Mesut Ozil and Olivier Giroud help Arsenal beat Newcastle to tighten grip on fourth place in Premier League

Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil celebrates scoring a goal against Newcastle in the 3-0 win (Picture:AFP/Getty Images)

Arsenal moved a step closer to securing Champions League football for a 17th consecutive season with victory at the Emirates Stadium.
The win helped the Gunners open up a four-point gap over top-four rivals Everton, with just two games of the campaign remaining.
The result meant more misery for Newcastle, who slumped to a sixth straight Premier League defeat for the first time since 1987, despite having boss Alan Pardew back on the touchline after his seven-match ban.
The game had offered little by way of action until the unlikely boot of Laurent Koscielny broke the deadlock from a set piece on 26 minutes when the French defender managed to get a toe on the end of Santi Cazorla’s free-kick for his second league goal of the season.
Despite the best efforts of Magpies keeper Tim Krul, the hosts doubled their lead just before the break. The Newcastle stopper twice denied Olivier Giroud before the ball fell kindly for Mesut Ozil, who swept the ball home from close range.

Arsenal continued to dominate after the break and were rewarded for their efforts with a third on 66 minutes as Giroud diverted Ozil’s cross past Krul with a deft header.
A raft of substitutions did little for the visitors’ cause, whose hopes of salvaging something from the game had long since past as it became more a case of damage limitation