He flicked it onto Eduardo on the penalty spot but just as he was about to pull the trigger

I was desperate to go to this game against the Barcodes to banish the memory of the drubbing at the hands of our pals from down the Lane in midweek. Unfortunately I didn’t have a ticket, but then my mate Dschin came up trumps in the morning and had a spare going. I’m glad I was afforded the chance to go and witness us blow away the cobwebs following the aforementioned demise at the hands of the Spuds. In the end it turned out to be a typical Arsenal home game: scrappy in the first-half, better in the second, and sealing the victory with some late goals. My journey to the ground was punctuated by the following conversation with a Geordie fan:

Me (upon hearing a lone Newcastle fan chanting his team’s name): “On your own, on your own, on your own!”

Dschin: “Speak English man, we can’t understand you!”

Geordie: “Good old Arsenal, we’re proud to say that name, while we sing this song we’ll win the league!”

Me (thinking he was a Gooner): “Win the league? Don’t say that, you’re gonna jinx it!”

Geordie: “Why aye man, listen up you lot give us a draw today and we’ll let you win on Tuesday night, deal?”

Me (without hesitation): “Deal!”

Me and Dschin then went on to bitch about Totscum, at which point the same Geordie heard us and thought we were dissing his team. We told him that he had misheard and that we were talking about our neighbours, upon which he said:

“Don’t worry about them, it was just a blip in midweek, youse lot are way better than them.”

That was reassuring to hear. Nice bloke.

As expected, Le Boss made a fair few changes from the Carling Cup game. Jens came back in (the FA Cup is now regarded as ‘his’ competition), Clichy and Big Phil were restored to the defence whilst Tomas came in on the wing, allowing Theo to push up alongside Ade, who had displaced his best mate Nicklas Bendtner. However that plan went awry straightaway as Tomas picked up a knock. The logical substitution would be to bring on Alex Hleb for him, but Wenger saw differently and brought on Eduardo instead, thereby shafting Theo back to the wings. I felt sorry for Theo. On the way to the game I was discussing with Dschin the merits of playing Theo up-front with the first-choice midfield to supply him, as he did against Slavia Prague in what is indisputably his best Arsenal performance to date. It seemed like he would get a similar chance here against Keegan’s Newcastle, but alas ‘twas not meant to be as he was shunted out wide before he could even settle. Just before the substitution Gael utilised his newfound asset of floating balls over the top of the opposition defence. It worked twice against Everton last month but this time narrowly failed as a stretching Cesc could not latch on to it.

Then the opposition began to live up to their manager’s lofty expectations. They looked good on the flanks with Duff and N’Zogbia on the left making penetrating runs whilst Milner on the right could whip in a dangerous ball. A couple of times down the left they broke into our box but the cross was blocked. One on occasion this resulted in them winning a corner, from which Smith’s shot was headed of the line by the faultless Clichy. On the quarter hour they got in behind with a nice move down the right that eventually saw a cross flash across our goal with Owen lurking dangerously. Every time he picked up the ball I got flashbacks of him breaking Gooner hearts with a brace in the 2001 final. Although he might not be as fast as back then, he certainly has more nous in the box these days and is particularly adept at getting across his marker and being first to the ball at the near post. Willy probably did enough to put him off, but the alarm bells were ringing.

Just as Newcastle were building up a head of steam, we went down the other end and nearly manufactured a goal of our own. Clichy came in from his wing and with his RIGHT FOOT (yes, you heard me correctly!) put in a decent cross/shot that Given fisted away. Ade nearly got there before the keeper and any touch would have broken the deadlock. Then five minutes later we threatened again down the left as Eduardo read the bounce of the ball better and unleashed a power half-volley goalwards. Given thwarted it at the near post and the Crozilian may have been better off going across the keeper, but at least he had the wherewithal to anticipate a gaffe by the Newcastle defence. But to their credit Newcastle didn’t cower and nearly went in front through Steven Taylor. Eduardo failed to clear his lines properly and the ball was chipped back into the box onto Taylor’s head, who spotted Jens off his line and looped it over him. Thankfully, he looped it over the bar as well. Then Clichy and Ade, who combined so well last week at Fulham for our first goal, nearly repeated the trick here but Ade sent his header wide. It’s good to see Ade sticking to his central station these days to be in there with a chance. With Ade being the focal point for the crosses and Eduardo ready to feed off any knock-downs or rebounds, our balance up-front is probably as good as it has been all season. If they can start to combine effectively now then it will become our first-choice partnership and Darren Anderton…I mean RvP will have a hard time trying to dislodge either player. The final effort of the half came from Diaby. Picking the ball up in the inside left channel, he controlled the ball well and hit a dipping effort that Given tipped over the bar. Previously in the half he had received the ball much wider, which meant that every time he cut in onto his right peg he was still miles from goal. In this area, just left of central, he may be at his most dangerous and given the problem we were having in breaking them down I wondered whether a switch to 4-3-3 would help us.

I needn’t have wondered as we came out all guns blazing in the second period. From the moment we kicked off you could see that there was more urgency in the side. Indeed it looked like Cesc had pushed forward by five yards, and it was he who instigated the opener. Receiving the ball from Flamini he played a quick first-time pass/flick for Eduardo. The Fox turned and saw a clear sight of goal as he opened his body and curled it beyond the reach of Given. I was sitting behind the goal and had already got up in celebration, but instead of nestling in the bottom corner it hit the base of the post. No worries though as the rebound fell kindly to Ade who sidestepped the Newcastle defence and lashed it into the corner with his weaker left peg.

We had our tails up and looked to press home our advantage. Newcastle on the other hand retreated into their shells in the face of a red and white onslaught. Theo had begun to have an impact on the game and was slipped in by Ade on the right, but his two crosses failed to reach a teammate. The ball dropped to Abou on the edge of the box he poked it through to Ade, but his goalbound effort was blocked by a fantastic challenge from James Milner. That move proved that when hen Theo plays on the left-back’s shoulder he is infinitely more dangerous as he can get in behind the defence rather than having to run at them.

At the other end Newcastle appealed for handball against the solid Phil Senderos but got no joy from the ref. Then Eduardo had a couple of chances in quick succession. Clichy dribbled down the left touchline, cut inside and squared it to Cesc. He flicked it onto Eduardo on the penalty spot but just as he was about to pull the trigger the Newcastle defenders crowded him out. Then from the subsequent corner Ade won the second ball and nodded it in the general direction of the goal. Eduardo was lurking menacingly on the six-yard box but couldn’t make contact. He might not have scored, but he played a massive part in the next move. Ade ran and ran from left to right across the pitch. For all the world it looked as if he’d have to opt for a pass sooner or later, but the heavens opened for him and before you knew it he one-on-one with the keeper. He rather scuffed the shot but it contained too much power for the sprawling Taylor on the line. Two-nil and game over. Eduardo played a massive part in that goal, he was the reason why Ade could advance through to the keeper. Initially I thought he had made a clever run from right to left and dragged the left-back with him, therefore creating the space for Ade. Now having seen the replay it is clear that as Ade went past him he blocked off the defender from getting towards the Togonator. It might not be moral but if the ref doesn’t see it then it isn’t illegal. Either way, it was damn sure effective.

To rub salt in the wounds of the travelling Geordies, we then got a third at the death. Cesc flighted in a free-kick and it glanced off the head of Nicky Butt and past the hapless Given. Eduardo was behind Butt so he may have got on the end of it anyway. There was still time for Ade to grab the match ball but he just couldn’t dig it out of his feet to get a shot away and was eventually foiled by a mass of black and white shirts. 4-0 would have been harsh and goals weren’t overly important as it wasn’t a league match, but it would’ve been nice for Ade to cap a rollercoaster week with a treble.

All in all a good win to avert any potential mini-crisis following the hammering at Three Point Lane. Over the years we have been notorious for collapsing following a landmark defeat (Everton/Rooney in 2002 was followed by 3 further defeats and the end of the 49-game run was followed by a plethora of draws) so it was vital not to spiral into that again. As for my Top Gun, despite Ade’s goals I have to go for Gael Clichy, who is becoming something of an unsung hero. As Dschin said to me at the end of the game, he didn’t put a foot wrong barring a mis-control in injury time at the end of the game, but we’ll let him off for that 😉

A special mention also goes to the much-maligned Phil ‘Send-errors’. He was most certainly error-free in this game and many-a time I remember him getting his head to a Newcastle cross to avert the danger. Whilst he is always prone to the odd ricket, as he gets a run of games in the team he begins to do the good things better and more frequently. And with Kolo’s apparent injury at the African Nations we could do with a confident Senderos. I watched Osasuna versus Sevilla after I got back from The Emirates and learnt this: Carlos Vela can potentially be one hell of a player down our left-hand side. Thanks for reading and hopefully we can emulate this result and second-half performance against the Barcodes on Tuesday night.