Into the vast hole where Andy Carroll used to be stepped Joey Barton, agent provocateur and expert penalty taker, and Cheick Tioté, who started with the Ivorian minor league side FC Bibo before progressing, via stints in Belgium and Holland, into Newcastle legend as the scorer of one of the finest goals ever seen on Tyneside.
One of the most valuable, too, because Tioté's majestic left-foot volley three minutes from time was the last act in a great Premier League comeback in which Arsenal lurched from 4-0 up after 26 minutes to sharing a point with a side who were being shamed until Abou Diaby's dismissal turned the match upside down and inside out. The whole league was lively: 41 goals were scored in one afternoon.
First half good, second half not so good: for Arsenal, that is. For Newcastle this astounding counter‑surge saved the club's owners from a week of accusatory comment about their willingness to sell the team's most valuable player for £35m on the last day of the transfer window – too late to replace him, and with the possibility of relegation greatly enhanced.
A goal down in 42 seconds, Mike Ashley's executive toy conceded again before three minutes were on the clock, then again in the 10th, and finally for a fourth time with Robin van Persie's second on 25m 59sec. Despairing, some Newcastle fans shuffled towards the exit. One stood behind Alan Pardew, bellowing: "Get out now. Can't you see what we're watching? I'm paying for this."
The only way Newcastle could have found a use for their £35m windfall at this stage was to pile it up in banknotes between their own posts to stem the tide of Arsenal goals. Carroll, the lone scorer, was the difference when these sides met in London in November, and Carroll was what seemed to be separating them again in this apparent thrashing. Arsenal groaned with talent, the other bemoaned its absence. With his thigh injury, Britain's most expensive home‑born footballer would have missed this epic anyway, just as he was absent for Wednesday's 1-0 defeat at Fulham. But unavoidably the sale of their brightest hope since Alan Shearer was at the heart of the grandstand talk about Arsenal's early brilliance and the apparent collapse of Newcastle's confidence.
"It's not always about technique or tactics, sometimes it's about what's inside you," said Pardew. The memory strains to recall a result – a performance – more likely to shape a club's campaign. After half an hour, a relegation struggle loomed into view. Cashing in looked like a supremely destructive act: the final triumph of money over ambition.
It was amateur psychology time. The Carroll sale had broken the club's spirit. Shola Ameobi's cheek was fractured at Fulham and now an unfair burden was falling on Leon Best and Nile Ranger, the last of the Magpie centre‑forwards. Ranger is a teenager and Best's last club was Coventry City. Before that there were stints with Yeovil, Bournemouth and Notts County.
A morality play was forming. Mike Ashley had destroyed Newcastle's morale. But then the teams came back out, Barton delivered one of his patented brutal tackles and Diaby lost his cool, grabbing his assailant by the back of the neck. Barton has been collared a few times in his life. Unfortunately for him, Diaby is not an officer of the law, so the gesture was badly received, especially by Kevin Nolan, the Newcastle captain who had congratulated Carroll for joining "a fantastic club [Liverpool]".
When Diaby shoved Nolan as well his departure became a formality. Then the avalanche began. A soft foul by Laurent Koscielny on Best brought Barton his first from the spot. Twenty-three minutes left. Then Best pulled another one back. Sixteen minutes on the clock. With eight minutes left Arsenal conceded another penalty and Barton scored again. Then the coup de grâce. A Gaël Clichy clearance dropped to Tioté, on the volley, 25 yards out, and the ball blazed low into the right-hand a corner.
With this the game relaunched itself as a comic strip. Barton sprinted to the touchline and threw himself at his coaching staff. As he lay on the ground, Wenger pointed at him with mute distaste. "I believe Barton was very lucky to stay on the pitch," Wenger said later.
For the Arsenal manager and his trophy-chasing team this was a mighty psychological blow. Can't defend a 4-0 lead at Newcastle? How will they cope against Barcelona in the Champions League? But for Newcastle there is the reassuring sense now that no cause is lost. Even more importantly Carroll's sale to Liverpool has not pulled the ceiling down on St James' Park, where the patient barcode hordes started out having one of the worst afternoons of their football-watching lives, but went home jubilant after one of the best.
Source: Paul Hayward, The Guardian on 6 Feb 11
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