Newcastle (4) – (4) Arsenal
Walcott (1′), Djourou (3′), Van Persie (10′, 26′)
St James’ Park, Newcastle

Football is such a ridiculous game sometimes, and yesterday was no different.

Now I’m probably one of the first to criticise Arsenal if they throw away leads or collapse in spectacular fashion, but even I couldn’t fault Arsenal yesterday. They were simply awesome in the first half, and completely deserved to be 4-0 up. And while I was furious yesterday in the cold light of day everything was against us.

Arsenal were probably victims of their own superb start, as referee Phil Dowd had one of the most shocking games I’ve ever seen. Referee’s like to “even things up” and the first penalty was a freebie you give when a team is 4-0. He thought it wouldn’t matter, but how wrong he was. The second penalty decision was a f*cking disgrace but again, the referee probably thought it wouldn’t change the result.

And the incident with Diaby was handled poorly as well. Joey Barton is by far the biggest disgrace the Premier League has ever seen. This guy is an utter scumbag who shouldn’t be anywhere near a football pitch. We know of his shameful background and if he wasn’t a footballer he would be a criminal. But this ridiculous notion that footballers are “higher beings” and immune from fair punishment means he gets away with it. His after match interview where he said he “had no idea why Diaby reacted like that” was probably the most infuriating thing about yesterday. The tackle was completely reckless and with Diaby’s experience of having broken legs (down the road at Sunderland in particular) and you can’t blame him for his reaction, especially considering Phil Dowd let a lot of shocking tackles against Arsenal go unpunished. How was Diaby supposed to react? You’re waiting for the referee to control the game and when that doesn’t happen then what do you wait for, broken legs?

Of course, the biggest problem most Arsenal fans is that with United losing to Wolves, Arsenal could have been just 2 points off top spot, but instead it’s 4. The fact is though, Arsenal are top of the form table, with 14 points from a possible 18 in their last 6 games, with United and Chelsea just behind with 13 points from 18.

And looking on the bright side, Arsenal’s next 3 Premier League games are against Wolves, Stoke and Sunderland which are all at the Emirates, while Manchester United have Manchester City at home, then Wigan and Chelsea away. The next 3 games will probably the most important in terms of where the Premier League title might go come May.

Anyway, here’s something to cheer you up from Arsenal favourite Alan Pardew.

There was only one team that wanted to win tonight and it wasn’t the men in yellow.

Arsenal were completely useless. Arsene obviously values the Carling Cup (we think) from the team he selected but the players were shockingly bad.

I feel for the Arsenal fans who travelled to Ipswich as I was at the Wigan game and the trip home isn’t fun when the team just hasn’t performed.

But where was the urgency? Where was the motivation? Where was the respect?

The performance was slow, sloppy, lacklustre, lazy… Basically the players turned up and expected a walk over. And we got exactly what we deserved, nothing.

Arsenal will still be favourites to progress with the second leg at the Emirates, but if Ipswich manage to nick a goal then our task is made much harder. And you just wonder with the terrible result tonight that it might come back to haunt us.

Arshavin yet again was pitiful. I don’t know what is going on with him and it’s got to the point where you actually feel sorry for him now. Maybe some support from the crowd might help, at this stage it’s worth trying anything. But he wasn’t the only poor performer as his form and effort seemed to be contagious as the rest of the team did exactly the same.

Anyway, there’s not much else I can say is there?

I’m currently travelling back from Wigan and what a disgrace that was.

From the 60th minute, it was clear as day that Bendtner and Arshavin should have come off. Despite scoring the goals, they contributed absolutely nothing. Arshavin lost the ball time and time again, which lead to most of Wigan’s dangerous moments. He was absolutely awful, and Bendtner was the same.

Sagna had no defensive help whatsoever and with Eboue filling in at left back, you would think Wenger would have played Theo or Nasri who would have helped defensively. Wigan attacked at ease at times and the last ditch defending from the two central defenders was a sign that they were poorly exposed.

The fact was Wenger got it badly wrong. Every Arsenal fan in the ground could see that once Wigan went down to 10 men and we were still leading 2-1 it was time to change things and bring on Theo or Nasri to put Wigan on the back foot. Instead, Wenger chose to leave things as they were and the inevitable happened – Wigan scored. After it went 2-2 then Wenger brought the two substitutions on with only 10 minutes left – too little too late!

His substitutions have always been poor and this game was there for the taking. Two pointless points dropped. I can’t see how he fails to see things all the fans are talking about during the game. What was the point of leaving on Arshavin or Bendtner? They were clearly a burden on the team during the second half!

On the positive side, Rosicky, Wilshire and Denilson were excellent in midfield. Chamakh also did well in holding the ball up but time after time Arshavin and Bendtner would needlessly lose possession. Theo and Nasri looked bright when they came on but you can’t give them 10 minutes and expect miracles.

I know rotation was necessary after the Chelsea game but the fact was there were too many changes. Arshavin has been poor recently and to get 80 minutes is shocking. At 2-1 it was obvious what needed doing and it never came. The points are the most important thing and with last seasons debacle you think we would have learnt our lesson. Last year the Wigan fans chanted “Two nil and you fucked it up” and tonight it was “Two one and you fucked it up”. 

What a disgrace.