Arsenal first half player ratings vs Newcastle - Havertz impact, Merino goal and Trossard bright

Arsenal lead 2-1 at the half-time whistle in their pre-season friendly against Newcastle United at the National Stadium in Singapore. Following Wednesday's 1-0 win over AC Milan in their opening game of the summer, Mikel Arteta elected to make changes to his team for the showdown against their Premier League rivals.

Myles Lewis-Skelly, Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino and Leandro Trossard were the four players to come in, thus resulting in Oleksandr Zinchenko, Christian Norgaard, Declan Rice and Gabriel Martinelli dropping out of the Arsenal side. There was to be no place in the Arsenal squad for new signing Cristhian Mosquera, however.

The Magpies made the best possible start to the contest with new signing Anthony Elanga finding the net from Sandro Tonali's miss with only six minutes on the clock. Arsenal did have chances of their own as Kai Havertz headed over from Merino's cross and Ben White then blazed over the crossbar when in a very good position.

Arsenal were to turn the game on its head inside the space of two minutes prior to half-time as Merino coolly slotted home before Alex Murphy slammed the ball into his own net. Here's how we rated the Arsenal players in the first half in Singapore:

David Raya

Couldn't do too much about Elanga's opening goal as the ball went over him due to the Newcastle man kicking the ball on to his standing foot to see it loop up. Saved from Bruno Guimaraes later in the first half but did have a couple of shaky moments. 5

Ben White

Got into a good attacking position and blazed one effort over the crossbar. Another strong start in pre-season. 6

William Saliba

Strong as ever in defence and remained solid throughout with Newcastle threatening at times. 6

Riccardo Calafiori

Delivered another decent performance at the back with William Osula putting himself about. 6

Myles Lewis-Skelly

Named in the XI after starting on the bench against AC Milan but didn't have much say on the game. 5

Ethan Nwaneri

Kept his place in the side after an electric first half against the Rossoneri and showed glimpses of his quality once again. 6

Martin Zubimendi

Named in the Arsenal starting XI for the very first time and used the ball well when in possession as he tried to get the team moving. 5

Mikel Merino

Picked out Havertz for an early chance with a nice cross and the pair later combined again as this time the Spaniard equalised. Lovely finish from the midfielder. 7

Bukayo Saka

Captained the side on the night and tried to cause issues down the right flank. 6

Kai Havertz

Headed an early chance over but really came to life towards the end of the first half as he teed up Merino with a brilliant flick and then put in a fine ball that Murphy converted into his own net. Huge impact. 8

Leandro Trossard

Another to come into the side from last time out and almost equalised with his rasping drive striking Dan Burn in the box when it looked set to test Nick Pope. Made a smart turn and played a lovely ball over the top that resulted in a chance for White and was then key to Merino's goal with a nice pass to pick out Havertz. 7

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