Arsenal huffed and puffed and blew the Newcastle United house down once to come away with all three points in an English Premier League game that turned into an attack vs training exercise the moment Alksandar Mitrovic shown a straight red card in the 16th minute.
Arsenal had started the game on the front foot, with Theo Walcott, preferred to Olivier Giroud up front – which was a little puzzling, considering the Frenchman's outstanding record against Newcastle – missing a nice chance, when he failed to lift the ball over Tim Krul, while Arsenal should have been given a penalty as well after Florian Thauvin tread on Oxlade-Chamberlain inside the box.
The away team's dominance only increased when Mitrovic saw red from referee Andre Marriner for an over the top challenge on Francis Coquelin, with Newcastle paying for perhaps being a little too aggressive.
It is a tactic that a lot of teams use against Arsenal – go and make those tackles and get their foot in, but on Saturday at St. James' Park, Newcastle were a little guilty of crossing that line a little too many times, with Andre Marriner showing a further six yellow cards to the home team's players.
Arsenal, though, struggled to break Newcastle down after they had than man advantage, with Walcott again presented with the best chance before the first half, as he shinned one over after Alexis Sanchez forced a save off Krul.
It looked like it might be another frustrating Arsenal afternoon, one where they had so much possession, with very little end product, but that changed on 52 minutes when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain struck, via some help from Fabricio Coloccini.
Cazorla took a strike first just inside the penalty box, which was blocked, with the ball falling to Aaron Ramsey, playing in the No.10 role in the absence of the injured Mesut Ozil. The Welshman took a fierce shot from just outside the box and Krul made another save, but the fall fell to Oxlade-Chamberlain, who saw his dragged shot deflected in off the boot of Coloccini, who otherwise, was stellar at the back for Newcastle.
With just ten men, the Magpies rarely got an attack going, with Petr Cech a spectator for the most part, and while Arsenal came away with a win, Wenger will be worried after watching another insipid attacking performance from his team.
