By Boris Mellor
January 23 2005

The score hardly did justice to Arsenal’ overwhelming dominance in this match. Even in the first minute it was inexplicable that the ball did not find the Newcastle net.

 With Ashley Cole crossing for Pires at the far post, the unmarked French midfielder met it with a firm on target header into the six-yard box, and Flamini forced a point-blank save from Shay Given.

If Newcastle could claim they were hard done by at the Toon no such claim could be made of this game. Indeed if anyone was lucky it was the Magpies, although all credit must be given to Shay Given who looked like he would never concede.

It took a special goal to beat him, from my seat behind the goal Bergkamp’s shot looked like it might go wide. It certainly beat the keeper, and then narrowly beat the far post. On 19 minutes the master had hit it just right, Newcastle must be sick of the sight of him.

Now the match took a predictable turn, Arsenal attacked, Newcastle defended well, occasionally they broke away – but Almunia had few serious saves to make. The return of Lauren seemed to steady the back four and the inclusion of Flamini gave the midfield bite. Bergkamp return also improved our physicality; he is not scared of getting stuck in.

Newcastle stepped up a gear before half time, but Arsenal went in deservedly ahead as the first half finished. In the second half Arsenal were even stronger and should have had a hat full, even though the gap was narrow the crowd were relaxed and had time to swap banter with the Toon Army. The Toon sang "you won’t be champions for very long", the Clock End replied with a minimalist chant of "Channel Five". "You’re gonna win feck all responded the Toon", "You always win feck all" came the riposte.

But by now the Newcastle goal was under bombardment, but try as they might nothing could get past Given or the occasionally helpful post. Fifteen minutes from time Newcastle strung a couple of useful attacks together. All Arsenal's superiority could have been undone in just five minutes of "squeaky bum time" but it turned out to be a light bulb burning brightly just before it goes out.The flurry had not even lasted five minutes. The next ten minutes were reasonably relaxed and the Arsenal defence remained comfortable as the attack kept the ball at the far end.

Arsenal had attacked and defended as a team, the old spirit was back, some old timers were back, and the Gunners were back in second place. Mission accomplished