Arsenal 2 Newcastle 1
Ben Arfa 14, Van Persie 15, Vermaelen 95
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The comeback kings scored yet another late goal.
Arsenal have been 1-0 down in their last four league games and won them all.
Newcastle were wilting when it was 1-1 after 60, so I had a bet on Arsenal to score the next goal.
When Walcott crossed in the 95th minute, Arsenal had five players in the box.
Including Vermaelen, who had made a 70-yard run to score from four yards when the ball dropped in front of him. The right back Danny Simpson was injured and could not run back and the Belgian blasted his shot past keeper Tim Krul.
A moment of superb skill, the classiest moment in the game, came from Ben Arfa with a phenomenal finish in 14 minutes. He cut inside Gibbs and hit his left-foot shot early and low and hard to beat Szczesny inside his near post.
Don’t blame the keeper.
As Gary Neville said, “It was a fantastic finish.”
Within 14 seconds of the re-start, Rosicky released Walcott and Van Persie converted his cross for 1-1.
By 35, I was thinking : It’s about the next goal.
When will the next goal come?
Just discovered that I accidentally had TWO bets on Arsenal to score the next goal. I thought the odds had changed and that my first bet hadn’t been accepted for that reason.
After an up-and-down season, Arsenal look good for third place now.
Their team is more setttled and confident than a wobbly Spurs outfit which has been in freefall for several weeks.
But too much of Arsenal’s game is about : How can we get the ball to RVP? That can’t work every time.
The other attackers hardly score at all. If they could, the points would have been in the bag long before 95 minutes.
Other news 1 : Harry Redkapp won’t be manager of England. FA chief Bernstein will not allow that. And nor should he.
Our tabloid press have selected too many England managers. That’s wrong and must stop.
Other news 2: We saw David Hockney A Bigger Picture today