Sky might have awarded Man of the Match to Emmanuel Adebayor, but Mathieu Flamini was the really outstanding player in this game.

That's not to say that Ade was bad - he gave their defence a torrid time as usual, and of late he always looks like he's going to score. His header, the opening goal, was perfect, and set the wheels in motion.

However it was Flamini who provided the cross for that goal, making a wonderful run from midfield down the right, before taking his time to choose his options, and delivering an arcing, dipping cross that was perfectly weighted for Adebayor to run onto.

Flamini has been in good form for a while now, tackling, passing, and occasionally running with the ball. He's also happy to drop the "Arsenal approach" once in a while and have a shot from distance when he sees the opportunity, and adds an element of directness when the play is too intricate.

It was these qualities that saw him add the coupe de grace with a magnificent long range goal. Cesc passed the ball square to him near the left-centre, and what happened next seemed almost scripted. Mathieu took a single touch to set himself up, and fired a thumping, bending shot with his right foot high into the far, opposite corner. There was absolutely no hesitation on his part, and it was the sign of a player in form.

The crowning goal came from Cesc, and was his first league goal since November. Nicklas Bendtner brought down a high ball and cushioned it perfectly for Cesc to stab home with his left foot. Cue overexuberant celebrations where the rest of the team, especially Adebayor, did their best to congratulate Bendtner in some sort of show of solidarity.

It was a great performance, and Newcastle were helpless. I think they managed just one shot on goal, and Keegan will once again be wondering what he needs to do to make Michael Owen once again look like a top striker again.

As for Flamini, he can't sign a new deal fast enough. It's not just his tackling, intercepting and attacking play that his made him outstanding this season, it's his leadership and enthusiasm. The 4 starting midfielders - Cesc, Flamini, Hleb and Rosicky have a great friendship amongst them, Senderos and Clichy have been there a long time as well, and Flamini has started to boss them all. They're all familiar with each other, and the Flamster keeps them alert - telling them to mark people, making sure they're aware on free-kicks and corners, and keeping a watchful eye on any gaps that open up. He's also got a real fighting spirit, and has gotten involved in all the scraps this season - his feistiness is a tremendous asset! 

Having been vanquished in the FA Cup on Saturday, Kevin Keegan's men return to the Emirates Stadium in what will probably be a much changed encounter, in terms of both personnel and tactics.

Keegan has struggled to provide any kind of attacking impetus, which is what he's known for. Granted, it's only been two games, but all they've managed is a single, solitary shot on goal.

They passed well enough against Arsenal on Saturday, before being taken apart after Adebayor scored the first, but that was a cup-tie, and the league will be different, because there are points at stake.

So it remains to be seen whether Keegan will ditch his attacking mindset and come in an go with a 4-5-1 and try to battle for some kind of result. After all, he wouldn't want his comeback to have ended before it's even begun.

Arsenal will change a few personnel around - Theo Walcott and Justin Hoyte both started at the weekend, and I expect them to be rested.  Almunia will return as well. With injuries to Rosicky and Van Persie, I don't expect too many changes elsewhere in the side. Theo will feature as a sub, but might even be in contention to come in for Hleb.

GK: Almunia

RB: Sagna
CB: Gallas
CB: Senderos
LB: Clichy

RM: Hleb/Theo
CM: Cesc
CM: Flamini
LM: Diaby

ST: Adebayor
ST: Eduardo

As for Newcastle, they always have ever-changing team news, but today's lineup should look almost exactly like the one at the weekend (4-4-2):
GK: Given, RB: Carr, CB: Taylor, CB: Rozehnal, LB: Enrique, RM: Milner, CM: Butt, CM: N'Zogbia, LM: Duff, ST: Owen, ST: Smith

There's not too many changes that Kevin can make, but Rozehnal might be better equipped to handle Ade's aerial threat. They will probably start Smith, because he grafts and can drop deep to make it a 4-5-1 when needed, but if not then Viduka will have some part to play after returning from injury.

Unfortunately not a 100% good source, but a new striker is expected to be signed by Wednesday for the Arsenal, in fact possibly even being unveiled as early as Monday, to boost the Arsenal fans as pictures of Henry doing tricks and juggling and smiling at the Nou Camp in a Barca shirt stream through.

Rumours so far are - Anelka, Michael Owen and/or Obafemi Martins. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is also another widely mooted possiblity, although Wenger's preference for pace and Huntelaar's lack of it (especially in comparison to the aforementioned trio) will probably count against him.

The Henry transfer has been boiling for a while, maybe even from as early as January, and Wenger has been actively seeking out reinforcements. The broadsheets have also picked up on this, some saying that Arsenal are in advanced negotiations to sign someone.

Wenger won't be wasting any time this year. Two seasons ago he dilly dallied over Julio Baptista, while Shaun-Wright Phillips and Sergio Ramos both decided to sign for Real Madrid and Chelsea (respectively) instead, and pre-season (and the season) were disastrous. Early July is when the Arsenal will have their pre-season matches underway, and hopefully all signings will be done and dusted by mid-July so that the preparations for 2007/2008 can go smoothly.

 

 

As Emmanuel Eboue stood there looking like the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time, Kieron Dyer took a neat touch and curled the ball past Lehmann. Once again, the Arsenal were 1-0 down at Ashburton Grove (Aston Villa, Middlesborough, Everton and now Newcastle), and once again the game followed a similar pattern. Although Newcastle were more ambitious than the previous incumbents (Everton), Arsenal still peppered forward and took control of the game, but to no avail. Just like against Everton, we were rescued by a brilliant free-kick from Thierry Henry (it was Van Persie the last time); and it needed to be brilliant. Shay Given, just like in the Highbury days, turned in an terrific performance, and he was inches away from the free-kick, which was so precise that it went in off the underside of the bar. Given is one of the shorter keepers around, so one wonders what an extra inch or two might add to his game (ladies, please control yourselves... that's not what I meant).

It's easy to throw around blame and look for excuses. Yes, Eboue's defending was not great, and he looked completely flatfooted, but it was a 2 vs. 2 situation, and those are very rarely easy to negotiate, especially when the last men back are both (slightly dodgy) fullbacks. Perhaps the team missed Gilberto as well, because so often in these situations he mysteriously materialises with his defensive instincts and helps out struggling defenders, or perhaps he would have dealt better with the ball that Obafemi Martins flicked on.

Let's also not forget that Kieron Dyer is a good player. Over the last two years he's basically shown himself to be inconsistent, horrible injury prone (is he worse than Aliadiere?) and a bit of a silly/chav type, but he is talented. Under Robson in his first 2 or 3 seasons at Newcastle he was easily one of the most promising young players in England with great pace and skill, and had it not been for Beckham, we would probably have made a fair few appearances on the right side for England. Point being that although the defending was sub-par, it still took a great finish to beat Jens. Perhaps Eboue, being a recent arrival in the Premiership, is not fully aware of his opponents' capabilities, or respectful of them, to afford them that kind of space. He'll learn.

Yesterday's events were all the more ironic given William Gallas' quotes about how we had to tighten up and make sure that we scored first, because of how we had struggled when conceding sloppy goals to the opposition. I think Newcastle can come away with their heads held high, because they showed a little bit of enterprise and didn't just stick 10 men behind the ball, but we could and should have made life more difficult from the start.

Adebayor is a good member of the squad, and at 21 will be a very, very good player as he gets better and more experienced. But yesterday we was more or less useless. He never seems to look confident when finishing, and could do with trying to wind up and whack it with his left sometimes rather than trying to "Thierry" the ball past the keeper. People compare him to Kanu (or rather, he compares himself to Kanu and people get taken in by this), but he is much quicker and more powerful than Kanu. Kanu however was much more skillful and clever than Ade. The problem with our Togolese striker, is that he doesn't maximise his best attributes (pace and power), and tries instead to focus on being a Kanu mimic (the fancy stuff), where he clearly has a long way to go.

The point of this is that we were playing against weaker opposition and needed to start positively and score a goal, but we just didn't have the personnel to do this. I'm a big fan of the way Arsene has gone about constructing his 4-5-1, and Robin Van Persie is gradually looking more and more effective in his role in it, but against a Newcastle defence featuring Peter Ramage, Craig Moore, Steven Taylor and the narcoleptic Titus Bramble, 4-4-2 was the way to go.

Henry was (rightly) rested, because Raymond Domenech had acted like the ridiculous cunt that he is and played him and Gallas for a full 90 minutes in a midweek friendly when Chelsea and Manchester United's players were allowed to play 45 each. So Baptista was given a start to provide a goal threat, but really he just ended up doing a bit of running around and then was subbed off for Theo Walcott. He hasn't played in over a month, and hasn't even had a reserve game to give him some sharpness, so thoughts of him popping up with a goal or two were more hopeful than anything else. We then lost the skill and guile of Robin to an injury, and Thierry came on for the second half, and once Baptista was replaced by Walcott, we attacked fervently with what looked like a 4-4-2, and could have gotten a winner if we were sharper.

Anyhow, I think there is still hope for the league. The problem is that after our unbeaten season and and Chelsea's highly consistent first title season, the bar has been raised. 3 or 4 years ago, we would not be written off with the points and results that we have, but it seems that the standards have increased to the point where people think you have to virtually go unbeaten to win the league. I think that this was more the exception to the rule - two freak seasons, rather than a raising of the bar - and that the league will be a lot more even this year. Last year, Arsenal and Manchester United failed to show up until January, and Chelsea had it easy (after sabotaging the transfer plans of both of those - Wright-Phillips and Essien). This year I think things will be a lot more interesting.