Baby steps but perhaps, in one sense, a significant stride. Arsenal’s return to the top half is hardly a cause for unbridled joy but the manner in which they sailed home dangled the promise of better times. Their struggles over the autumn went hand in hand with a damaging drought on the part of their captain, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but that seemed a distant memory by the time he had scored his second goal of a win with such ultimate ease it felt like something of a novelty.
It was the first that really blew away the cobwebs. Aubameyang had seen the ball in more threatening areas during the first half than in some entire games this season, even if end product was lacking and he had shot glaringly against the post from Arsenal’s best chance. Newcastle had kept them at bay but were broken five minutes after the interval when, characteristically, a rare attempt to sustain some pressure of their own broke down and
Arsenal took their invitation to cut loose.