Barclays Premier League: Newcastle United stun Arsenal with a 0-1 Away victory

Barclays Premier League Update : Arsenal slumped to a second home defeat this season as Newcastle United's spirited efforts saw them beat the gunners 0-1 at the Emirates stadium.

andy_carroll

Arsenal's Key players, Cesc Fabregas , Andrei Arshavin , Alex Song and Robin van Persie were all back into the squad after missing out in the Champions League match against Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday.

Newcastle went into the match brimming with confidence following the 5-1 win over Sunderland and having scored nine goals in their last three games.

Arsenal had their first real chance of the game in the 12^th minute when Fabregas' free kick smacked the Bar after taking a deflection off the wall. Again in the 18^th minute the Gunners captain came close to scoring as he shrugged off Tiote and managed to turn and shoot inside, only to be deflected wide by the Newcastle goalkeeper.

The match seemed to be running at a pretty slow pace by now and the Newcastle defence was doing a pretty good job and striker Andy Carroll was the liveliest of the Newcastle players as he troubled the Gunners winning most of the Aerial balls.

The Gunners came close to scoring twice in as many minutes first in the 39^th minute when Nasri laid in a ball to Fabregas whose shot was deflected into the side netting and a minute later Nasri was denied by a wonderful save from the Magpies keeper after Fabregas cut back a ball to Nasri who hit a fierce shot towards top corner.

But it was the Magpies who took the lead a minute before the half time as the liveliest of the lot, Andy Carroll, headed the ball into an empty net after Fabianski missed out as he came out to claim the ball off a Barton free-kick.

A woeful error by the Arsenal goalkeeper saw them end the half time 0-1 behind.

The second half saw Arsenal run out of luck again as Walcott smacked the bar as he broke into the area and side-footed the ball onto the woodwork in the 48^th minute.

But the game was then evenly balanced as a fighting Newcastle defence along with the midfield showed great character and determination to hold on to the lead.

With 35 minutes left, the Gunners made a change and sent on Andrei Arshavin to replace Nasri, then introduced Robin van Persie for the his first appearance since the end of August after an ankle injury and then played their last throw of the dice by bringing on Nicklas Bendtner in place of Wilshere with just 17 minutes left.

In the 80^th minute Arsenal came close to levelling the score after Arshavin pulled one back to Fabregas from by-line whose header was saved by the Newcastle goalkeeper and a injury time red card to centre-half Koscielny only added insult to injury.

The match ended 1-0 in favour of Newcastle United and their hard work throughout the match was deservedly paid off.

All in all it was a sloppy performance from the Gunners and would have to work really hard in order to stay in the race for the title.

The Newcastle United boss would be delighted with the strong performance away from home and particularly with the form of striker Andy Carroll.

Man of the Match: Andy Carroll: Superb performance by the Newcastle striker as he troubled the Arsenal defenders throughout the 90 minutes with his ability to win the aerial balls and also scored the one and only goal which won them the match.