Newcastle 1 Arsenal 2: Gabriel snatches 96th-minute winner as Gunners score two late goals to close gap on Liverpool

THE reigning champions might not slip up on too many occasions so Arsenal have to be bang on it.

And thanks to Gabriel Magalhaes and his winner deep in stoppage time, Mikel Arteta’s team won a game they looked like blowing despite their early dominance.

Newcastle were hanging on to a first half goal from Nick Woltemade when sub Mikel Merino levelled with six minutes left before Brazilian defender Gabriel headed the second in the sixth minute of injury-time following Martin Odegaard’s corner.

Arteta, angry for much of the game after Arsenal wasted their early dominance, celebrated wildly at the end and you can hardly blame him.

So despite losing at Liverpool and only scraping a point against Manchester City, Arsenal are back within two points of the leaders.

And if Arteta does finally lead Arsenal to the title, he will remember this game as when his team showed some real guts when everything seemed to be going against them.

Arsenal were sensational for the first 30 minutes of this game and should have been out of sight, 4-0 up.

Criticised for playing with the handbrake on, Arsenal produced the type of dazzling performance we witnessed a couple of years ago but it all went wrong after they had a penalty ruled out by VAR.

Arsenal were then livid as they felt Gabriel was fouled when Woltemade scored but Gabriel went down far too easily.

Equally, Arteta, although unhappy with some of the decisions, has to look at himself.

He was forced to start defender William Saliba on the subs bench due to an ankle injury but maybe he should not have played all 90 minutes of the Carabao Cup win against Port Vale.

Over-playing his stars, and then seeing them injured, is something Arteta does far too regularly.

He started defender Cristhian Mosquera, who has done well since arriving from Valencia, but he was so poor that he was put out of his misery at half-time.

Yet while the likes of Rice and also Eberechi Eze were bright, it was another day to forget for Viktor Gyokeres.

By scoring three Premier League goals, Gyokeres’ return to English football has been solid but certainly not spectacular.

He will argue, with some justification, that the service has been lacking. So you would have expected Gyokeres to do a lot better when he was handed a perfect chance to stun Newcastle in the second minute but he could only muster a weak header from Declan Rice’s perfect free-kick.

Nick Pope had an easy save to make on that occasion but delivered an outstanding stop, getting down low to his left, to keep out a goal-bound shot from Eze.

Yet the key moment was when Pope found himself bailed out by VAR and referee Jarred Gillett who reviewed the initial decision to hand Arsenal a penalty for a foul on Gyokeres.

After spending a little too long in front of his TV screen, Gillett came to the conclusion that Pope got a touch on the ball before clearly making contact with the Swedish forward.

Arteta shook his head and laughed but was clearly furious.

Living dangerously, Pope was then rescued by his near post following a thumping shot from Trossard.

And as the onslaught continued, Pope delivered a flying save to keep out strikes from Eze and Bukayo Saka

Newcastle were given some light relief from their battering when Mosquera needlessly conceded a corner but Arsenal would pay a heavy price.

Having played the corner short Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali picked out Woltemade who stuck an unstoppable header past David Raya.

Arsenal’s players surrounded Gillett believing Gabriel was shoved to the ground by Woltemade. While there was a bit of contact, Arsenal’s Brazilian defender was trying to buy a free-kick and could have comfortably stayed on his feet.

Gabriel was clearly annoyed and felt a sense of injustice. A couple of minutes later, looking for a bit of afters, he barged into Woltemade who did not look particularly pleased.

Gillett saw the flashpoint, called the players together and although Gabriel offered his hand, Woltemade refused.

Having started so well, Arsenal went in at the break needing a tweak so it was no surprise that Mosquera was replaced.

Saliba did not cover himself in glory right at the start of the second half and was lucky Woltemade delivered a poor miss and hit the bar although it would not have counted as Jacob Murphy was offside.

Despite starting the second half slowly, Arsenal should have equalised but Pope pushed away Jurrien Timber’s close-range glancing header.

Arsenal levelled when Merino beat Sven Botman with a glancing header via the post from Rice’s cross.

Newcastle hoped to land a penalty when Gabriel handled but VAR confirmed the ball struck his leg first.

And from avoiding conceding a penalty, Gabriel ended up the goal hero.