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LONDON — Given fresh legs, this might well have been Arsenal’s day. Battered and bruised by Newcastle’s robust and resolute rearguard, the league leaders saw their momentum slowed in a 0-0 draw though there will be indigence aplenty for Mikel Arteta to harness.
He would rather have the three points, though in truth they never quite looked within reach. When Arsenal could have tested Newcastle’s tiring minds they found that their legs would not carry them beyond. When Arteta looked at the bench there was nothing to turn the tide. This is not merely because of the Mykhaylo Mudryk-shaped hole in the squad; in the rush to garland Arsenal’s front four with praise for their response to Gabriel Jesus’ injury it has perhaps gone unacknowledged how short they are on options in the final third.
It is not just Jesus, indeed one might contend that an impressive display of link play from Eddie Nketiah meant he was not the player who was most missed. Emile Smith Rowe, who is close to finally overcoming the groin issues that have dogged him for two years, and even Reiss Nelson might have turned the tide here as Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka depleted their energy levels. This Arsenal season has been full of unexpected moments, few have been quite as shocking as that when Saka’s touch took him out of play when he seemed to have burned his full-back yet again.
These two young forwards in particular have carried an extraordinary burden this season. For the first time tonight, it showed. There is a price at which Arsenal will go no further in their pursuit of Mudryk but if putting together an offer that Shakhtar Donetsk cannot refuse means easing the burden on Saka and Martinelli, it should be a high one.
Without Mudryk there was no attacker Arteta trusted to turn the tide. Fabio Vieira, the 22-year-old summer signing from Porto who has waxed and waned so far in England, was not entrusted with…
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