All is not lost after Newcastle given the runaround by impressive Arsenal

EIGHT months after Newcastle United fans turned on Alan Pardew during a night to forget against Arsenal, there was a repeat Emirates performance always destined to end in another home win.

The Magpies were equally as bad this time around as they were last April – and the Gunners even managed to score one more on this occasion after tormenting the visitors from start to finish.

Newcastle were, during both meetings, second best all over as Arsenal’s superior quality showed, even if Arsene Wenger has struggled to get his players going in the Premier League this season.

Yet it is a sign of just how far Newcastle have come since that last trip to Arsenal that there was not even a hint of Pardew feeling the full force of the away fans’ frustrations. Somehow Pardew has turned things around.

Despite enduring a display more worthy of the relegation place they occupied in mid-October than being on the verge of a European spot, there was more chance of the spotlight turning on Wenger than Pardew this time.

Newcastle might have been comprehensively beaten by Arsenal, but that was more to do with the high quality of Arsenal’s movement, even if the visitors never looked as effective as they were a week earlier in defeating Chelsea.

Pardew is unconcerned. He said: “The margins are tight in every Premier League game. You only have to see the results, Burnley beat Southampton etc, we beat Chelsea last week; every game can be decided by small margins.

“This one I didn’t think was that small, but all the other games we have been involved in, even the ones we have lost, have been tight. The win at Manchester City did give us energy, it gave us a lift and the win at Palace gave us a lift as well.

“The results have been good for us this weekend in a way. We have still got ourselves in a great position even though we lost here and we can look forward to Sunderland next weekend and maybe get ourselves in to the top six.”

From the first whistle Newcastle struggled to cope with Arsenal’s pressing and it soon became clear that full debutant Jak Alnwick, in the visitors’ goal in the absence of Tim Krul and Rob Elliot, was in for a busy afternoon.

Whenever Newcastle did have opportunities to calm things down and get more of a foothold on things they tended to gift possession back to a red shirt.

Pardew said: “We didn’t play very well. The last third passing is where you put the ball at risk and you will make more mistakes there. I don’t think we were as good with the ball as we normally are.

“It’s hard sometimes to put your finger on that – I think Moussa Sissoko was a big loss, we didn’t quite get the balance of the team right. It is something we need to look at. We rotated it a little bit to try to get the best out of the group. Until you get on the playing surface it can be difficult to know.”

After Cheik Tiote was fortunate to stay on the pitch for a kick at Alexis Sanchez’s chest in the sixth minute and Per Mertesacker had hit the bar with a glancing header, Arsenal never looked back after taking the lead on quarter of an hour.

Fabricio Coloccini’s dangerous ball in to the feet of Yoan Gouffran was not collected confidently by the Frenchman. Arsenal broke, the brilliant Sanchez ended up making the most of the space down the right to float in a delivery for Olivier Giroud to climb above Daryl Janmaat and head in the opener.

Newcastle did have a great chance to equalise when Papiss Cisse’s close range rebound was saved by Wojiech Szczesny, who had initially denied Mike Williamson. But Arsenal soon got going again after half-time to cruise in to a three-goal lead.

Sanchez was at the heart of the move for the second too, supplying the pass which led to Santi Cazorla skipping beyond Coloccini before clipping a finish brilliantly beyond Alnwick. Shortly before the hour the exciting running from Hector Bellerin led to his low centre being flicked in nonchalantly by Giroud for his second.

Despite a brilliant diving header from Ayoze Perez from Jack Colback’s free-kick, Arsenal never looked in any real danger and Cazorla grabbed another when he cheekily chipped in a penalty after Danny Welbeck was brought down by Paul Dummett.

The victory reduced the heat on Wenger after a difficult spell but it was not the ideal way for Pardew’s Newcastle to warm up for Wednesday’s Capital One Cup quarter-final with Tottenham and Sunday’s date with Sunderland. Suddenly doing well in a cup this season means a lot more to the club than it once seemed.

“Of course it means something. Unfortunately, I call him our president, Bob Moncur, is on the bus every week to remind me,” said Pardew, who could become the first Newcastle manager since 1969 to win a major trophy. “I can’t get away from it but no-one would be more delighted then Bob if we can achieve something – and hopefully we will still be thinking that way after going to Tottenham.”