Arsenal reduced the gap behind Premiership leaders Chelsea to 10 points with a 1-0 win against Newcastle at Highbury in London on Sunday thanks to Dennis Bergkamp’s first-half strike.
The Dutch attacker, making his first start in a month, scored in the 19th minute with a typically classy finish after fine work by Mathieu Flamini to push the north Londoners past Manchester United into second, albeit by a solitary point.
”The team is back on track,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger told Sky Sports afterwards. And the Frenchman insisted he has not given up on the title. ”The best team is always in front but I am convinced we can be the best.
”The potential is there and we are growing again. We want to go from improvement to improvement until the end of the season and see where we can finish.”
After last week’s reverse against Bolton Wanderers, the Gunners were well aware that anything less than a victory would have effectively ended the defence of their Premiership title.
And Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira said his side had bounced back in style: ”I think we played a good game, showed good desire and the team played fantastically well.”
Newcastle boss Graeme Souness, who was involved in a post-match war of words with striker Craig Bellamy over the reasons behind the Wales international’s non-selection, added: ”We rode our luck at times but at 1-0 we were still very much in the game.
”It would maybe have been hard on Arsenal if we’d taken something from the game but that wasn’t to be. They deserved to win.”
The Gunners could have been ahead as early as the first minute.
Thierry Henry played in Ashley Cole on the left and his cross to the back post was headed back across the goal by Robert Pires.
Flamini got a toe to the ball and looked to have scored before Titus Bramble stretched out a leg and cleared the danger.
After Bergkamp’s strike, Arsenal played a measured game, content to wait for their chances rather than expose themselves and risk a counter-attack.
Henry turned on the edge of the area and his volley forced a fine save out of Newcastle goalkeeper Shay Given, and Robert Pires fired a superb effort just wide from 30m.
Without Bellamy’s speed to call on, Souness had to rely on the less pacy Alan Shearer and Shola Ameobi, but in truth, they did little to test their hosts.
Even when Arsenal’s defenders left Ameobi in space in the penalty area, the England Under-21 forward could not take advantage, twice heading over when he had time to place his efforts.
Despite their clear superiority, the Gunners could not find a second goal to kill the game off.
Newcastle, incapable of mounting any sort of sustained challenge to the Arsenal defence and their susceptible goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, could do little but repel attack after attack from their hosts.
Henry had the first clear chance of the second half, latching on to Vieira’s slide-rule pass and slotting the ball beyond Given.
Unfortunately for the Arsenal forward, the ball rebounded off the far post and back into Given’s hands.
That spurred Arsenal back into life, and Pires will take sometime to forget a glaring miss that could have wrapped up the game.
Jose Antonio Reyes did well down the left and when Henry dummied the Spaniard’s low cross, somehow Pires sliced his shot wide of the goal when it seemed easier to score.
Still Arsenal kept coming, Henry missing from Vieira’s pass and recovering to present Ashley Cole with a chance from close range that he really should have converted.
There were signs that Arsenal were starting to play the flowing football that characterised much of their unbeaten championship season last year.
The speed and accuracy of some of the passing was a joy to watch, Pires finding Henry just inside the area before the French forward forced another fine save from Given.
Midway through the second half, Newcastle suffered a blow when £8-million defender Jean-Alain Boumsong limped off with a hamstring injury.
But their day could have ended on a happier note when they came close to stealing an unlikely equaliser with 15 minutes to go.
Shearer, a largely anonymous figure for much of the game, found Lee Bowyer just inside the area but his powerful effort was well saved by Almunia. — Sapa-AFP