Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was back among the goals as Arsenal warmed up for their crunch Europa League semi-final with a routine win over Newcastle, who finished with ten men after Fabian Schar’s late sending off.
Mohamed Elneny set the Gunners on their way with an early strike before Aubameyang converted from Gabriel Martinelli’s cross midway through the second half to seal a much-needed victory ahead of Thursday’s second leg against Villarreal.
Mikel Arteta made eight changes to the side that started the first leg in Spain, with Aubameyang and David Luiz handed their first starts since recovering from illness and injury, respectively.
Aubameyang missed a great chance to open the scoring on five minutes when scuffing Hector Bellerin’s cut-back but the ball broke to Elneny, who thumped home from long range for his first Premier League goal.
Aubameyang was more clinical shortly after the hour-mark when he produced an acrobatic finish to convert Martinelli’s powerful cross from close range to seal the result.
Luiz was forced off before full-time with a hamstring injury that put something of a downer on the afternoon, before Schar let his frustration show with a poor tackle on Martinelli which brought a straight red card from Mike Dean’s pocket.
