The agony and the ecstacy (almost) – Newcastle 4 – 4 Arsenal.
Posted on February 6th, 2011 | 40 Comments |
To use one of the most common cliches in football, it was almost a game of two halves. To be more precise, it was one game in the first fifty minutes, the point where Arsenal, in a seemingly unassailable position at 4-0 up, decided to press the self destruct button in magnificent fashion. This is not to say however that Newcastle didn’t deserve enormous credit too for one of the most miraculous comebacks in recent memory, and even more miraculously, with a little help from the referee, something to which Newcastle are not generally accustomed.
Starting at the beginning though, it took less than a minute for Arsenal to score their first goal. Newcastle started the game with a new formation which looked quite alot like Arsenal’s own 4-2-3-1, with Tiote and Barton playing the deeper role in midfield, with Nolan, Gutierrez and Lovenkrands supporting striker, Leon Best up at the front.
Almost from the kick-off, their back line seemed to be pushing way too far up the pitch, and Andrey Arshavin took almost immediate advantage of the Magpies’ woeful tactical blunder. After around only forty seconds of the game, he made a speculative pass which passed straight through the Magpies’s centre back pairing of Wiliamson and Coloccini. Arsenal gun-dog, Theo Walcott, was immediately on to it at speed, slotting it straight past Steve Harper. 0-1.
The Magpies capitulated once again a mere two minutes later as Danny Simpson pulled Cesc Fabregas. Once again, it was Andrey Arshavin who floated the resulting free kick straight on to the head of Djourou, and once again straight into the back of Steve Harper’s goal. 0-2.
It took a whole seven minutes for the next one to come, the first of two goals by Arsenal hitman, Robin Van Persie. Walcott took advantage of a sloppy defence, having the space to slip through a daisycutting pullback straight to the feet of the Flying Dutchman for a relatively easy finish. 0-3.
It was Sagna’s turn next time to repeat the process after 26 minutes, this time slipping through a more lofted ball on to the head of a once again unmarked Van Persie, who made easy work of the resulting header. 0-4.
That was it for Arsenal though, thankfully despite one or two further chances, Newcastle somehow managed to staunch the bleeding. Then, Arsenal, and specifically, Abou Diaby, pressed the self destruct button for Arsenal in what proved to be the fulcrum of the game. Reacting to very firm challenge by Joey Barton, he grabbed the midfielder’s neck and pushed him to the ground, leaving Arsenal one man down.
Newcastle obviously took some heart from this, and never gave up. However it took a further 18 minutes or so for Newcastle United’s magnificent fightback to truly begin though. Striker, Leon Best, was pulled, then pushed to the ground earning the home side a penalty. Joey Barton took the spot kick, taking a very short run up then slotting the ball past Arsenal goalkeeper, Wojcheich Szczesny with excellent placement at the side of the goal. 1-4.
Almost immediatley after the penalty, when the Arsenal keeper decided to react in a petty and childish fashion by refusing to give the ball back to Newcastle, Nolan reacted with equal stupidity to that of Diaby earlier by pushing the Pole to the ground in a similar manner as Diaby did with Barton. Both Nolan and Szczesny received yellow cards.
The next highlight came when Best scored what looked to be a perfectly good goal, with Arsenal’s Tomáš Rosický leaving him well onside. The linesman missed him though, and the goal was ruled out. It took next to no time though for Best to reduce the deficit still further with a goalmouth strike, with the game truly on now. It is worth mentioning with some irony at this point that Leon Best was recommended to previous Newcastle United manager, Chris Hughton, by none other than Arsenal assistant, Liam Brady. 2-4.
A good chance from substitute, Nile Ranger was also worthy of mention as the Magpies continued to heap pressure on a now worried Arsenal. Szczesny saved well to deny the youngster though.
The next real staging post in Newcastle’s journey to eventual parity came, however, with what even I have to admit was a somewhat dubious penalty decistion from referee, Phil Dowd. However, it did make up for the lousy offside decision! A long Newcastle free kick was lofted into the penalty area in the direction of Newcastle centre back, Mike Williamson who judged to have received a push which seemed like nothing much at all. Phil Dowd shocked the Arsenal squad by once again pointing to the spot. It was a much closer effort straight down the middle this time, with the ball almost coming back off Szczesny’s legs in what was truly nerve wracking stuff! 3-4.
The greatest highlight of the game was still to come though, from a man who was, arguably, the man of the match. Another Barton free kick bounced off the wall, ballooning nicely to the feet of a player known far more for his sterling defensive midfield work than his scoring. However, Cheik “Lion King” Tiote casually struck what was undoubedtly one of the volleys of the season so far. A truly magnificent strike which just eluded Szczesny. 4-4.
A nerve jangling eight minutes (including five minutes of extra time) still remained though. Although the game could still have gone either way, the momentum was undoubetdly with Newcastle United, and if anything, it would have been the Magpies’ who could have stolen it, with a final Kevin Nolan effort going not so wide of the goal. If it had been on target, this might have been one the the greatest victories in the club’s recent history.
It wasn’t to be, sadly, but this was still an amazing game in which all sanity went out of the window, and will, no doubt, be talked about for quite some time to come!
HWTL!
Match highlights and post match interviews.
Newcastle United: Steve Harper, Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Sanchez Jose Enrique, Joey Barton, Cheik Tiote, Kevin Nolan, Jonas Gutierrez, Leon Best, Peter Lovenkrands.
Subs: Tim Krul, Danny Guthrie, Michael Richardson, Sol Campbell, Shane Ferguson, Nile Ranger, James Perch.
Arsenal: Wojcheich Szczesny, Bacary Sagna, Laurent Koscielny, Johan Djourou, Gael Clichy, Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, Vassinki Diaby, Francesc Fabregas, Andrey Arshavin, Robin Van Persie.
Goals
Barton (pen) 68, Best 75, Barton (pen) 83, Tiote 87.
Arsenal 4 Walcott 1, Djourou 3, van Persie 10, van Persie 26.
Venue: St James’s Park, Newcastle.
Attendance: 51,561.
Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire).
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1091 articles on this blog.
Nice write up Worky.
This was a game of too many emotions, from utter dejection to total euphoria. God alone knows what would have happened if Nolan had scored at the death. WoW!
Now I am just hoping the Lads can learn what went wrong and NOT go there again.
Pardew spoke sense in his post match ints, unlike the sad wenger who I have no opinions on :lol:
Over the moon with the point, but we still need to try and get all 3 against B’burn on sat.
HWTL.