Premier League Game of the Week: Arsenal and Newcastle wind each other up
When we think of the archetypal Brazilian attacker, we think of Pele: fast, creative and impish. When we do the same for the United States, we think of Clint Dempsey: hard-nosed, industrious and perseverant. England, though? England's attack isn't categorized so neatly. It's featured everyone from Bobby Charlton to Alan Shearer, from the lightning quick runs of David Beckham to the brick wall of Emile Heskey. When we think of English attackers, we see a film reel, not a photograph.
With that in mind, this weekend's Premier League headliner between Arsenal and Newcastle raises an interesting question: could any two English attackers be more different than Anthony Gordon and Bukayo Saka?
On paper, the two men appear similar. They're both 22. They're both young leaders of historic English teams. They're both wingers prized for their indefatigable creativity. But once they take the field these two men veer wildly from their shared statistics. Saka, nurtured by Mikel Arteta, looks mature and serene, spraying crosses in from the right flank like he's been doing it since the day he was born. Gordon, nurtured by Eddie Howe, looks ferocious, ranging down the left with the deep-set hunger of a lone wolf. Saka is the painter; Gordon is the punk ripping the painting to shreds.
When these two teams last met in the league, it was Gordon who came out on top, firing home a clever shot in the second half to seal a 1-0 victory. And it was Gordon's style — aggressive, self-serving and utterly intoxicating as long as your team isn't on the other side of it — that defined Newcastle that day. It's exactly the kind of style that Arsenal hates.
As Arsenal gears up to host Newcastle in the return fixture this weekend, it's Saka who holds the key to flipping the script. Arsenal may hate players like Gordon, but Newcastle hates players like Saka too--players who are artsy and aloof enough to render Newcastle's antics irrelevant.
Arsenal and Newcastle, Saka and Gordon. They share the same heritage but their styles could not be more different. Who will prevail in this meeting, and where are the best bets hiding?
Moneyline. Arsenal is on a hot streak in the league; it won its last two games by a combined score of 11-0. But it's coming off of a miserable, depressing Champions League loss in Portugal that could cause it to second-guess itself. While we think Arsenal will pull through and win this one, fans of Newcastle's fiesty style should know that a Newcastle win is set at a frankly ridiculous +700. Not bad, considering Newcastle already has Arsenal's number.
Corners. When these two teams met in November, Arsenal racked up 11 corners to Newcastle's zero, and the Magpies made it clear that their preferred style of attack was quick and direct. With that in mind, betting on fewer than 10 corners is interesting at +137.
Goals. We can't spend the whole intro talking about Saka and Gordon without mentioning their goalscoring chances. Saka is the safer bet of the two; he's at +162 to score at any time in this one. Gordon is a bit more distant at +375, and honestly, that only makes us like him more: as discussed, he's exactly the kind of player that drives Arsenal defenses crazy.
More must-reads: