, Schär doesn't take him up on this option.
08:48He tries to get Willeke in over the top instead.
08:51But if you just look at it here and then we look at it just a second or two later,
08:55Longstaff has opened up this two feet, like 20-yard ball between Schär and Isak,
09:01which arguably is a much better pass to make in that situation.
09:05Now, it's almost impossible to see that when you're actually watching a game of football.
09:08Like, ooh, look at that subtle bit of movement.
09:11And the avenue had opened up.
09:12But that is Sean Longstaff's game.
09:15He's not thinking, can I get on the ball and turn and go and do something exciting with it?
09:19He's like, oh, Fabian Schär and Alexander Isak could do something here.
09:23If I move him, I'll do that.
09:25And then from there, the chance develops.
09:27And when it comes to Longstaff, he's in a really good position.
09:29He's found a bit of space on the edge of the box.
09:31He plays a perfectly weighted pass out to Anthony Gorton.
09:35Those are just the basics.
09:36You don't really get a gold medal for doing them, but he does them all the same.
09:39And from there, Newcastle score.
09:41But for a player you don't think was involved in that goal at all,
09:44he's involved three times in really important ways.
09:48And I'm not kidding.
09:48I could do another 20, 30 minutes of this video just purely on Sean Longstaff.
09:53I've been back through the game, all the small little things he does
09:55that you probably wouldn't have noticed when watching it,
09:58but made a massive difference to how Newcastle were playing.
10:01The guys thought Liveromento had an excellent game against Martinelli,
10:03but for the first hour or so, Arsenal were really targeting that side of the pitch.
10:08And a handful of times they did manage to get in behind him or get around him.
10:12Here is Sean Longstaff covering over.
10:14There was one in the box where he just fell over Liveromento
10:17and Longstaff was straight out there making sure they couldn't exploit him.
10:21In the second half where they were defending really deep,
10:23he made these two absolutely massive tackles on Nuanieri and Declan Rice.
10:28And then going the other way,
10:29there were other times where he recognised a bit of space developing.
10:32Like here is Isak dropping off the line,
10:34so he makes the counter run to get him behind.
10:36This one in the first half is absolutely brilliant.
10:38He's the first player on the pitch to recognise this space developing,
10:42makes the run into it.
10:42And if Bruno could find him, he would have been in.
10:45There's loads of just tiny little things as well that nobody ever seems to spot.
10:49Nikas will get this throw in on the halfway line.
10:52Longstaff's right in the line of it, looks like that's where it's going.
10:55But right before it's taken,
10:56he runs miles out of the space to a position he's never going to receive the ball.
11:00Merino reacts, goes with him.
11:03And that means that Liveromento doesn't just throw it to Isak,
11:06he could probably go over them if he wanted to.
11:08But he means he can throw it into the ground,
11:11thus killing all the momentum on the ball,
11:14so it's so much easier to control.
11:16That's stuff that they've clearly worked on.
11:19That's like how important Longstaff is to this team.
11:22And then of course, when Isak does get it under control,
11:25who's now slipped his marker and everybody else to be an easy option to receive it?
11:30Sean Longstaff.
11:30And don't get me wrong, like one day Newcastle United aspire to be the sort of like
11:35possession dominant, technically excellent side
11:38that won't need a player like Sean Longstaff to fill all those gaps or make all those runs.
11:42But until they are, you can't not have him.
11:45Like this is an awful thing to say, right?
11:47But it is my truth.
11:49I simply must voice it.
11:51If you have ever said anything horrible about Sean Longstaff to me,
11:55like either in real life or on the internet, right?
11:58I have probably never taken a single word you've said after that even remotely seriously.
12:05I'm sorry, like to me from then on, you are a buffoon.
12:11You wear a hat with a little propeller on it in my head.
12:14Anyway though, that's Newcastle 1-0 and why Sean Longstaff is amazing.
12:18But why couldn't Arsenal do anything about this?
12:20Like Arteta is normally so good from his bench,
12:22he's normally so good at figuring out these problems.
12:25And if anything, Arsenal looked less effective as the game went on.
12:28Well, as we alluded to earlier in the video,
12:30Newcastle's out of possession shape wasn't this 4-3-3.
12:34It was actually like a 4-4-2 with Joe Willock pressing with Alexander Isak.
12:39The only difference is this was it in their own half when they got nice and deep and nice and flat
12:43and they made those lines hard to break down.
12:45In Arsenal's half, they would do like a diamond.
12:49Willock and Isak would lead the press with Newcastle's wide players sticking to the full back.
12:52So they weren't an option and they were leaving David Rye alone for the most part,
12:56focusing on the centre backs.
12:58But doing that nice curved run thing where you leave someone in the cover shadow
13:03or shadow cover, never sure which one it's called,
13:05to try and take them both out as an option.
13:07But when Arsenal inevitably dropped a player into this position to try and get it,
13:11they would then morph this into a diamond.
13:14Bruno, it almost always was, who would then jump on this player
13:17to try and force him to play backwards into these areas.
13:20And then Longstaff would make sure there was no easy over-the-top ball
13:24into either Havertz or Laurel Trossard.
13:27Now this is a good example from the opening couple of minutes.
13:29Newcastle put the squeeze on.
13:30They force Arsenal all the way back.
13:32Bruno's jump to make sure this pass into this area is not an option.
13:36It forces David Rye to go along and for once this season,
13:39Newcastle actually have the bravery in the back line to step up with the press.
13:44They don't leave a huge gap and that means that when it goes long,
13:47Dan Byrne and Fabian Scheer could gobble this up all day.
13:50And then of course when they did and the ball dropped into the middle of the pitch,
13:53as we've discussed, Bruno, Willock, Joe Linton and Longstaff,
13:57they were winning that battle all day.
13:59Like Arsenal had no way through this really.
14:01But the thing about really aggressive high pressing is you can't really do it for 90 minutes,
14:05especially if you're defending a lead.
14:07So as the game went on, that nice high press from Newcastle,
14:12I'm stalling for time here, basically became a low block.
14:16And how do you then break down a low block?
14:19Well, step one, you create one-on-ones in wide areas and step two, you win those.
14:25Now Arsenal did the first part of that really, really well.
14:29Saka and Martinelli lined up against Hall and Delivermento really frequently in this game.
14:34But the second part, winning them, they did not do well.
14:38Newcastle did well.
14:39This is every single successful defensive action
14:42of both Tino Delivermento and Lewis Hall throughout those 90 minutes.
14:46They both put in possibly the single most dominant individual displays
14:52against Saka and Martinelli I have ever, ever seen.
14:56And just to show you what an impact all of this made,
14:58I'll take away Delivermento and Hall's combined defensive map
15:01and I'll show you Martinelli and Saka's combined passing map.
15:05Other than this absolutely fantastic deep cross for Rice
15:07that, yes, fair play, probably should have scored.
15:09That's it.
15:10That's all the pair of them across 90 minutes
15:13were really able to contribute against these two players.
15:16Like so many of Saka's passes are backwards in this area
15:19because he found Hall, he couldn't get turned, he couldn't get past him.
15:22There's virtually nothing at the bylines they couldn't get round either.
15:26Then again, away from the players, you go back to the manager.
15:28What do you do in these situations if you're creating these one-on-ones
15:31but you're not winning them?
15:32Well, you turn them into 2v2s.
15:35If your wingers are getting no joy against the fullbacks,
15:37then you need to have overlaps or underlaps involved
15:41because then it doesn't become about these individual battles.
15:43You're asking Anthony Gordon and Joe Linton,
15:46will you go with the fullbacks?
15:47Will you also win that battle?
15:50And Arsenal just didn't do that,
15:52which is mad because he changed both of his fullbacks.
15:55Like Durian Timber, this is his heat map and his passing contributions.
15:59You'll see still all in this really safe area,
16:02did not get on the overlap.
16:04Once Thomas Partey, obviously he's not going to be doing that.
16:07His job was to move into the centre,
16:08but the subs should have changed it.
16:11Like this is Zinchenko.
16:12He is, I know, he plays in the centre and he can do that,
16:14but he's also had a long career as a proper left back
16:17and yet nothing into that space behind the fullback.
16:21No passes in those areas, all safe.
16:24Ben White as well, I know, a centre-back by trade,
16:27but you've seen him do overlapping runs for Saka in certain situations
16:30and yet nothing into that area.
16:33All safe possession, all left to right, no cut through whatsoever.
16:38When Willock went off for Tonali,
16:39Newcastle then basically had a 4-5-1 where they could sit very narrow,
16:43they could double up on every major threat
16:45and without Erdegaard, Arsenal had no way of breaking that down.
16:49Even when they tried to be clever,
16:51Newcastle liked to do this sort of situational thing
16:53where Joe Linton goes into left back and then you end up with a 5-4,
16:57just if the situation requires it,
16:59so they kept mixing that up so they weren't predictable,
17:01so Arsenal constantly had to problem solve.
17:03And of course, on the one occasion, if we just look here,
17:07where Arsenal do successfully drag Newcastle all the way out
17:11while keeping these players on this side and create a massive hole,
17:15but Kai Osaka realises this is the chance, he can finally get in.
17:19Who's alive to it?
17:21Who would have been straight in his face
17:23making sure that was not the opportunity it otherwise should have been?
17:26Sean Longstaff!
17:27So yes, to put that in far more simple terms,
17:29Eddie Howe got this absolutely bang on from the start
17:32and when Oteta tried to change it, he got it absolutely bang off
17:37and if you do that, you lose games of football.
17:39Right, anyway, yes, few little bits of housekeeping
17:41to the literal hundreds of you, I did count,
17:45who have done that Simpsons bit of asking
17:48where is the Ruben Amorim video?
17:50When are you making the Ruben Amorim video?
17:52Why aren't you making the Ruben Amorim video now?
17:55I know I've said this a couple of times,
17:57studio access, I don't get to be in here as much as I need to be,
18:01which is incredibly frustrating when something like that happens,
18:04but we are working on it.
18:06I have cancelled all my social life for this evening.
18:09I will get it recorded, we will have it in the next couple of days, it's coming.
18:13But more important than that though, right,
18:14for those of you based in the North East who have watched this video,
18:17our own deputy editor here at 442, lifelong Newcastle United fan,
18:22Matthew Ketchell, has just completed running five kilometres
18:27every single day for Prostate Cancer UK.
18:31Trying to raise some money for what is an absolutely sensational cause.
18:35He's been posting all of his runs.
18:36It is a superhuman feat of endurance, in my opinion.
18:40I certainly could not do that
18:42and he's wrapping up his fundraising in the next couple of days.
18:44So if you do have a spare couple of quid
18:46and you think that is impressive, which it is,
18:49I'm going to put the link in the description and the comments below.
18:51We would really appreciate any donations we can help him out with.
18:55So yes, I'm going to check him a few quid this afternoon and you should too.
18:59Other than that though, just the usual crack,
19:00the anniversary issue of the magazine is in stores now.
19:03You should absolutely buy that.
19:04The 30th anniversary shirt is still absolutely sick, by the way.
19:09I think there's some left.
19:10They may all be gone actually.
19:12But if not, you should buy one.
19:14Smells like new car.
19:15You can get me on all the socials at Adam Cleary.
19:17C-L-E-R-Y.
19:18The 442 socials are in the corner of the video.
19:21And until next time, which I promise is the hammering video.
19:25I promise, I promise we're going to get that done.
19:27I've been Adam Cleary.
19:28This has been 442.
19:29And we're the lads.
19:31Bye.