Why Anthony Gordon and Alexander Isak are kryptonite to ‘Big Six’

Anthony Gordon and Alexander Isak are the deadly duo in black and white; the kryptonite forwards to any team with title aspirations.

If you want to find out if you are equipped to win the Premier League, if your players have the stomach for a title fight and the ability to perform in front of one of English football’s most intimidating crowds – a trip to Newcastle United will tell you what you need to know.

This was Arsenal’s third defeat at St James’ Park in their last four visits. Since Eddie Howe became Newcastle manager, Mikel Arteta has struggled badly on these visits to Tyneside.

It has become a very unhappy hunting ground, a long, difficult trip from north London to the North East with little in the way of reward.

It will not offer much in the way of comfort given the damage it has done to Arteta’s title hopes, but since the start of last season, across league and cups, Aston Villa, Manchester City, Chelsea (twice), Tottenham Hotspur (twice) and Manchester United have also lost at St James’ Park.

Even champions City could only manage a draw here in September and needed an injury-time winner the season before to take all three points. Liverpool are the only team who have survived their visits unscathed.

“They are good at what they do, we got dragged into a game they are looking for,” said Arteta, several times, through pursed lips, after this latest defeat. He was not willing to elaborate on what he meant by that – it drew a raised eyebrow and a wry smile from Howe when he was told – but he made a decent point nonetheless.

Newcastle are getting back to being very good indeed at what they do and Gordon and Isak are integral to that.

No players inflict more damage against the best teams than Gordon and Isak, especially at home. They are a torturous double act to face: quick, direct and clinical. Dropping deep or running in behind, even a defence as good as Arsenal’s struggles to cope.

When you have two players like this, possession stats do not matter, expected goal ratings are irrelevant. They will hurt you regardless of how often they touch the ball, how many passes are made or how often they get into the opposition box. Their best trick is to give opposition teams the illusion they are in control.

This is the only stat that matters: Since the start of last season, against the so-called ‘Big Six’ – the clubs who start every season with the best chance of winning the title or qualifying for the Champions League – nobody has scored more goals at home against them than Gordon, with seven. In second place is Isak, with six.

It is not just Godon’s goals that punish you, his four assists also top the chart, with former Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher the only one on three. In total, Gordon and Isak have been involved in 17 goals in the 16 games they have played between them. It is devastatingly good.

As was the goal they scored here. Alan Shearer, the former Newcastle captain, described it as a goal from the 1990s and it is hard to disagree. Back in Shearer’s prime, when wingers stayed out wide and whipped balls into the middle for a centre-forward to attack, goals of this type were scored all the time. They were very much in vogue, but have become rarer in a modern game crammed with inverted full-backs.

Newcastle’s goal against Arsenal was one from the vault; a throwback. Gordon has tended to play on the left, so he can cut inside and shoot, but started on the right on Saturday and gave Arsenal’s Jurrien Timber a torrid afternoon.

His cross for the goal was sublime, a David Beckham-esque whipped ball into the middle, on the run, with the Arsenal defence facing their own goal. Waiting for it was Isak, a centre-forward not renowned for his aerial prowess, but who met the cross with a powerful header, which had both the force and direction to ensure it flew past David Raya before he could even get a hand in the air to try and save it. Isak ran straight to Gordon to celebrate together.

The deadly duo had struck again and Newcastle had yet another scalp to their name.