Arsenal face test of emotional maturity as Newcastle plot more pain

It has become a hallmark of this Arsenal team under Mikel Arteta that they use painful experiences as fuel for the future.

Nowhere has that been more apparent than St. James’ Park, with Newcastle’s home the setting for some of Arsenal’s toughest days under Arteta.

Defeat there at the end of the 2021-22 season cost the Gunners a spot in the Champions League, while last year a 1-0 loss sparked a huge fallout that rumbled on for weeks.

Arteta was incensed after that game and the fact that Anthony Gordon’s winning goal was given after surviving three separate VAR checks.

The Arsenal manager labelled the decision a “disgrace” and “embarrassing”, while Arsenal released a club statement backing their manager’s reaction to "unacceptable refereeing and VAR errors" during the match. Arteta’s outburst prompted the Football Association to charge him, but the Gunners boss was later cleared of any wrongdoing by an independent panel.

A return to Newcastle this weekend brings back memories of that stormy defeat, albeit Arteta has tried his best to forget them.

When doing his analysis of the loss, the Spaniard admitted on Friday he could not watch the Gordon goal, such was the emotion it stirred up in him.

One suspects his players feel the same and on Saturday they will have the chance to get some revenge for a painful loss last year.

“The players have a memory of all the games that they play and when there are certain situations in specific moments as an individual or a collective at certain grounds, you tend to recall those moments,” said Arteta.

Mikel Arteta on his players' mindset ahead of Newcastle return

“Whether it is scoring a goal or being sent off, winning a game… you get to that stadium and that feels familiar. You relate that particular moment or that smell or that visual with something that happened to you or the team. That’s inevitable.”

The rivalry between Arsenal and Newcastle has grown over the years. Another flashpoint came in January of last year, when Newcastle claimed a 0-0 draw at Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal were frustrated by Newcastle slowing the game down and the ball was in play for just 51 minutes, 23 seconds that day.

Arteta lost his cool in the final stages, ranting at fourth official Jarred Gillett after only five minutes were added, while he went head to head with Eddie Howe after a late penalty shout was turned down.

Arteta has mellowed since then and it is telling that this season he is one of only five Premier League managers not to be booked. Likewise, his post-match comments have become more muted and a far cry from the storm he whipped up after last season’s 1-0 defeat.

Arsenal, as a team, also appear to have matured emotionally. Perhaps that is age or the learned experiences from two successive title races.

Either way a trip to Newcastle, and a reminder of the painful memories it holds, will truly test how far Arsenal and Arteta have come when it comes to controlling their emotions.

“Normally our emotional state is very, very good,” said Arteta. “It is very demanding because in this league you have to be like that.

“It doesn’t matter if you play home or away, certainly it changes the energy in which the crowd provides but you have to be so good at that and the team has evolved a lot at that.

“You need to compete, when you get to these grounds you know the intensity, you know the level of duels that you are going to be approaching. That is something that we have improved a lot but as I said, doing it in the right way, in the right manner to be very efficient.”