Sunday, May 2, 2021 at 4:58 PM• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 17:10

Arsenal finished a great dress on Sunday afternoon in the run-up to the return in the semi-final of the Europa League against Villarreal. Manager Mikel Arteta’s team was 0-2 too strong on a visit to Newcastle United by hits from Mohamed Elneny and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Arsenal rises to ninth place with the victory and still has a small chance of participating in the group stage of the Europa League. The gap to number six Liverpool, which will face Manchester United later in the day, is five points with four rounds of play.

Arteta started with Aubameyang in the starting line-up, after the striker came in five minutes before time in the first leg against Villarreal (2-1 loss) last Thursday. The striker thus returned to kick-off after being hit by malaria. Goalkeeper Bernd Leno got a break and was replaced between the posts by Mathew Ryan. The visitors shot off the starting blocks and took the lead after six minutes of play, when Héctor Bellerín broke through on the right side of the field. The cross from the right wing defender was initially missed by Aubameyang, after which Elneny was accurate from the rebound: 0-1.

After fifteen minutes of play, Aubameyang was given the opportunity to correct his miss on a pass from Gabriel Martinelli, but saw his shot go just wide at the first post. Newcastle then recovered somewhat and also became dangerous via Allan Saint-Maximin. The forward created space for himself to shoot and watched Ryan narrowly tap the diverted shot over the crossbar after Granit Xhaka’s intervention. The same Xhaka was close to a bigger lead for Arsenal after half an hour of play with a shot from distance, but had to watch Martin Dúbravka with a clever reflex keep the leather out of the top right corner.

After the break, both teams took it down significantly. Newcastle tried to force an equalizer, but had no answer to the well-organized game of Arsenal, which closed the game after more than an hour of play. Martinelli passed the ball to Aubameyang from the left, after which the latter flew towards the ball and finished close with a flying volley: 0-2. Arsenal then dominated and was no longer in danger. Newcastle ended the game with ten men, after Fabian Schär from behind went on far too firmly on Martinelli’s foot. Mike Dean showed no compassion and sent the defender off the field.