Arsenal 4-0 Newcastle: Mikel Arteta's side record biggest Premier League win of the season

The Gunners overcame a lifeless first half to turn it into a rout as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Nicolas Pepe, Mesut Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette all found the net, ending the Gunners' run of four successive Premier League draws.

It was their second win of 2020 and Arteta will be confident his side are now on an upward trend as he tries and implements his ideas.

It turned into an almost perfect afternoon for Pepe, who bagged two assists, produced the sort of contribution that justifies his £72million price tag in the summer, while Ozil scored his first goal since last April and Lacazette ended a nine-game drought.

Newcastle, who set up with five at the back, probably needed to score first, but they had chances to get back into the game, notably through Allan Saint-Maximin's shot which hit a post.

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Reaction

• Quotes via Sky Sports

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang: "We feel better now. We have a better idea of playing that's very clear. We try to maintain this level and we're happy to keep going like this." 

Bukayo Saka: "I thought we just tried to bring energy to the game. In the first-half it was all a bit slow, and they were defending really deep. They were really compact and we struggled to get through. In the second half, they couldn't match our energy."

Graeme Souness: "They've not been losing games, so they've been avoiding the criticism that big clubs get. But they have to start winning. They got a couple of goals early in the second half and then went up a gear. Both Saka and Aubameyang said there that they brought more energy in the second period.The first half an hour of the first half belonged to Newcastle, but then Arsenal started to threaten. That continued in the second half but that would've been after Arteta had got at them. They had seemed a little bit passive. Once they got the first two goals, it became a procession."

Opta stats

• Only versus Leicester (12) and Stoke (10) are Arsenal on longer current home winning runs in the Premier League than they are against Newcastle, with the Gunners winning each of their last eight against the Magpies.
• Newcastle have now lost 78 Premier League games as an away side in London, the most defeats of all sides in the competition’s history in the capital.
• Arsenal have kept back-to-back Premier League clean sheets for the first time since April last year, the second of which also came in a victory over Newcastle at the Emirates.
• Arsenal striker Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang has scored the opening goal of the game on six different occasions in the Premier League this season, the joint-most in the competition alongside Tammy Abraham, Danny Ings, Marcus Rashford and Jamie Vardy.
• Only 156 seconds separated Arsenal’s first two goals against Newcastle, with Nicolas Pépé having a hand in both (one goal, one assist) – one more goal involvement than he managed in his previous seven top-flight appearances (one goal, zero assists).
• Bukayo Saka has assisted eight goals in all competitions this season for Arsenal – more than any teammate in 2019-20. Indeed, he has more assists than any other Premier League teenager this season.
• Newcastle boss Steve Bruce has lost more matches in all competitions against Arsenal than he has versus any other side during his managerial career (21).
• 26 of Arsenal striker Alexandre Lacazette’s 33 Premier League goals have been scored in home games, including each of his last nine. Of all Arsenal players to have scored at least 15 goals in the competition, Lacazette has scored the highest ratio in home games (79%).
• Arsenal midfielder Mesut Özil has scored four Premier League goals against Newcastle in just six appearances – more league goals than against any other side during his career within Europe’s Top 5 leagues.
• There were 35 passes in the build up to Mesut Ozil's goal for Arsenal, with every single player touching the ball for the Gunners - the most number of passes for any goal in the Premier League this season.

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