Arsenal 3 – 0 Newcastle: There’s Only One Kevin Keegan
Add comment January 27th, 2008
He may have his detractors, but I for one am a declared fan of Kevin Keegan. Having seen so many teams come to the Emirates and stick eleven men behind the ball, Newcastle’s enterprising approach was a refreshing change. The first-half was an end-to-end in which Newcastle were arguably the better side, Steven Taylor, Damien Duff, and Alan Smith all discarding opportunities to open the scoring.
The second half, however, was a different story. Keegan’s decision to attack Arsenal was always going to be a double-edged sword. As soon as the whistle blew, it was an entirely different game, with Arsenal dominating and putting a sloppy Newcastle defence to the sword with three goals.
The stars of our performance were three men who’ve been outstanding in this mid-season period – whilst Cesc and Hleb’s form has faded somewhat, Gael Clichy, Mathieu Flamini, and Emmanuel Adebayor have all excelled. In his programme notes, Arsene spoke about Adebayor’s recent improvement:
“He is getting to the stage where a player becomes a great player. He has taken on a lot of responsibility, he prepares well, he’s highly focused every time. And that’s the difference from the Adebayor I knew two or three years ago – he means business and wants to win.”
Well, he certainly meant business yesterday, netting twice to make it six goals in the last four games. The first was a hammered left-foot shot after Eduardo (who had replaced the injured Rosicky) had hit the post.
Eduardo played as a big a part in the second, blocking off Cacapa as Eduardo slalomed through the Newcastle defence to fire under Shay Given. A late Nicky Butt own goal put the icing on the cake.
Arsene was understandably pleased with the result, and after the difficulties of the past week it was important for morale that the team redeemed itself.
It’ll be interesting to see how this game impacts on Newcastle’s return to the Emirates on Tuesday. Another 3-0 would do nicely.
