Newcastle, despite being quite dull and poor, have been on TV a lot recently for some reason. As for Arsenal, it's seemed at times this year like every single match they struggle to break down defensive opponents and end up drawing 0-0. So I wasn't massively looking forward to Newcastle v Arsenal, especially when I heard that the Magpies were going to drop their main goalscorer Michael Owen and play Oba Martins on his own up front.
The match started completely differently to how I expected however, with both teams attacking incisively and creating chances. Martins missed two good opportunities, Van Persie somehow contrived not to score when through on goal, and the lively Arshavin almost scored goal of the season after a driving run and thunderous long range shot. To cap it all, Martins then missed a penalty.
All of this was in the first half, remarkably it was still 0-0 at the break. Newcastle's excellent young defender Sebastian Bassong had gone off injured, so they'd had to bring Habib Beye off the bench for the first time in months, and move Steven Taylor in from right back to centre back. The game looked like goals in every way. The spread quotes at half time were 1.3-1.5 - I didn't think the bookmakers had reacted enough to the openness of the game and Bassong's injury. I really thought that 1.5 for the rest of the game looked low, so BOUGHT TOTAL GOALS AT 1.5.
It's difficult to tell after a lively first half if things will carry on in the same way. Often, the momentum of the game can be stopped by the half-time interval and it's more disjointed after the break. There were still a few chances early on in the second half, but it wasn't as extreme as the first period.
However, Nicklas Bendtner did, after a while, put Arsenal ahead with a header from a free kick. Fortunately, before Newcastle's heads had time to go down they'd equalised through Martins, just one minute after they'd gone behind. So I'd already won by half a goal, with over half an hour left and Arsenal needing the win and pushing forward.
Things looked even better for the bet when Steven Taylor went down injured, leaving Newcastle with just one recognised centre-back in the team, Coloccini. While he was off the field receiving treatment, Abou Diaby burst through a Taylor-shaped gap in the centre of defence to make it 2-1. Taylor was substituted for Michael Owen, obviously an attacking move, which meant the returning Beye had to go in central defence for the rest of the game.
We all know that Arsenal are not the sort of team to ease off when they're ahead. They've given out a lot of absolute hammerings in the last few years and I was hopeful that Newcastle's low confidence would yield more goals for the Gunners. Nasri scored again three minutes after Diaby, but unfortunately there weren't any more, even though Arsenal had several chances to extend their lead further. I was slightly lucky with Taylor's injury, but the buy of goals at 0-0 at half time turned out to be an excellent 2.5 point winner.
AR
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