Arsenal’s visit to St James’ Park on Saturday afternoon is being billed as something of a must-win for the Gunners, both to ease the pressure of a less-than-stellar start to the season, as well as to gain some momentum and good feeling going into the international break. Newcastle’s home has been the site of some very crucial fixtures involving Arsenal in recent years, with 2013’s season-ending 1-0 win chief among them.
As you’ll no doubt remember, Laurent Koscielny’s game winner scored in the 52nd minute allowed the Gunners to secure 4th place in the league and keep Tottenham out of the final Champions League spot. That goal highlights Koscielny’s memories of this fixture, which he recently spoke about to Arsenal Player.
As he recalls:
It was the last game of the season. We were just in front of Tottenham and if we won against Newcastle, we would qualify for the Champions League.
I scored and we won 1-0. It was a special day because for Arsenal, playing in the Champions League is always vital and a very exciting competition to play in so we were very happy with this.
However, like Olivier Giroud earlier in the week, Laurent Koscielny quickly changed the subject from the past to the immediate present, echoing his fellow Frenchman’s firm focus on this weekend’s fixture.
We lost two points at home and we need to win so it will be a difficult game, like every time we go to Newcastle. It’s a hard game but we need to be focused on our quality, on our game, play with pressure on our opponent, score some goals and win.
The most important is to come back to London with the three points. After you have the international break so we need to finish August with a win.
While it is always difficult to predict the future and how specific games will turn out, it seems clear from the players’ comments this week that their focus is single-minded and laser sharp. Arsenal fans will be clambering for an on-field performance that matches their talk heading into the weekend.
