Newcastle United beat Arsenal comprehensively on Monday night. One player who put in a remarkable performance was Allan Saint-Maximin. The mercurial French winger gave the Arsenal backline a torrid time throughout. The performance especially enamoured ex-Manchester United defender Gary Neville.
Neville, analysing the game on Sky Sport’s Monday Night Football, said that he would have “hated” marking the trickster. He was further quoted saying:
“I think he would cause any defender nightmare, just keep continually running at them.“
-Gary Neville
Fellow pundit Jamie Carragher agreed with Neville as well, claiming that the duel between Takehiro Tomiyasu and Allan Saint-Maximin was a “complete mismatch”.
Allan Saint-Maximin started the game on the left-wing, and completely outclassed Tomiyasu. Cedric Soares was not shown any mercy either when he came on for the Japanese international. The Frenchman completed the most dribbles (6) and won 7 ground duels. He also had a fantastic solo effort at goal in the first half which was just kept out by Aaron Ramsdale.
Allan Saint-Maximin has always been one of the league’s biggest entertainers. Newcastle signed him from French club Nice in 2019. His sensational dribbling along with his jovial nature quickly made him a fan favourite at St James’ Park. He was one of the lone bright spots in the Steve Bruce era and is now one of the core players of this new generation on the Toonside.
The loss on Monday night has severely dented Arsenal’s Champions League hopes. They will now have to hope that Norwich City can do the unlikely and beat Tottenham on the final day to have any chance of making it to the Top 4. Newcastle, on the other hand, bolstered their hopes for a top-half finish as they continued their strong run of form under Eddie Howe
