Gabriel shakes off hoodoo to stress Gunners' title credentials

During a year as a Newcastle midfielder under Rafael Benítez, Mikel Merino struggled to settle in the northeast.

- Louise Taylor

He departed for Real Sociedad without offering Tynesiders more than a few glimpses of his best work but, when Merino trotted on as a 70th-minute Arsenal substitute here, Eddie Howe had reason to be fearful.

At that stage Newcastle were leading thanks to Nick Woltemade's second goal for the club but their manager did not need telling that Mikel Arteta's reincarnation of Merino as an emergency forward last season proved one of the triumphs of his north London tenure.

Sure enough, the newcomer soon jogged a few memories. Seven years after leaving Newcastle, his headed equaliser not only showed Arsenal's expensive new striker Viktor Gyökeres precisely how to make a penalty area impact but reminded locals of what might have been.

Moreover Merino's goal created the springboard for the 96th-minute winner from Gabriel Magalhães that, in ending Arsenals's run of three straight defeats at St James' Park, went an awful long way to restoring Arteta's hitherto rapidly deteriorating humour.

Not to mention suggesting that maybe, just maybe, Arsenal are made of the stuff of potential champions after all. An earlier version of Arteta's team might have surrendered in the face of Newcastle's ferocious press but, this time, they finally refused to be defeated.