Mikel Arteta is asked about Arsenal’s upcoming Newcastle-Inter-Chelsea, run by TNT Sports. “That’s the beauty of it, to play these big games in beautiful stadiums against great opponents… that’s what we want… Gabi trained yesterday so is fit… Ben (White) didn’t make it, he only had half a session yesterday , we have to protect him … playing with eleven players is crucial … the games are decided with small margins … the team can adapt to any scenario … we lost momentum (against Liverpool) … the belief is 100 percent … today is a very good scenario for us.”

Arteta also thanks both the Premier League and Newcastle for allowing and supporting the wearing of black armbands today, in the wake of the floods in Spain. “It’s terrible what has happened … a big mess … the message we can send is something very positive and I’m very grateful for that.”

Both sides could use the three points this lunch to rediscover some form. Newcastle were buoyed by their League Cup win over Chelsea during the week, but they have gone five without a win in the Premier League. Arsenal also enjoyed some Carabou-inspired fun in midweek, swimming past Preston, but otherwise they haven’t been their usual imperious selves of late: they are two without a win in the Premier League, while recent wins over Leicester , Southampton and Shakhtar Donetsk caused a lot of unrest. more stress along the way than perhaps was necessary. Here everyone is part of the big picture.

Newcastle are making three changes to the team that started the 2-1 defeat at Chelsea last weekend. Anthony Gordon, Joe Willock and Sean Longstaff come on for Sandro Tonali, Harvey Barnes and Miguel Almirón, who all drop to the bench. Injury care Alexander Isak makes it.

Arsenal make one change to their squad after the 2-2 draw against Liverpool. William Saliba is back from the suspension he suffered at Bournemouth, so Ben White makes way by dropping to the bench. Gabriel and Jurriën Timber have both put injury problems aside.

The teams

Preamble