Newcastle 4 Arsenal 4 / Vieira lays into them

On a record-breaking day when 41 goals were scored on a single day of the English premiership, Arsenal and Newcastle produced eight goals between them. But the real story; the headline grabber would be how Arsenal threw away a four goal and contrived to produce draw out of a nailed-on win. It was, to put it mildly, headshaking stuff.

How on earth we managed to throw away as four-goal lead and hand Newcastle a draw out of certain defeat, will be talk of the league for years and years henceforth. Yes, we gave the game away from the 51^st minute when Abou Diaby got himself sent off. That moment may yet turn out to be season-defining in the bigger picture of title-chasing and if the truth be told, it told the story of the character of this team.

Things couldn’t have gotten off to a better start. We were one goal in 46 seconds thanks to Theo Walcot who outran (as always) the Newcastle pair of Coloccini and Williamson before sidefooting beyond Andy Harper. Two minutes later, it was 2-0 when Andrei Arshavin lifted a fine freekick on the edge of the box onto the head of Johann Djourou for a pin-point header that went in under the bar and left Harper helpless again.

By the tenth minute it was 3-0. Walcott turned provider as he latched onto a Diaby pass to outrace the Newcastle’s Enrique before crossing perfectly for Robin Van Persie to score decisively from close range. We kept pouring forward as confidence amongst the players reached the heavens.

It was to yield more fruit as Bacary Sagna bombed forward in the 26^th minute to send in a fien cross from the right, which Van Persie met with a bullet header that flew past the hapless Harper for 4-0. At that point, it was game over as far as all were concerned. Right? Wrong it later proved.

Moment of madness...Diaby reacts violently to Barton 's tackle

 A clash between Abou Diaby and the combo of Joey Barton and Kevin Nolan in the 51^st minute saw the Frenchman laying hands on Barton’s throat and shoving Nolan strongly to the ground. The referee, Phil Dowd promptly expelled him and down to ten men, the complexion of the game changed. Newcastle sensed an opportunity for a fightback and buoyed by an angry crowd, the players responded on the pitch.

Suddenly, from beaten men, the Magpies found a new lease of life to pepper our area with aerial balls and raid after raid. They got a breakthrough when Laurent Koscielny was adjudged to have fouled Leon Best in the box. The hated Barton stepped up to plant the ball beyond Szszesny and thus began the fightback. It soon became 4-2 as Best latched onto a loose ball in the area to fire beyond the diving duo of Koscielny and Szszesny. Another penalty awarded for a seemingly innocuous challenge made it 4-3 and with their tails now firmly up, it was a matter of time before Newcastle leveled. They did it with the best goal of the game, courtesy of Cheik Tiote, who blasted in from 26 yards into the corner of the post and thus sealed what must be one of the most-memorable comebacks in the history of the game anywhere in the world.

Arsene Wenger rightly revealed that our players were psychologically damaged after the game. Anyone would be after climbing down from a position of supreme strength that only four unanswered goals provide, to throw away two points and finish with a nerve-jangling draw. Interestingly, his assessment of a remarkable afternoon make some sense amidst all the mayhem:

“I cannot measure how angry I am because no one has managed to do that. Mathematically, it is two points dropped but psychologically the damage is a bit bigger because everybody is of course very, very disappointed in the dressing room”.

Ex-captain and club legend, Patrick Vieira put his big boots into the players by slating them with these words:

"Like everybody else I was quite surprised. It does show that in football if you don't work hard until the last minute, if you don't have 100 per cent commitment, anything can happen. Newcastle is still a difficult place to go to."

It was shades of Tottenham allover again. The night of 30^th November 2008, when we also contrived to throw away a 4-2 lead and allowed our North London neighbours claw their way back to 4-4 replayed itself again yesterday at St. James Park. This time, it was even a worse performance considering that we were comfortably 4-0 up at a stage, not 4-2.

The only consolation would be that lessons will have been learnt, because collectively ours is not  a poor team. The position of second on the log in a very, very tough league as the English premiership is not something you achieve by default. Or mere luck. Only hard, gritty endeavour puts you there and luckily for us, the damage inflicted on our collective psyche and title aspirations were tempered with Manchester United’s defeat three hours later at Molineux at the hands of Wolves.

It reduces the gap between us and them to four points and maintains some ray of hope that this season’s title is not yet all signed and sealed. Long as we keep our heads and focus on the task at hand and do not allow thuggish behavior from the Joey Bartons of this world, lure us into needless sending-offs.

Ratings are as follows: Szszesny 6, Sagna 7, Koscielny 7, Djourou 6, Clichy 6, Diaby 6, Wilshire 7, Fabregas 6, Walcott 7, Arshavin 6,  Van Persie 7, Rosicky 5, Eboue 5, Squilaci 5.