Arsenal
Date: 5th February 2011
Competition: Premier League
Where: St. James’ Park
Score: 4 – 4
Manager: Alan Pardew
Attendance: 51,561
Pre-match
Arsenal aren’t
Newcastle’s favourite opponents in the Premier League era although there have
been some impressive victories for the Magpies over the years. Newcastle had been in the Championship
wilderness for a season after dropping meekly out of the Premier League in
2009. Chris Hughton, who had been the
stand-in, the caretaker and now the manager had, with dignity and poise, guided
a team of misfits back up at the first attempt.
His additions to the squad pre-Premier League return were impressive. Midfield destroyer Cheick Tiote arrived from FC Twente along
with Hatem Ben Arfa from Marseille on loan.
The season started with an expected rout at the hands of Manchester
United, 3-0. Not the ideal opportunity
to get off to a winning start back in the big time. The next game against Aston Villa (one of the
sides Newcastle usually take points off) provided the opportunity to get off
the mark, and that they did, with a 6-0 victory. A poor 2-0 defeat to Blackpool followed with
an impressive 1-0 victory over Everton thanks to a lovely goal by Ben Arfa to
balance the books. Victory over Chelsea
(4-3) in the League Cup was a nice surprise but the sequence of one win in the
next four wasn’t. Couple that with a 4-0
home demolition by Arsenal in the League Cup fourth round and things didn’t
look great for the visit of Sunderland.
However, Hughton’s men dispatched the Mackems back off down the A1231
with a 5-1 defeat ringing in their ears.
A surprise victory at Arsenal cheered up the owner who was breathing
down Hughton’s neck at this point but defeat at Blackburn (2-1), a goalless
draw with Fulham, a 5-1 defeat at Bolton and a 1-1 stalemate with Chelsea made
Ashley pull the trigger in the most disappointing dismissal of a manager in
recent times. Only Sir Bobby Robson, to
my memory, has been mourned when given his P45 by the chairman and a lot of
Newcastle fans had sympathy for Hughton who had done nothing short of a
miraculous job considering the circumstances of the relegation season.
Up stepped Alan
Pardew which baffled everyone who knew anything about football, except the
owner. His first job was to pick the
team for the visit of Liverpool and inspiring the side sufficiently to grab a
3-1 win. Defeats followed to Manchester
City and Tottenham but Wigan were beaten 1-0 and West Ham sent back to London
wondering how they managed to lose 5-1 and more importantly, how Leon Best had
been allowed to score a hat trick! Pardew’s
knack for not winning cup games was painfully jump started when Newcastle lost
3-1 to their old foes Stevenage Borough.
Even Kenny Dalglish had managed to inspire an uninspired Magpie team to
beat Stevenage. Somehow, after a couple
of 1-1 draws against Sunderland and Spurs, Newcastle sat in 7th
place at the end of January. The patchy
form continued with a 1-0 defeat away to Fulham which set up the second visit
of the season to St. James’ Park by Arsenal and they were hungry for goals.
The Match
Andy Carroll had left for Liverpool at the end of the January transfer window, allowing the club to bank £35m; an astonishing amount of money for a player who at best was as good as David Kelly (£250,000 from Leicester) but potentially as good as Duncan Ferguson (£7,000,000 from Everton). It turned out to be one of the worst transfer deals of all time as far as Liverpool were concerned but it seemed to make good financial sense from those on the other side of the Pennines. The squad however seemed to be suffering from the loss of an integral part of their makeup. Not quite the same as losing Andy Cole in January 1995, Carroll had been a shining light in the post-Shearer days and had been shown the door despite the manager telling everyone he would be going nowhere. The hang over was clear for all to see when a simple through-ball baffled Mike Williamson and Fabricio Coloccini to allow Theo Walcott to latch on to it, outpace the defence and slide the ball into the corner after 40 seconds. Two minutes later, Danny Simpson pulled Cesc Fabregas to the floor and gave away a free kick ten yards outside the penalty area on Newcastle’s right hand side. Andrey Arshavin floated an innocuous ball into the centre, no Newcastle player even jumped to challenge and Johan Djourou planted his header into the top left corner. Three minutes gone, Newcastle 0 Arsenal 2.
Things settled
down for the next six minutes until Kevin Nolan lost the ball on the edge of
his own area and within seconds it was at the feet of Theo Walcott on the right
hand side of the area. He didn’t really
have to do much to beat Jose Enrique and roll the ball to an unmarked Robin van
Persie in the centre. Williamson did his
best to stop van Persie scoring by sticking out a leg and turning his back on
the shot but the score line increased to 3-0 and there were barely ten minutes
on the clock. The fans feared worse to
come and although it did, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. It took Arsenal and good sixteen minutes to
find the net again. Bacary Sagna pranced
away down the Arsenal right and fired a perfect cross into the middle where
Williamson and Coloccini stood acres apart; van Persie wandered into the
massive gap and headed the ball unchallenged into the net. Some Newcastle fans began to leave the
stadium after that goal, it’s something they’d seen all too often and there
wasn’t even a hint of what was to happen in the second half.
Cheick Tiote was
quoted as saying that Pardew was more than a little angry at half-time. Reminding the players how much money the
people in the stands had spent to watch what they were watching. ‘Things’ were
thrown, although it was not specified what.
Maybe just insults?
The second half
kicked off and a quick change was made when goalscorer Djourou was replaced by
Sebastien Squillaci. Five minutes into
the second half, Joey Barton and Abou Diaby contested a loose ball. Barton got to the ball first one footed but
his momentum took him into the Arsenal player.
Diaby, upset at the challenge, grabbed the back of Barton’s neck and
then shoved him to the floor. Barton
held both arms out in an expression of disbelief then Kevin Nolan came over to
break up any further altercation. Diaby
then pushed Nolan and the referee saw it all.
Arsenal were soon down to ten men with forty minutes left to play. On went the game and Tiote somehow found
himself out on the right with Clichy to beat.
He couldn’t do so but won the corner from which Barton found Nolan who
headed down for Leon Best to control and try to shake off the attention of
Laurent Koscielny. The Arsenal defender
grabbed both Best’s arms and then stuck a leg between the Newcastle strikers
legs causing him to tumble to the earth.
Penalty! Barton took two steps
and fired the ball into the bottom left corner. Game on!
Newcastle then put together a lovely move
which ended with Best putting the ball in the net. He was flagged offside but Tomas Rosicky was
playing him onside; despite the Arsenal man standing not five yards away from
the linesman, he still flagged. With
fifteen minutes left on the watch, Jose Enrique floated a ball into the middle
and Best rose, nodded the ball down for himself then fired the ball into the
net unchallenged. Every time Newcastle
had the ball, the crowd were roaring them on, willing them forward to the point
Nile Ranger received the ball, took on two Arsenal players and rifled in a
vicious shot which the keeper had to palm away.
Theo Walcott had faded as Arsenal spent the last twenty five minutes on the back foot so he was replaced by Emmanuel Eboue who gave away a free kick and was yellow carded within two minutes of his introduction. The resultant free kick was floated over to Williamson who was subsequently fouled by Rosicky. Phil Dowd, the referee, didn’t see anything untoward but the linesman on the nearside flagged and the referee put the whistle to his lips and gave the penalty. Barton again took two steps and rifled the ball into the roof of the net. Szczesny released the ball immediately as both Barton and Nolan converged on him to get it which allowed Newcastle to kick off again 3-4 down, the crowd as loud as they’d ever been and seven minutes left to play. Then came one of the moments you hope for when you pay your money to enter the ground. One of those moments that no matter how many times you rewatch it, it still gives you Goosebumps. One of those goals that gives you shivers just by thinking about it.
Theo Walcott had faded as Arsenal spent the last twenty five minutes on the back foot so he was replaced by Emmanuel Eboue who gave away a free kick and was yellow carded within two minutes of his introduction. The resultant free kick was floated over to Williamson who was subsequently fouled by Rosicky. Phil Dowd, the referee, didn’t see anything untoward but the linesman on the nearside flagged and the referee put the whistle to his lips and gave the penalty. Barton again took two steps and rifled the ball into the roof of the net. Szczesny released the ball immediately as both Barton and Nolan converged on him to get it which allowed Newcastle to kick off again 3-4 down, the crowd as loud as they’d ever been and seven minutes left to play. Then came one of the moments you hope for when you pay your money to enter the ground. One of those moments that no matter how many times you rewatch it, it still gives you Goosebumps. One of those goals that gives you shivers just by thinking about it.
The frankly awful
Tomas Rosicky backed into Joey Barton and sent him sprawling. He got up quickly, willed everyone forward
and pinged the free kick into the area.
The ball met the head of an Arsenal defender who cleared it only as far
as Cheick Tiote who swung his unflavoured left foot at it and caused it to fly
faster than the human eye could see, past Szczesny, and into the bottom
left-hand corner. The ground erupted and
Tiote scampered off screaming indecipherable expletives into the Newcastle
night sky. He ended up on his knees and
then face down on the turf to be joined by most of his black and white clad
colleagues who decided to pile on top of him.
Steve Harper lay down on the grass nearby in his own solo celebration of
sorts. Five minutes of added time was
indicated by the fourth official holding aloft the electronic board. Coloccini found Nolan in the centre circle
who played it back to Enrique. His
floated ball forward found Nile Ranger who knocked it back to the onrushing
Nolan to side-foot the ball goalwards.
Unfortunately, instead of ripping the roof off the stadium with a 5th
and winning goal on the night, it trickled agonisingly wide. It mattered not however, this game went down
in Premier League history nonetheless.
For Newcastle, the point felt like a win and for Arsenal, their point
must have felt like a crushing defeat.
Verdict
Newcastle have had
similar days to this but nothing quite as spectacular. They turned a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 victory
against Leicester City in 1997 and a 2-4 deficit against the same opposition
into a 5-4 victory. They were also 1-4
down to French club Troyes in 2001 in the Intertoto cup and came back to draw
4-4, sadly missing out on the UEFA Cup on away goals. It will be a long time, if ever, when
Newcastle emulate or beat this kind of result, especially against such
illustrious opposition.
R.I.P. Cheick Tiote (1986-2017)
