The Chronicle (South Tyneside and Durham)
Battered United must get back to winning ways
EVERYTHING we dreaded, everything we knew could happen in our worst nightmare came to be.
Arsenal steamrollered far-from-united resistance that was as fragile as a cracked tea pot.
They scorched Newcastle with a blowtorch and Newcastle who let in four against Luton and two against Bournemouth – both at home no less – were simply flattened by quality.
If you leak profusely against below average sides, it was merely a curiosity as to how many a top-three team could score.
The answer was another four before the Gunners eased their foot off the accelerator for which United can be grateful because it could easily have been more.
Faint hope provided by the record book – four successive away wins and the best results somehow coming against top outfits – was clobbered by the gnawing fear in the pit of the stomach.
Amid the goal deluge let no one think it was all because United had their third choice keeper between the posts. Loris Karius is only sent for in an emergency at high profile matches – his first unveiling was the Carabao Cup final and this his Premier League debut came about only because Martin Dubravka was ill.
He valiantly tried to man the burning bridge but his back four left him as exposed as an Aunt Sally.
Fabian Schar and Sven Botman, seemingly irreplaceable despite a shocking fall off from Champions League qualification form, were abysmal.
They were sloppy, lost by quick movement, and desperately one paced. Can they continue to survive merely on memory?
Eddie Howe likes to keep an unchanged back four in the interests of understanding but his goals against column must tell him it is not working.
United have leaked an astonishing 20 goals in seven PL fixtures this year, which reveals a massive deficiency. Where Howe basked in deserved plaudits and glory last season, he now faces a cold reality. Team selection regardless of injuries, successful tactical tweaks, and the lifting of demoralised morale, will decide how the rest of the season pans out. The problem is immediate. Ewood Park looms.
The lack of quality on the night was underlined by the fact that Howe replaced half the team with Miggy Almiron, Alexander Isak, Bruno Guimaraes, Tino Livramento and Botman all hooked. Saving them for the FA Cup? Not on this display.
All right, Isak needed to be pulled on his comeback because the tank was empty but the rest got what they had earned and any of the others could have accompanied them into the shadows.
Further upfield Lewis Miley desperately requires a rest after a relentless run of pressure mentally as much as physically for one so young, while Almiron is simply shot.
The trouble is the midfield is barren and scorched but has played unchanged only because there has been no one else. While Joe Willock, Harvey Barnes and Isak are big names being welcomed back into the fold they are little more than decoration at present, large on reputation but still battling to reach former heights of fitness and form. There is plenty of rust still to shake off.
Battered and bruised, Newcastle must now quickly get back to winning ways on the road come tomorrow night.
The FA Cup is make or break because should Blackburn Rovers be cleared like a Grand National fence then United are through to the quarter-finals with Wembley but a couple of short steps away.
United’s eye-watering run of four successive away victories before the Emirates included two cup-ties at Sunderland and Fulham. To complete a hat-trick would be a saving grace desperately required.
However, defeat and elimination from the Cup would see the season pricked like a balloon.
There were no birthday celebrations for Anthony Gordon and Jacob Murphy at the Emirates, nothing offered up in memory of their most successful manager Joe Harvey who passed away on this very day 35 years ago.
The only personal credit came for Willock who marked his return in an injury ruined season by scoring against his former club.
It was the Magpies first goal at Arsenal in 861 minutes since Ayoze Perez netted almost a decade ago. We love it in this particular corner of North West London.
Afterwards, Bukayo Saka presented Willock, his former Young Gunner team-mate, with his match shirt.
Certainly United’s left-back or any of the defenders for that matter never got close enough to lay a finger on it during a torturous hour and a half. Nor were any of Arsenal’s superstars troubled.
Europe seems a distant dream at this moment, which is why Newcastle simply dare not bow the knee tomorrow night in Lancashire.