Arsenal vs. Newcastle United: Winners and Losers from Premier League Game

Arsenal picked up a mostly convincing home victory on Saturday evening as they beat Newcastle United 4-1 in the Premier League.

The home team started the better of the two and took a deserved lead through Olivier Giroud, though it wasn't until the second half that they really took control, with two goals in three minutes—through Santi Cazorla and Giroud again. Cazorla added a late penalty after Ayoze Perez had pulled a goal back for Newcastle.

Here are all our winners and losers from the match at the Emirates.

Winner: Alexis Sanchez

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Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez kept up his extraordinary run of form with another virtuoso display against Newcastle.

The Arsenal man sent over a series of fantastic crosses in the first half, the first of which led to the opening goal, and was generally the biggest threat on the pitch with his direct running and vision throughout the 90 minutes.

Newcastle just couldn't cope and resorted to fouling him at every opportunity, especially Cheick Tiote.

Loser: Daryl Janmaat

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Right-back Daryl Janmaat had a terrible time of things at the Emirates. He couldn't keep close to any particular forward on account of the movement in the Arsenal front line, with Danny Welbeck in particular not content to stick out on the left flank.

He barely got forward at all in the first half and when, after half-time, he tried to do it more often, he simply got no change out of the defence. Janmaat lost the ball high up the field a number of times, allowing counter-attacks in behind him, and wasn't strong with his own defensive work, either.

Winner: Hector Bellerin

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On the opposite side of the field, Arsenal's young defender Hector Bellerin was given a chance with Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal and Calum Chambers unavailable.

Slotting in at right-back, Bellerin was fantastic going forward for most of the match, overlapping Alexis down the right and providing support in the final third, even producing some good end-product for the likes of Giroud to attack.

Defensively, he did get beaten once or twice, but, in general, he performed well and was committed to the task.

Whether he remains in the Arsenal starting XI for next week's game at Liverpool is open to question, but his performance in Saturday's win over Newcastle bodes well for the Gunners in the future.

Loser: The Newcastle Attack

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Considering Arsenal lined up with a barely-back-to-full-fitness right-back at the heart of their defence—former Magpie Mathieu Debuchy—Newcastle did absolutely nothing to test their opponents with threatening attacks.

Stoke City gave Alan Pardew the blueprint last week: plenty of movement, runners in behind the defence and lots of bodies in the box to trouble the centre-backs, especially on the second ball.

Instead, Newcastle hardly got into the attacking third in the first half, didn't trouble Wojciech Szczesny from open play and only scored off a set piece—due to Debuchy's lax marking.

Winner: Olivier Giroud

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French striker Olivier Giroud has missed a large part of the season through injury, but he has returned to action in great form. He continued that with two extremely well-taken goals against Newcastle.

Giroud scored a powerful header and a confident flick, but what both of them had in common was terrific movement and anticipation from the striker. Giroud was involved in build-up play but was not content to just watch from deep, instead attacking with conviction and composure.

He was far too much for Mike Williamson to handle and deserved his brace before being subbed.

Giroud was quoted by SkySports.com as saying:

"

It was a really disappointing result [at Stoke], so we really wanted to bounce back as soon as possible and we did well tonight. It was great to show a strong mental reaction and I’m pleased to score.

The first one is a fantastic cross from Alexis and I’m arriving in the right tempo.

Maybe I remembered the one I missed at Stoke so I wanted to come back and it’s nice for me and the team.

The second one I used to do it a lot when I can in training so it was a fantastic cross from Hector [Bellerin].

"

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