Newcastle United head into 2023 in third-place in The Premier League table after an astonishing turnaround in the club's fortunes in the 2022 calendar year since the late 2021 takeover that has injected fresh hope, optimism and funds into the Geordie club and awoken the sleeping giant that threatens to fulfill its enormous potential and dominate English football again like it did in the 1900s winning 3 titles in 5 years.

Three of those 72 points gained in 2022 in The Premier League - a total that would have secured Champions League football last season with two games to spare - were won against Arsenal at St James' Park in May when Eddie Howe's men put on one of their most dominant displays of the season in a 2-0 win that ended Arsenal's Top 4 hopes.

From that display and win Newcastle can take confidence going to The Emirates but they must also be wary as Gunners Manager Mikel Arteta was not happy at all about his own side's performance, a stance that was relayed to the world on TV and Social media including on Amazon's 'Arsenal All or Nothing' documentary as "f***king embarrassing" and he will have the Premier League leaders primed to attempt to exact revenge.

After a 4-2 win over Brighton on New Year's Eve, Arsenal with 43 points are seven points clear of second-placed Man City on 36 points at the top of the English top flight table with Newcastle third place with 34 points yet The Magpies play The Gunners twice yet home and away and two wins and six points would close the gap to just three points.

Newcastle could only manage a disappointing 0-0 home draw with Leeds in monsoon weather conditions that spoiled the game & slowed Newcastle's attacking passing game down yet The Magpies are still soaring and a win in the back yard of the current League leaders would blow open the title race and be another big statement of intent.

Newcastle have only lost once in all competitions this season and that was the disputed 2-1 defeat at Liverpool when big question marks remain about whether Alexander Isak's second goal was offside and why the officials felt justified to play over 98 minutes when only 5 minutes added-on time was shown on the Fourth Officials board on 90 minutes.

When Newcastle were defeated 2-0 by Arsenal at The Emirates last season in Eddie Howe's first physical appearance in the Magpies dugout following a bout of Covid, there were some choice refereeing decisions especially in not awarding penalties for Martin Odegaard's first-half pull on Fabian Schar in the area at a corner and when Callum Wilson was pushed down by Nuno Tavares as Newcastle chased the game.

Former Premier League referee turned SKY Sports Referee & VAR Expert Dermot Gallagher on the satellite channel's weekly RefWatch show on the Monday after the game believed Arsenal were very lucky to escape the concession of a spot-kick:

..and the Daily Mirror's football journalist Darren Lewis agreed and believed that two penalties were overlooked as Newcastle fans speculated that the club were not getting their fair share of big decisions due to fall-out from the Saudi Arabian takeover:

In any Premier League game or any football match the higher you travel up the football pyramid, big decisions matter hugely and Newcastle need to be playing on a level refereeing playing field on Tuesday night to get the big win they need from the game.

Arguably, Newcastle would be much closer to Arsenal's points total already had they not suffered a list of bad decisions at the start of the season that has robbed the club:

The Premier League took the extraordinary step of admitting that VAR Lee Mason had made an error in denying Newcastle's Joe Willock a winning goal against Crystal Palace in September's eventual goalless draw at St James' Park - the exact same official who had failed to award as VAR a Newcastle penalty a week earlier at Wolves when Sean Longstaff was clearly pulled back and Mason was responsible for half - 3 - of the 6 incorrect VAR overturns in the first half of the season including the Willock decision and the decision to disallow Gabrielle Martinelli's goal at Old Trafford vs Man United.

If Emirates-sponsored Arsenal can consider themselves unfortunate to have had that opener against Man United disallowed, they can consider themselves very fortunate indeed for the past 7 years of easy draws and favourable decisions in what is now called The Emirates-Sponsored FA Cup, a tournament once dominated by Newcastle as well but in the 1950s without renaming the competition The Newcastle Brown Ale Cup.

Call me sceptical but the way that the United Arab Emirates-owned Abu Dhabi Group who own Man City and a growing empire of clubs across the globe have had Manager Pep Guardiola groom Gunners boss Mikel Arteta into the next successful manager of the Emirates Airlines-sponsored Arsenal & sold them Gabriel Jesus this season to fire the bullets of their title charge is worthy of investigation into collusion and anti-corruption observers will be on red alert for the type of dodgy decisions that have aided & abetted Man City's Premier League victories down the years especially against NUFC.

Back to the football & Arsenal have made a flying start to The Premier League season winning 14 of their opening 16 games drawing one & losing just one, the same no. of defeats as Newcastle but the Nothern club are unbeaten in all other competitions as well while Arsenal were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Brighton and lost to PSV in The Europa League so are more used to the taste of defeat than The Magpies.

It promises to be another enthralling Premier League encounter as The Gunners seek to win their first Premier League crown since the 2003/04 season and the all-conquering days of Arsene Wenger and The Invincibles and Newcastle attempt to revive the ambitious days of the mid-1990s under Kevin Keegan & 2000s under Sir Bobby Robson.

Before the Leeds game, Eddie Howe refused to rule out the possibility that Newcastle can win the Premier League and every Newcastle United fan will know all too well that a 9-point League at the top is one that can be overhauled in the second half of the season having painfully experienced losing a 12-point lead in the 1995/96 Entertainers season:

And Arsenal fans will know from bitter experience that no lead over Newcastle is unassailable after seeing their team 4-0 up at St James' Park at half-time in the 2010/11 season yet pegged back by Alan Pardew's Toon titans 4-4 in the second half of the Premier League's greatest comeback:

So it's all to play for in a match that even World Soccer Magazine are naming as one of the 5 Unmissable Games of the Month of January so let's hope it lives up to its billing and Newcastle record their first win at The Emirates Stadium since Andy Carroll's winner there in Newcastle's only victory in the stadium in November, 2010:

Prediction - Newcastle 3 Arsenal 2

Potential Line-Ups: