Newcastle United and Arsenal have had a number of flashpoints recently.
Indeed, there was a fairly bad-tempered clash at the Emirates Stadium between the two in January 2023 and the relative ill-feeling continued into the last Premier League season.
Newcastle beat the Gunners at St James’ Park in a hugely controversial game in which Anthony Gordon scored the winner, after the ball appeared to have gone out of play.
That brought a rant from Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta about the standard of refereeing in English football and wasn’t the only incident, with Kai Havertz and Bruno Guimaraes both lucky to avoid red cards.
Such is the relationship between the two clubs these days, it seems the ill-feeling has continued off the pitch.
Why there is now ongoing tension behind the scenes between Newcastle and Arsenal
According to Miguel Delaney of the Independent, Arsenal have been opposed to state-owned clubs (although Newcastle technically aren’t of course) and have been trying to limit the financial power they can deploy.
Naturally, that has made for some tension in the boardroom, which has not helped the Gunners in their pursuit of Newcastle stars Alexander Isak and Guimaraes.
Newcastle aren’t here to make friends
One of the best things about the Eddie Howe and PIF era at Newcastle has been their willingness to indulge in the dark arts.
Erik ten Hag, after all, branded them “annoying”.
Newcastle are not here to be popular and that siege mentality will surely help lift the energy levels after a draining season last time out.
Arsenal may have a case to argue in terms of state-backed clubs but, frankly, the takeover was approved by the Premier League – so there can be little argument about it.
Newcastle against Arsenal is turning into a new rivalry on and off the pitch, it seems.
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