Premier League Game of the Week: Arsenal and Newcastle wind each other up

When we think of the archetypal Brazilian attacker, we think of Pele: fast, creative and impish. When we do the same for the United States, we think of Clint Dempsey: hard-nosed, industrious and perseverant. England, though? England's attack isn't categorized so neatly. It's featured everyone from Bobby Charlton to Alan Shearer, from the lightning quick runs of David Beckham to the brick wall of Emile Heskey. When we think of English attackers, we see a film reel, not a photograph.

With that in mind, this weekend's Premier League headliner between Arsenal and Newcastle raises an interesting question: could any two English attackers be more different than Anthony Gordon and Bukayo Saka?

On paper, the two men appear similar. They're both 22. They're both young leaders of historic English teams. They're both wingers prized for their indefatigable creativity. But once they take the field these two men veer wildly from their shared statistics. Saka, nurtured by Mikel Arteta, looks mature and serene, spraying crosses in from the right flank like he's been doing it since the day he was born. Gordon, nurtured by Eddie Howe, looks ferocious, ranging down the left with the deep-set hunger of a lone wolf. Saka is the painter; Gordon is the punk ripping the painting to shreds.

When these two teams last met in the league, it was Gordon who came out on top, firing home a clever shot in the second half to seal a 1-0 victory. And it was Gordon's style — aggressive, self-serving and utterly intoxicating as long as your team isn't on the other side of it — that defined Newcastle that day. It's exactly the kind of style that Arsenal hates.