Arsenal returned to the top of the Premier League with a comprehensive 1-0 win over Newcastle United on Saturday.
However, this victory may come at a cost, because two other Gunners players are now reported to be suffering from injuries.
LATEST EZE + HAVERTZ INJURIES
God bless (£7.2 million) and Kai Havertz (£7.3m) is the player in question.
The two had previously combined for the only goal of the game, with Eze finishing superbly from a well-taken corner.
But Havertz came off in the 34th minute, and Eze followed him early in the second half.
At least the initial prognosis wasn’t too bad.
“There are muscular players. We don’t think it’s too many. We have to wait and see if they will be available for Wednesday. – Mikel Arteta on Eberechi Eze and Kai Havertz
Martin Zubimendi (£5.0m) was sent off late in the match due to illness.
Meanwhile, Riccardo Calafiori (£5.6m) failed to feature in the matchday squad, although Arteta said on Friday he would “probably” return.
SAY IT BACK
Someone who featured in the squad, and even off the bench as a substitute, was him Bukayo Saka (£9.8 million).
He also looked bright, seeing a deflected shot bounce wide and head up Martin Odegaard (£7.8 million) for the effort saved.
“Great. I think he also had a really good impact in his minutes. He came back, I think he looked sharp, he looked good, he looked fresh. You certainly saw something different in the team, in the stadium, too, when he came in. So, we definitely needed that.” – Mikel Arteta on Bukayo Saka’s return
After another subpar performance from You’re Maduk (£6.8m), Saka should have no problem regaining the right-wing slot; it’s probably more just a matter of minute management at this point.
“Let’s see how he reacts tomorrow, how he takes the load. But he’s very excited, he’s very motivated, this is the most beautiful part of the season, and he’s with us.” – Mikel Arteta on whether Bukayo Saka needs to be gradually reintegrated
WILL BE SHORT ON SET PIECES!
Saka’s return is necessary because, apart from Eze, there isn’t much attacking inspiration in Arsenal’s current squad. It was another sub-1.0 xG game for the Gunners, who managed just three shots in the first half.
Meanwhile, none of the other wingers are consistent enough Viktor Gyokeres (£8.8m) received another surprise when he came on to replace Havertz. Declan Rice (£7.2m) looks like he’s running out of steam, which is understandable after the season he’s had. Rice also sometimes seemed to drop deeper than Zubimendi, although he then missed good shooting opportunities.
Of course, there are always dead balls. Arsenal’s winner was their 22nd goal of the 2025/26 season:
Above: Most set-piece goals in the 2025/26 season
We saw Arsenal miss their first three corners early in this match. Eze’s goal did come from a short corner; more low balls into the box.
Gabriel Magalhaes (£7.1m) owners won’t be too thrilled to see this; we need crosses for those set piece attacks!
However, Arsenal did not completely abandon the old approach. It’s about adding variety to set-piece situations and trying to catch the opponent, who will of course be wiser in those set-piece games. Later in the match, we saw the tried and tested whip delivery, with Rice (who only had one corner to take from his side) finding Gabriel. Gabriel Martinelli (£6.8m) almost scored from a knock-down.
“We have to adapt to everything we do in the game. When teams adapt to certain things, when teams are so physical that they can defend naturally, you have to look for other ways.
“The thing I liked most was the bravery of the players. We played short, and you could see the crowd’s reaction. In the second, we did it again, and Ebs shot with his left foot and let it go. In the third, we went ahead and we scored.
“To get this, I would like to say another word, courage, great courage. In this moment, when the pressure is on, when the reaction is like this, that is what I want for the team. The players have to take decisions and believe that this is the best.” – Mikel Arteta
“MUCH BETTER”
Newcastle couldn’t stop the slide in terms of defeats but this was a better performance than they have put in in recent weeks.
Will Osula (£5.4m), leading the line for the third game in a row, could have scored seconds into the match when an aerial kick opportunity presented itself. Bruno Guimaraes (£6.8m) shot narrowly, Sandro Tonali (£5.3m) almost got caught David Raya (£6.0 million), Dan Burns (£5.0m) headed a fine chance straight at the Arsenal keeper and, with the biggest chance, the substitute Yoane warned (£7.3m) volleyed home from close range Nick Woltemadecute chip (£6.7m).
Their defense was also better, with Arsenal not creating many chances from open play – although that was an ongoing problem for them.
“Yeah, I think that’s a lot better than us as a group of guys.
“I think we were able to deal with the physical challenge from Arsenal. I thought we were much better in possession. Much better defensive performance. We looked more like ourselves in that respect. We defended our goal much better today. In the last few weeks this has been a clear weakness. Of course, we conceded a goal and lost the game, which in the end is the most important thing, but I think the positive signs are that hopefully we can rediscover the best defensive mentality that we need.
“And the other side is that I think it was a better performance with the ball, too, with Bruno back. We were more controlled in the build-up. I think we were brave with the ball and we also created chances to score. So, performance-wise, I’m much more satisfied with that.” – Eddie Howe
Hopes to face the Magpies?
HOW ON THE HALL BENCH, BRUNO FITNESS + WOLTEMADE/WISSA
Howe’s game continued, as he made five changes. One look Nick Pope (£5.0m) back between the sticks.
Both are suitable to be full-backs, Kieran Trippier (£4.9 million) and Lewis Hall (£5.4m), only as a substitute. Lewis Miley (£4.4 million) and Burn took on that role.
“Well, it’s always a difficult decision because Lewis is an extraordinary player and there was never any doubt about his quality and what he can bring to the team. But today I felt for a number of reasons that Dan was the right choice in terms of height and physicality and dealing with Arsenal’s threat. Dan has never let us down in that position.” – Eddie Howe on the bench for Lewis Hall
After some heated comments about Woltemade and Wissa on Friday, Howe dropped the two expensive strikers back on the bench. But both players came on, almost combining to equalize, and Woltemade in particular impressed. A way back to this expensive pariah side?
“I thought Nick did really well today. I thought Yoane and Nick both did well when they came on. All our subs did well.
“If he plays like he did today, um, he’ll get more minutes and a chance to impress.” – Eddie Howe on Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa
Bruno came off in the final quarter of an hour but appeared to be fine.
“I think he’s fine. I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to him directly um he’s walking a little bit cautiously but I think that’s to be expected because he’s missed football a lot and today was a big effort from him but I think he was outstanding.” – Eddie Howe on Bruno Guimaraes
PakarPBN
A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.
In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.
The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.
