Arsenal vs Newcastle 10/01/96 CCC 5th round

Arsenal (1) 2 - 0 (0) Newcastle Utd

Coca Cola Cup Quarter-final

Highbury, 10th January 1996

Teams
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Adams, Bould, Winterburn, Keown, Platt, 
         Helder, Merson, Bergkamp, Wright
         Subs: Jensen (Bould 9), Clarke, Dickov 

Newcastle: Srnicek, Barton, Peacock, Howey, Albert, Beresford, Lee, 
           Beardsley, Ginola, Watson, Ferdinand 
           Subs: Kitson, Clark, Elliott

Result  : Arsenal               (1) 2    Newcastle United      (0) 0
Scorers:  Wright 44, 90                      

Bookings: Winterburn, Helder             Ginola, Lee, Beresford
Sent off:                                Ginola 67
                                     
Att     : 37857
Referee : G Ashby (Worcester)

Well, where to start? An incident packed match at Highbury last night resulted in a thoroughly meritted win for Arsenal, and we at last saw the sort of committed performance we'd all been praying for. Two typically superb finishes by Ian Wright at the end of each half dumped Newcastle out of the cup on a night which threatens to send the Toon's season into a tailspin, as their brilliant Frenchman Ginola was sent off for elbowing Lee Dixon in the face.

Both teams were at virtually full strength, apart from the continued absence of Gillespie. Bould and Bergkamp both passed late fitness tests, which meant Keown moved into midfield, while Newcastle continued with their three/five at the back policy.

Arsenal, starting the match at full tilt, should have been a goal up inside the first minute and could have been 2 or 3 up after the first 15 minutes. Newcastle kicked off, and before the ball had crossed the halfway line Keown lunged in to intercept an attempted Lee pass, and the ball reached Helder. He took off with great alacrity, leaving Peacock strutting in his wake, and from the left edge of the area, chipped in a lovely little cross which found Ian Wright in acres of space about 10 yards out. Alas, he seemed to try and place his header in the far top corner, but succeeded only in putting it high and wide.

A minute or so later he did slightly better, taking a pass on the edge of the area and then beautifully turning Albert before rifling a shot wide of the far post. After weathering the initial storm, Newcastle started to look a bit more threatening, particularly down their right where Winterburn was having trouble coping with Watson.

It was down Arsenal's left that Beardsley briefly threatened, getting past Winterburn free into the area, but Bouldy was quickly across and stuck out a foot to dispossess Quasimodo with a superbly timed tackle. Soon afterwards though, Bould was clearly struggling as Watson ran past him with the ball towards the area, and after Adams had tidied up the resulting attack, Bould limped off with a hamstring strain.

Keown thus moved into the back four and Jensen came on to replace him in midfield. A minute later Newcastle failed to deal properly with a Helder corner, Bergkamp picked up the loose ball wide on the left. He dribbled back into the area before whipping in a wicked shot from the corner of the box which Srnicek did superbly well to get a hand to and palm away. Helder nodded the rebound back across goal and the Toon defence hastily scrambled it out for another corner.

Helder took that long and deep, and found the head of Merson running in on the edge of the box completely unmarked. He headed forcefully towards goal, Srnicek managed to beat it out, and Platt following in looked like he might score, only to have his standing foot give way as he swung at the ball with his left.

After that things settled down for a while, Newcastle got back into it, and a sort of stalemate prevailed for the next 20-25 minutes with neither side creating much in the way of real opportunities. The main interest during that period was the gradual winding up of Ginola.

First of all he followed up a brilliant Cruyff turn by winning a free kick when he spectacularly flung his hands in the air and collapsed to the turf as JJ tackled him with minimal contact. Not long afterwards the ref redressed the balance by not even giving a free kick as Dixon lunged in at Ginola on the touchline, though to be fair he only just missed the ball and the Frenchman again reacted with a beautifully theatrical collapse.

Winterburn was soon afterwards booked for a similarly reckless challenge on Watson, and not long after that Nutty was again involved as Ginola effortlessly beat him for pace down the middle, but gave him a chance to get back as he checked back. Nutty obligingly slid in again and, as if on cue, Ginola performed yet another beautifully conceived dive to the ground. The ref blew his whistle, got out his yellow card and waved it at Ginola for diving, to the huge delight of the home supporters. Having looked at it again on video Winterburn certainly fouled him, but I reckon he was already going down, and having made his bed it was highly gratifying to see him being forced to lie in it, albeit unfairly.

Eventually the football regained our attention as the half drew to a close. Arsenal stepped up the pressure again, and following another corner unconvincingly dealt with by the Magpies defence, Jensen played back in a deep cross to the far post where Tony Adams rose above his marker, but stretching, put his header into the side netting.

In the final seconds of normal time another good move finally produced the deserved breakthrough. Platt found Jensen with a neat ball down the middle, and with both strikers breaking on either side of him, JJ found Wright as he broke into the area wide on the right. Wrighty's first touch caused the ball to bounce up, and he took the opportunity to whack in a wickedly struck volley which completely deceived the keeper and fizzed just inside the far post. The TV replay shows how much swerve there was on the ball. It first appeared to be going towards the near post, but as Srnicek started to dive, it bent the other way and he could only get an ineffectual hand to it as it went past.

I don't recall Newcastle having a single goal attempt in the 1st half, but for the first 15 minutes of the 2nd, it looked like they were determined to remedy things and might be allowed back into it. First, Ferdinand got on the end of a Watson cross from the right and connected with a thundering volley which flew not too far high and wide. Then Ginola finally managed to get the better of Dixon and pulled a cross back from the byline to Beardsley about 15 yards out, but he stabbed his volley straight at Seaman.

Soon afterwards, wide on the touchline, Dixon turned back towards his own goal and played a pass back to Seaman without looking. Ferdinand was lurking with intent and nipped between Adams and Keown. He evaded Adams' desperate lunge on the edge of the area, but with Keown bearing down was forced wide. However he turned, taking Keown out of the picture and chose to lay it back to Ginola running in on the edge of the area, and to a huge roar of delight, he lashed the chance high and wide.

After that scare the Gunners reimposed themselves and a few minutes later Ginola's frustration boiled over as he elbowed Dixon in the face with the ball on the other side of the pitch. Didn't see the incident myself, but a big roar of outrage from the East stand alerted the ref, the linesman on the opposite side of the pitch waved his flag, and after consulting him the ref showed Ginola the red card.

With Dixon still receiving treatment, there was then the touchline incident between Rioch, McDermott and Keegan which I couldn't see much of either. Anyway there was a lengthy break before order was restored, and the game restarted.

After that the story was mainly of increasingly desperate Newcastle pressure and numerous dangerous Arsenal breaks. The only real chance the Geordies had though was handed to them when Keown and Winterburn got in each other's way attempting to head clear a hoof forward, and the ball fell to Ferdinand unmarked just beyond the corner of the 6-yd box. With plenty of time he completely mishit the volley and sliced it horribly wide.

Meanwhile Arsenal could have increased their lead on several occasions. Wright made a lovely break down the right before playing a nice little ball between defenders into Bergkamp's path, but Peacock just beat him to it. Another break saw, I think a Wright shot blocked, Bergkamp leapt to get his head to the rebound just before Srnicek, and Helder dithered over throwing himself at the ball as it bounced just in front to the goal line, and Barton was able to clear.

On another occasion Arsenal very nearly did make it two. Merson set of on a superb run from inside his own half, carrying the ball almost to the area before playing it inside to Wright on the edge of the box. He took one touch and then whipped in a ferocious shot which beat the keeper all ends up, but bounced out off the post just below the angle. Bergkamp brilliantly flicked the rebound over Albert, and turned to produce a shot on the half volley as it dropped. I thought it was going in, but it missed the far post by a whisker.

It was thus a very nervous final few minutes, but Highbury finally exploded with relief as the match went into injury time. Adams broke up another Newcastle attack and passed the ball out to Bergkamp. The Dutch master carried it over the halfway line before releasing Helder on a charge down the left. Lionel took it on into the area and looked up before chipping in the perfect cross to find Wrighty, and his header from about 8 yards bulleted inside the near post to leave the keeper no chance.

The final few minutes were played out in front of a joyously rejoicing Highbury before the ref finally blew for time. All in all, a wonderfully enjoyable game. Certainly the best Arsenal performance for several weeks as the Gunners battled hard for a game they knew they really had to win.

Adams was named man of the match by big fat Ron, but it could equally have gone to Martin Keown who appeared to have taken over the job of looking after Ferdinand in the 2nd half after Tone had kept him quiet in the first. Dixon gave Ginola a hard time, but apart from that one unpunished foul, there was nothing overtly illegal that he could complain about.

Platt and Jensen both did reasonably well covering in the middle and holding things together, and Platt was making a noticeable effort to make more of his trademark forward runs. I thought Merson did have a quiet match, though to be fair I suspect to some extent that was because he'd been ordered to help Dixon cover Ginola. Helder revelled in the space he was given towards the end of the game, and throughout his final ball was much improved. He was also taking all the corners which were consistently giving Newcastle trouble, and I can only remember one duff one. I do worry about how weak our left side is defensively when there is only Helder to cover Nutty though. He just has no idea about defending.

Bergkamp was certainly trying hard and showed a few of the usual touches of class, but I thought he looked a bit rusty and his touch was a bit off. Arsenal still look better with him in the team though. And once again, Wrighty did the business. In the second half particularly he was giving everything, running all over the place. There is no striker to beat him for the big occasion. By my reckoning that is his 23rd league cup goal for Arsenal in 23 games, and with 139 goals in total for the Gunners he now moves into 3rd place on the all time list, level with Ted Drake.

report by Derek Brownjohn

ArseWeb is NOT the official Arsenal site. The (excellent) official site is here