Comeback Kings. Arsenal 2 – Newcastle 1

A little stat for you –

By beating Newcastle yesterday in the way they did, Arsenal are the first team in Premier League history to come from behind in 4 consecutive games and win.

Now to put that in context, it wasn’t all too long ago that the terms, “soft, no heart, capitulation, and more” were epitaphs used to describe this club. And when the season started, it looked like it would continue. Now, however, there are new words being used to describe this squad. Terms like, resolute, confident, spirited, relentless, just to name a few.

And they are all well deserved. When you think that two weeks ago we were about 65 minutes away from being 13 points behind Spurs, locked into 5th place with the coveted Champion’s League spot dwindling away and now today we’re 1 point out of third, on a run no one really saw coming and increasing in confidence with every match. At this point the club’s destiny is truly in their own hands.

It was always going to be a hard match. All credit to Alan Pardew and Newcastle they are a good team and with a few signings this summer they very well could be pushing for top 5 or 6 again next season. As it is, due to the loss, their Champion’s League dream is over and they will be fighting it out with Liverpool Chelsea, and Everton for a Europa League spot.

In previous trips south Newcastle were not very successful and were taken apart quickly. They were resolved not to do that again and with a 4-5-1 lineup they looked set up to try and hit Arsenal on the counter. But it wasn’t the counter that got them their first goal. It was an Arsenal mistake. Take your pick as to who to blame for it. You could blame Vermaelen for the errant pass that found itself with the magpies Chiek Tiote. Or maybe it was Gibbs for being out of position on Ben Arfa. In reality, I don’t think you can really blame Gibbs. He was beginning to move forward with the ball when Vermaelen’s pass went astray. Finally, you could maybe blame Szczesny because the goal was on the near post.  Regardless our mistakes gave Newcastle the early advantage.

Shame that too because with the exception of the mistakes the play had been all Arsenal. Theo was establishing an aggressive style of play that would do him well all night and had Van Persie connected with a cross early on, the game could’ve been 1-0 to Arsenal inside the first 10.

The thing about Newcastle’s taking the lead was that I didn’t get my usual feeling that we had thrown it away. Newcastle were set up to defend and not press their cause. And I thought after the goal we’d score. Little did I or anyone else for that matter think we’d score 40 seconds after the go ahead goal.  Starting with Rosicky (more on him later), the in-form player of the moment found Walcott who like he would do all night, beat his defender and got a nice cross off to van Persie who outmuscled the defender on a cute little spin move and found the corner of the net. Game On.

From there on in it was all Arsenal. But for a while it seemed this match would frustrate as much as it would scintillate. For as much as Newcastle were getting a reputation for letting matches get away from the of late, the were very good at blocking the lanes and taking away any clear chances for the Gunners.  Still it was via the flanks that Arsenal were having their joy. Walcott was making it rough both Santon and Coloccini. So tough that Pardew had seen enough at the half and subbed Santon with Perch. The effect was still more of the same.

On this night Walcott showed exactly why people like him. He also showed why Wenger continues to play him on the wing. Coming into this match Wenger said that he believes that with the speed and pace of the team, they are now in a place to simply out run their opponents. And there seems to be something to this. With Walcott, Gervinho and Chamberlain on the flanks teams are simply being run at. In the 5 straight wins you only need to see how we’ve used our speed to hurt, harrass and tire our opponents. Such was the case last night and Walcott was a big big case for that.

In the second half it was all Arsenal. The stats for that half I believe were 17 attempts for the Gunners and 1 for Newcastle. Szczesny was hardly as busy as his counterpart.  But I think we all felt that given all our hard work we were going to be found wanting. Especially, when the likes of Gervinho and Rosicky missed sitters. There also was the nice steal Gibbs had with about 10 minutes left in regulation time. With Ben Arfa moving into the corner slowly Gibbs stripped the ball and found Van Persie alone in the box who’s shot skirted wide of the far post. It was at this point that I worried that Newcastle if they could muster a counter attack would nip this one at the end.

But alas Arsenal dug deep they shut down their opposition and in the end it was poor defending by Newcastle that led to the winner. Pardew admitted afterwards that his team were gassed from running with Arsenal. In the 94th minute they had the ball deep down in the Arsenal end. With only a minute left of the stoppage it looked like they were going to kill the game but they lost the ball and Arsenal mustered one last attack. With the ball on Walcott’s pacy feet again and everyone surging forward the winger’s cross  found Vermaelen alone in the box one on one with Krul and he drilled it past the dutch keeper. The defender that supposedto be there was still huffing trying to get back. Speed kills.

Game over.

Recent years of failure in such situations have many Gooners wired for woe when games like this occur. To have two in row where we have won with last minute gasps  is something we are just not accustomed to. I’m kind of getting used to this. It is nice for a change.

A couple points I would like to touch on. First, we talked about speed. We are a very speedy team and its to our advantage (duh). One of the reasons we are able to use it more is a fact I have been harping on for a while – proper fullbacks playing in their positions. No offense to Vermaelen and those that filled in as fullbacks for 2 1/2 months but out scoring dropped and our attack suffered because the likes of Walcott, Gervinho and Ox weren’t getting the proper support they needed going forward. The CBs that were filling in seemed hesitant to go forward and had issues when it came to such simple principles as overlapping with the winger. We did better when midfielders filled in but still suffered overall. Our return to scoring at will, I firmly believe is related to the fact that we have pacy fullbacks who can get forward as we need but conversely understand how to defend.

Another topic of discussion yesterday was the new contract signed by Rosicky and his play in this match. I heard a pundit exclaim that there must be a clause in his contract that he has to tackle everyone – because he did. Rosicky was all over the place yesterday His effort was amazing. The ability to turn on a dime when in close quarters, the speed with which he attacks and a drive to go forward show why we wanted him so much in 2006 in the first place. He is scoring and almost had another last night. The injury to Ramsey allowed him to get to play where he is best, as the creative engine of the team and he has run with it (figuratively speaking). Fabregas commented and so has Van Persie at how good he is and how hard he works. I think its all there to see.

Finally, the kerfluffle between dutch compatriots Van Persie and Krul. Its nice to have a Captain who shows spirit and a willingness to be vocal on and off the pitch. While Van Persie has a long way to go to be likened to our last great captain Patrick Vieira, the dutchman is showing some similar tendancies. His verbal sparing with Krul all centred on the Captain’s ‘commenting’ on the goal keeper’s time wasting antics. The big blow up at the end was reportedly because Van Persie told Krul to – try time wasting now.  The thing is it was Krul’s time wasting that added the 5 minutes stoppage. There were no injuries of significance. It was all down to the keeper. Van Perise was letting him know about it all game and frankly it was to me and possibly a few others reminiscent of the way Paddy would get into opposition players’ heads.

Well, thats 5 wins in a row on the trot – four coming from behind. Arsenal now have 9 days off to heal, relax and get fit for a hard trip up to Goodison Park where Mikel Arteta’s former team are in resurgent form. The good news is that the Blue Merseysiders have a match today against Liverpool and a match on Saturday against Sunderland in the FA Cup.  That’s 3 games in 8 days basically. Good for Arsenal who are getting fit and in form at the right time.

Player Ratings:

Szczesny 6.5
Sagna 8
Koscielny 7
Vermaelen 7
Gibbs 6.5
Song 6
Arteta 6
Rosicky 8.5
Chamberlain 6
Walcott 9 (MOTM)
Van Persie 8.5

Subs:
Gervinho 5
Ramsey 6

And in closing Spurs fans spent yesterday trying to tell me we’re a one man team. In the last 5 games Arsenal have scored 18 goals. The goals have come from  Van Persie, Ox, Arteta, Henry, Ramsey, Sagna, Walcott, Rosicky, Vermaelen. One man my ass.

Until next time – Stay Goonerish!!!