Newcastle United 4 v 4 Arsenal

Saturday 5th February 2011
FA Premier League
St James Park, Newcastle
Admission: £35.00
Programme: £3.00
Attendance: 51, 561
Match Rating: 5

It had long been an ambition of mine to pay a visit to St James Park, Newcastle, which boasts the third largest capacity in English club football, packed with some of the most passionated supporters in the country. I chose this game as arguably one of the best footballing teams in Europe, Arsenal, were the visitors today. My hopes were high for an excellent all-round experience, and my, I was not to be disappointed!

There cannot be many major stadia as close to a city centre as St James Park, with one of its towering grandstands visible from many parts of the town centre, and is about a five minute walk from the train station, ten minutes from the train station. I bought my ticket for the game in advance over the internet, which was posted to me, at no extra charge to the ticket price. As is often the way, prices were inflated for this major match - my £35 ticket for a seat in the Gallowgate End would be £10 cheaper for the visit of a lesser club. St James Park certainly is an impressive arena - it seems to be absolutely huge as one walks up a slight hill towards it. Inside, the design is rather unique but imbalanced - the Gallogate End and the East Stand are relatively small, similar sized and designed stands, whilst the remaining two stands, the Milburn and Sir John Hall stands are much, much higher, with rooves that allow light through. Visiting fans were assigned the very top section of the Sir John Hall Stand - whilst they would experience fine views of the city, a seat up there would certainly not be recommended for anybody with a fear of heights nor with a desire to be able to identify which player was on the ball. The stadium looks very neat, bright and pleasing on the eye, certainly a match for any stadium in the country. The 84 page programme was certainly packed with information and contained relatively few adverts, although the relatively poor quality paper was a minor disappointment.

Getting anything out of this game would surely be a tall order for Arsenal. Having made a good start to their first season back in the Premiership after a one season sejourn in the Championship, Newcastle inexplicably fired popular manager Chris Hughton and replaced him with a manager that has had more experience of failure than success, Alan Pardew. In a further self-destructive move, they recently sold their top-scoring talisman, Andy Carroll - the £35 million price tag was a mouth-dropping amount of money for an inexperienced Premier League striker, but the sale has left Newcastle seeming to lack any real quality in their forward line. Going into the game Newcastle found themselves in tenth place, a respectable effort although only six points separated them and the first relegation place. As for the visitors, Arsenal have quietly remained in contention for the title, clear in second place but five points adrift of Manchester United.

With it being well-known that if Arsenal are allowed to play football and are given any encouragement to play attacking, flowing football, if Newcastle were to get anything from the game, they would need to keep the game tight early doors. Unfortunately for them, the opening ten minutes were a complete nightmare, conceding three goals, game over. Theo Walcott scored the opening goal in the very first minute after breaking clear of a couple of Newcastle defenders before slotting past Steve Harper. Just a couple of minutes later and Johan Djourou made it two, firmly heading home an Andrei Arshavin free kick. On ten minutes, Robin van Persie slotted home from close range and one feared that it could all get rather embarassing for Newcastle, with the home side in complete disarray defensively, and Arsenal looking like they would score with every attack, and they duly extended their lead to four on just 26 minutes when van Persie's headed home for his second.of the game. Somehow, a four lead was how it remained at half time, and by the time the second half had kicked off, a fair number of Newcastle fans had already written the game off and headed for the exits.

The second half kicked off in a similar vein, although with Arsenal more in cruise control and Newcastle looking incapable of even getting one goal back. However, two key moments within 5 minutes of the restart were to impact on the game with unbelievable results. First, the central defender, Djourou, had to be replaced due to injury by at out of form Squillaci, and far more importantly, Abou Diaby lost his head and earnt himself a red card for angrily pushing Joey Barton by the neck to the floor after a strong but fair challenge by Barton.It looked like no more than a consolation when Joey Barton converted a penalty on 68 minutes after Laurent Koscielny had brought down Leon Best in the box. On 75 minutes, Newcastle pulled another goal back when Best smashed home from close range. Surely this was just making the scoreline respectable, but the previously unthinkable of Newcastle getting something out of the game really started to look a distinct possibility on 83 minutes when Barton confidently converted a second penalty after a soft looking penalty award. The Geordie fans had really came to life by now, creating a wonderful, deafening atmosphere, roaring on their team to mount wave after wave of attack as Arsenal just seemed to crumble. The equaliser duly came on 87minutes when an appropriately wonderful goal capped an astonishing comeback, when Chieck Tiote hit a stunning volley from 25 yards out which gave the young Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szczesny absolutely no chance to lift the roof off St James Park. Even more remarkably, Newcastle could even have won the game, when Kevin Nolan's shot went agonisingly wide of the post in injury time. But in the end, the points were shared after a truly breathtaking game, where 90 minutes of football allowed me to experience everything I could have wanted - an Arsenal masterclass, an amazing come-back with all 8 goals scored at the end where I was sitting, and an atmosphere second to none, not to mention this match being the first time in Premier League history that a team has come back from four goals down. There's not many times I would begin to consider £35 to watch a football match being value for money, but on this occasion, it was worth every penny!

Video highlights of this match can be seen at  https://www.premierleague.com/video/single/153655

A full match replay can be viewed by clicking here