Beat the Magpies and We’re One Step Away

Ah, good old St. James’ Park. A stadium that’s given us many memories over the years, both traumatising ones and fond ones.

The most wounding encounter against the Geordies has to be the famous 4-4 draw back in 2011 which saw us squander a 4-0 lead at half-time to eventually draw 4-4 thanks to an 87^th minute Cheick Tiote (RIP) wonder-strike. Us Arsenal fans still haven’t managed to shake that second 45 minutes from our psyche, not even a decade plus later.

On the other hand, one of our most pleasurable memories from up-North came on the final day of the 2012/13 season, where we beat the Magpies 1-0 to secure a place in the top four for another season and finish above our bitter rivals Spurs to mark a thoroughly enjoyable St. Totteringham’s day.

We find ourselves in a strangely similar position 9 years later, almost to the day. We travel to Newcastle this evening needing to win to move back above the Spuds into fourth place, who did their job yesterday afternoon by scraping past Burnley in their penultimate game of the season.

If we win tonight, we’ll be one point above them, with just a single home game against Everton left on Sunday to go. We win that one too, and we return to the promise-land of Champions League football for the first time in over half a decade. There’s no two ways about this, this one is huge. It’s a must win game, and one of, if not the most important Premier League game that the club has been involved in in several years.

In a league with realistically the two best teams in the world in City and Liverpool, the European Champions Chelsea, a United side that signed Ronaldo, Sancho & Varane in the summer, a Spurs side with Kane and Son in their prime and so on… if you offered me to be in the position that we’re in now before the season started – win your final two games of the season against Newcastle and Everton to finish in the top four, then I’d have bitten your hand off.

We’re so close to a return to UCL football we can almost smell it. I just hope that the boys can get the job done tonight and not waste this golden opportunity that we have to return to playing European football on Tuesday and Wednesday nights next season. Let’s get all three points tonight and then we can shift our focus to Everton. We’re two wins away. It’s in our hands. COYG!