Arsenal have for a long time longed to ease the pressure of being in the top four position but Monday offered them a jubilant moment after they managed to skip their north London neighbours.
“Are you watching, Tottenham?”
Until Wednesday night, at least, the bragging rights are back with Arsenal for the first time since December 2017 and with Champions League football ultimately at stake and Unai Emery’s side playing some of their best football of the season, momentum is very much on the Gunners’ side.
An early opener from Aaron Ramsey and a sublime chip at the end from Alexandre Lacazette were more than enough to see off a Newcastle side who had simply come to defend.
However, but for some strange refereeing calls from Anthony Taylor it could have been more, with Arsenal twice more getting the ball into the back of the net only for their efforts to be ruled off by marginal fouls to say the least.
It was the 10th win out of 10 in the Premier League at the Emirates, but with just two more home fixtures remaining this season, it was poignant perhaps that Juventus-bound Ramsey wore the captain’s armband in the absence of injured pair Laurent Koscielny and Granit Xhaka.
13 minutes into the game, he thought was leading by example when he side-footed in Sead Kolasinac’s near-post flick from a corner.
As it was, the tiniest of tugs on the shirt from Sokratis Papastathopoulos in the middle, though, had been enough to floor Florian Lejeune miles away from the ball but that was deemed enough by Taylor to disallow the goal.
Ramsey was not going to be denied for long, however.
Matteo Guendouzi’s ball forward was flicked wide by the Wales international, Alexandre Lacazette pushed it back inside and there was Ramsey to sweep the ball with pin-point accuracy into the net off the far post.
1-0 to the Arsenal, they’d have sung in the old days and that would be it. But these day’s their defence always feels it has a goal in it and within minutes Salomon Rondon’s near-post effort was shipped wide by Bernd Leno after the on-loan West Brom striker had burst through on goal.
Too often, the home side were clumsy in their build-up and with Newcastle determined to press as high as possible up the pitch Arsenal found themselves caught in possession far too often in their own half.
Nevertheless, Arsenal would have had a two-goal cushion to take into the lead were it not for some heroic defending just before half-time.
After Mesut Ozil dithered overly long on his delivery, Lacazette had to turn sharply to fire in his shot, but though Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka was well beaten, Matt Ritchie was in the perfect place to dive and head the ball clear off the line.
Early in the second half, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, dropped to the bench because he was running a slight temperature ahead of the game, was introduced in place of Alex Iwobi to inject a bit of extra heat into the tussle.
He did so almost immediately, bursting down the right wing to cross for Lacazette, with Dubravka again on his toes to snuff out the danger.
Ozil fed the ball into Aubameyang, who stung the hands of Dubravka with a fierce drive but while Arsenal continued to dominate, there was still that uneasy feeling that they were just one moment away from throwing it all away.
Seven minutes from time, though, Lacazette finally put Arsenal minds at rest. A one-two with Aubameyang enabled him to race clear and the most delicate of lobs over the keeper provided the finish.
Except it was not quite “the finish”.
From a corner, the Arsenal striker once again headed the ball in the net, only for Taylor to chalk off what looked like another legitimate goal.
Two would have to do – more than enough for third place and that important “pride of north London” badge of honour.