This week Arsenal is up against Newcastle United at St.James Park who have not yet seen a win. Gunners who seem to get their mojo back, must win this match to silence a few outspoken critics. The good news for Gooners is that Torreira and Iwobi who were both injured last week, (the former was allegedly injured in an International against Mexico while the latter was ill and initially missed out on his International duty) are back in training and are all set to make the lineup against Newcastle.

An interesting question to ask would be, how to crack open the shell defense of Newcastle United. Let’s begin by analyzing what are we up against.

Frankly, Newcastle United’s defense hasn’t been decent (even by its own standards); there has been fallout with the captain Lascelles and the manager Benitez which led to centre back being benched for the entire match. Though he was back for the Manchester City clash the next week, there was a clear lack of coordination between the captain and the manager.

Work hard, play hard 😄

🔝 team spirit pic.twitter.com/GhPLmcVJR7

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) September 13, 2018

Newcastle United’s defense hasn’t seen any major changes this season. They switched between 4-4-1-1 and 5-4-1 in the matches plaited till now. Yedlin, Lascelles, Clark, Dummett were the go to men for Benitez and Newcastle in the uncommon 4-4-1-1 formation against Tottenham’s 4-3-2-1 triangle formation. Cardiff City too faced a similar defense with Yedlin being benched for Manquillo. Keep in mind that the low ranked Cardiff City had a 4-3-3 lineup in the goalless draw.

The aggressive Chelsea 4-3-3 were met with wingbacks for the first time (surprising the Italian boss Maurizio) but it happened to be a major blunder; Yeldin ended up scoring an own goal. The Carbao Cup against the lower division Nottingham Forest was an experimentation with new defenders by benching the staple defenders; Newcastle was trampled by three goals against their one lone goal.

Things looked bleak when Newcastle were about to lock horns with City. This was the second time that the Magpies brought in their wingbacks and it worked to an extent by restricting the juggernaut team to just 2 goals. Though they lost the match, this 5 player defense with Fernandes, Clark, Lascelles, Dummett, Schar has proven to be the most effective against the 4-1-3-2 balanced side.

Arsenal hasn’t changed its formation of 4-2-3-1 in any of the matches. With the near certain probability of the agile Lacazette playing striker and Aubameyang playing midfield, this duo’s chemistry has been great lately and is a force to be feared. Newcastle, out of fear would bring in their 5 man defense to neutralise this quick blitzkrieg.

The Magpies would be having a tough time getting the ball in their feet if Arsenal’s midfield cooperates. Rumors are that Lacazette and Aubameyang wouldn’t start together and things would look north for Newcastle if that’s the case. Emery wouldn’t have to devise a great strategy persay.

Speed and passing in the forward are Arsenal’s strengths for now to compensate for the fragile defense and if we just get the right players in the right position we could crack open Newcastle like a hard boiled egg. Out of all the defenders I personally feel only Lascelles can pinch our attack provided he gels with his teammates.

🔺 @MesutOzil1088
🔺 @_nachomonreal
🔺 @Aubameyang7
🔺 @LacazetteAlex

Unai Emery discusses all this and more 👇

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) September 13, 2018

So to finish it off, my prediction is that Emery would have to start (looks unlikely,but fingers crossed) or atleast bring in both Aubameyang and Lacazette for some time to give Newcastle United a run for their money. Gunners 4-1-3-2 would mostly be facing the eccentric 5-4-1 formation.