Martin Odegaard continued his fine goalscoring form as he netted for the third time this week to help us to a vital win at Newcastle United.
The Norwegian fired home from 25 yards to give us the lead on 14 minutes, and in the second half some good play from Gabriel Martinelli forced Fabian Schar into an own goal to give us breathing room.
Both teams would rattle the woodwork during an end-to-end contest, which ended with us claiming three points from one of the division’s toughest places to get a result this season, and move back within touching distance of Manchester City at the top of the division.
Captain Fantastic strikes again
Only Manchester City and Liverpool had tasted league success at St James’ Park since Eddie Howe’s appointment as manager back in November 2021, with that in mind an expectant home crowd created a cacophony of noise.
That helped the fired-up hosts come flying out of the traps, and former Gunner Joe Willock broke down the left and picked out Jacob Murphy in the box, who saw a curled effort thud against the base of the post after just 70 seconds.
Then after seven minutes, it looked like the Magpies would have a golden chance to take the lead from the penalty spot when Chris Kavanagh adjudged a Bruno Guimaraes shot to have hit Jakub Kiwior’s arm, however VAR intervened and overturned the decision when replays showed it actually struck the Polish defender’s knee.
The lengthy break in play to sort that out helped us settle, and we used that to our advantage by getting in front on 14 minutes. There seemed little chance of Odegaard finding the net when Jorginho found him 25 yards from goal, but given time and space he threaded a low shot through the crowd of defenders and into the bottom corner to net his 15th of the season.
Opportunities galore
Big chances kept coming our way and Nick Pope made two decent saves in quick succession when Gabriel Martinelli broke through the Magpies' backline and forced the keeper to save with his feet, and when the ball came back to out Odegaard Pope was soon diving to his right push his attempt away for a corner.
By now we had managed to quieten down the crowd and calm the frenetic nature of the game down, and Bukayo Saka was next to fire a shot at his England teammate that was beaten away, but despite getting on top our lead was still a thin one and we needed Aaron Ramsdale to be alert to save a first-time Willock effort with his legs.
The same fate would befall us in the final seconds of the half when Saka, Martinelli and Odegaard all linked up inside the Magpies box and it seemed destined that our in-form skipper would score again, but his effort was blocked by Pope.
Lead doubled
The second half began in breathless fashion once again, with a flurry of huge chances for both sides. Just as they did at the start of the first 45, Howe’s team rattled the goalframe when a Murphy cross was diverted onto the post by Alexander Isak, and then Ramsdale’s reactions allowed him to shovel away a Schar header within four minutes of the restart.
But we went straight down the other end and Martinelli almost produced a magical moment when he cut inside onto his right foot in the box and chipped for the top corner, but the crossbar denied him celebrating a great strike.
But on 70 minutes the Brazilian did have an impact that led to us doubling our advantage. After Kieran Tierney made a great interception on the edge of our box and found Gabriel Jesus, he played it to Martinelli just over the halfway line. The attacker dribbled 45 yards before cutting the ball back, and saw it cannon off Schar and into the net for an own goal.
With the lead safely in our possession, we managed the final stages of the game expertly and limited our opponents to half-chances, the best of which came in stoppage-time when Allan Saint-Maximin flashed a shot towards the bottom corner but a full-stretch Ramsdale managed to tip wide.
But a welcome clean sheet - our first in seven games - would be recorded, as well as the three points that keep us right in the title hunt with just three games to play.
Facts and stats
We have 81 points from 35 Premier League games this season (W25 D6 L4); only in our unbeaten 2003/04 campaign have we ever hit 80+ points at an earlier stage in a league campaign in our history (33rd game).
We became only the third different side to beat Eddie Howe's Newcastle in the Premier League at St. James' Park in his 31 home league matches in charge (W18 D9 L4), along with Liverpool (twice) and Man City.
Newcastle haven’t kept a clean sheet in any of their last seven Premier League matches, conceding 10 goals in this run, as many as they had shipped in their previous 18 league games beforehand.
Newcastle have lost 18 of their last 21 Premier League meetings with us (W2 D1), with those 18 wins the most we have enjoyed against a single opponent in the league since the start of 2011/12.
In Martinelli and Odegaard (both 15 goals), we have had two players score 15+ goals in a single Premier League season for the very first time.
Ramsdale became only the third different goalkeeper to record 10 away clean sheets in a single Premier League season, after Petr Cech (11 in 2004/05 & 10 in 2008/09) and Ederson (11 in 2018/19 & 10 in 2021/22).
What's next
We host Brighton & Hove Albion in a week's time at Emirates Stadium in our penultimate home game of the campaign, before we travel to struggling Nottingham Forest on Saturday, May 20.
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