Until Tuesday, the thought of what Arsenal would look like if an elite striker was transplanted into their team was a genie that had yet to escape the bottle.
It remained an abstract notion, especially after candidates for the role in Brighton’s Evan Ferguson and Sporting CP’s Viktor Gyokeres both delivered underwhelming auditions against William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes.
Maybe Mikel Arteta’s syndicate-over-superstar theory on goalscoring was right after all and there is no perfect silhouette of a centre-forward out there who could immediately elevate Arsenal without upsetting the team ethic.
Alexander Isak spent the first 20 minutes weighing up whether to disrupt that blissful ignorance.
After observing the emulsion of try-hard forwards Arsenal were painting with, he confiscated the brush and graffitied his name all over the Emirates with the rebellious might of a toddler armed with a crayon in a room of white walls.
His performance, which included a poacher’s goal and an assist that showcased his terrific all-round ability, left no other prism through which to view Arsenal’s 2-0 Carabao Cup loss to Newcastle. This was the night that any pretensions over Arsenal possessing the requisite firepower to compete on four fronts were put to bed.
Arsenal struggled against Isak on Tuesday (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Had Isak been on the opposite side, it is impossible not to think that Arsenal would have won this game. That is how fundamentally decisive he was.
The Swede’s display was so effortlessly complete, however, that he may have looked at Arsenal’s juddering attempts to aerially bombard Newcastle into submission with hopeful crosses and reckoned he was on a different trajectory.
As opposed to their recent struggles to create, Arsenal had chances, and plenty of them. They created an xG of over three. The way the openings came about was often scrappy, but Gabriel Martinelli hit the post with a one-on-one, Jurrien Timber missed a free header at the back post and Kai Havertz spurned the sort of chance that sleeps beside a striker on their pillow.
A deflection saw Trossard’s cross loop towards the German, who was in the centre of the goal, running onto the ball just six yards out. It could not have been more perfect, but he took his eye off it and mistimed his header completely, instead connecting with his shoulder and fudging the ball wide. He clung to the goal net as if searching for safety but it only underlined the contrast in Isak’s efficiency.
The narrative potential was there going into the game but Isak upstaged Havertz, Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus in more emphatic terms than could have been imagined.
“That’s what happens when you have real quality up front and they can make the difference. They’re very clinical,” said Arteta.
Clarity of thought is what separates the very best in the big moments. They are unfazed. Isak embodied that fearless attitude as he scored his 50th goal for Newcastle in all competitions since his debut in August 2022 — a total only bettered by two other Premier League players in that time, Erling Haaland Mohamed Salah.
“He’s on fire and when he’s in that form you just want to give the ball to him as much as possible,” said Anthony Gordon, whose goal came from Isak’s shot being parried into his path. “Even for my goal, I’m just gambling back post because I know he can make something out of nothing.”
Isak repeatedly dropped between Arsenal’s defence and midfield, turning and spraying the ball wide. If he was not linking up play he was confusing Saliba and Gabriel with his runs into the channel.
He also managed to make Saliba take a step back when he squared him up on more than one occasion, which is a rarity. He is the alpha in these situations but after Isak burned him for pace from a standing start early on, it put a check on the French defender’s invincibility.
Isak scored the winner against Arsenal in November and his opener on Tuesday came when the ball fortuitously fell into his path from a free-kick flick-on in the way it only seems to do with those special few strikers.
Havertz spurned a good opportunity to score for Arsenal (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
Arsenal do not have one of those killers. Arteta had few attacking options on the bench and spoke about only having seven or eight players available to train on Monday but, apart from Bukayo Saka and arguably Ben White, this was arguably Arsenal’s strongest XI.
It is unfortunate that Saka and Ethan Nwaneri, Arteta’s two options on the right wing, are both injured at the same time, but concentrated absences have also come at full-back. It is just as well Arteta has the full set of every type possible to mix and match.
Forwards? Less so. Just the six signed in five years. So, is the shortage of Isak-level strikers or adequate back-ups the result of bad luck, or the consequence of considered choices?
Arsenal failed to upgrade the front line in the summer, choosing to spend their money elsewhere. Yet, not one of Arsenal’s four summer signings played a single minute of the first leg.
Neto was cup-tied, 17-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly started at left-back instead of Riccardo Calafiori, while Mikel Merino remained on the bench despite his box-crashing ability being one of the reasons he was signed. Raheem Sterling also stayed on the bench, which is no surprise by now given it is the eleventh time he has suffered the indignity of being an unused sub since joining on loan on deadline day.
This is a team too good to not have any major trophies to show for it. The more trophies that go unclaimed, the more doubt creeps in. The bigger the psychological hurdle of getting over the line the first time, the more desperate decision-making becomes.
That is what appeared to take hold of Arsenal in the final ten minutes as Gabriel was sent forward to be a makeshift target man. By that point, the Emirates was emptying.
Arteta regularly eulogises over Anfield and St James’ Park, the ‘jungles’ and ‘washing machine’-like atmospheres he revels in. He has spoken of wanting to write the first chapters of defining nights at the Emirates, but the fever that had been building the past two years has faded this season and Tuesday saw some fans leave early.
“That’s their decision, we try our best. Stay right behind the team or leave,” said Arteta. “I repeat it a thousand times how important they are, how critical it is to maintain the level of energy or belief in the stadium to help generate those moments at the end because we were very close to scoring the 2-1.”
Not only does passage into the final require Arsenal to become the first team in over 37 years to reverse a two-goal advantage in the second leg at the semi-final stage, but they also have to score at least twice at a stadium they have lost 1-0 at in their last two visits — all while preventing Isak from adding to Newcastle’s tally.
Arsenal have already dropped to outsiders in the title race from their position as the natural heir to Manchester City. With one foot out of the title race and another now out of the Carabao Cup, Sunday’s FA Cup third-round tie at home to Manchester United suddenly becomes mood-defining.
(Top photo: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
