Arsenal vs Newcastle Tips: Best bets for the early kick-off

An early 12:30 kick off on Saturday, live on BT Sport, sees Newcastle take the trip down to North London where they face Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.

Since Arsenal's 5-0 defeat to Man City back in August, they managed to go on an eleven game unbeaten run in all competitions, including nine wins and two draws. This came to a halt when they took the trip to Anfield last weekend and were blown away 4-0. Arsenal are set to line up with a similar team, however Tierney may slot back in at left back after a horror show from Tavares, who has actually been rather impressive until last weekend. 

Eddie Howe is expected to be in the dugout this weekend after he missed out on his first match due to COVID-19. A lot of attacking intent was shown by Newcastle last matchday in a 3-3 draw with Brentford. Howe is expected to line his team up in a similar fashion here against Newcastle, Schar may be replaced at right centre back with Krafth due to injury.

After a poor start to the season, Arsenal finally began to find some form under Arteta, Liverpool ending their eleven game unbeaten run last weekend. Back at the Emirates hosting 20th place Newcastle they will be expecting to take all three points.

Newcastle have conceded in every Premier League game this season, also conceding the most goals in the league (27). Aubameyang has only found the net four times in ten starts, however he will be in the central striker role where most of Arsenal's chances fall. He has the most shots on target for Arsenal this season as expected and of course is on penalty duties.

Smith-Rowe has been the stand-out player under Arteta, his place on that left side of midfield is almost concrete after his performances over the past couple of months. 

He has popped up with some crucial goals already in his short career at Arsenal and against a leaky Newcastle side, it wouldn’t surprise me to see him pop up with another. He has scored in four of his last seven Premier League matches so odds of 13/5 against a team who have conceded 2.25 goals per game most definitely looks a value play.

A few match ups have caught my eye for this match. Saint-Maximin looks set to play down that left flank and will be directly facing Arsenal full back Tomiyasu. The Frenchman is the most fouled player in the Newcastle side, if any space is left down that flank, I expect Saint-Maximin to exploit it with his direct running and quick feet. 

Matt Ritchie. Booked four times in his last eight matches. He could have a very busy afternoon with Saka on his flank and Tomiyasu bombing up and down with his overlapping runs. 38% of Arsenal attacks come down their right flank and 41% of Newcastle's attacks come down their left flank, so I am expecting a busy game for both of these players.