Newcastle United...0 Arsenal...2: Arsenal increasingly look the team most likely to deny Manchester United a fourth successive Premier League title. Saturday's game at St James' Park was billed as a meeting of heavyweight contenders, but turned out to be draughts against chess. Laurent Robert and Robert Pires simply did not belong on the same board.
Even now, only two points separate Arsenal, lying second, from fourth-placed Newcastle United, but rather more lay between the sides in a contest which demonstrated the difference between dominating a game territorially and actually winning it.
Newcastle might have seen a lot of the ball, but in the matter of making the best use of it their vision was often blurred. Too many of their movements were based on guesswork, whereas Arsenal, still unbeaten away from home in the league, knew exactly what they were about and achieved far more with far less attacking effort.
Dennis Bergkamp gave them an early lead with an illusionist's trick, Sol Campbell broke off briefly from an outstanding performance in Arsenal's defence to head their second before half-time, and thereafter Newcastle chased shadows.
"They've taken three points off us just as we took three points off them," Bobby Robson said, seeking solace in statistical reality. Yet the 3-1 victory his team achieved at Highbury just before Christmas, which was Arsenal's last defeat, will remain significant only if Newcastle can convince themselves that Saturday's setback was more a consequence of the opposition's excellence than any failings on their part.
Robson's side still look worth a place in next season's Champions League qualifiers. They have been more consistent than Chelsea and more disciplined, on the field anyway, than Leeds.
That challenge will be renewed on Wednesday if Newcastle get something from their visit to Anfield where Liverpool, lying third, have dropped 16 points already this season. For that to happen, Robson's team will have to produce some evidence that the loss of Craig Bellamy with a knee injury is not insurmountable.
The combination of speed, skill, tenacity and an ability to create serious disturbances in opposing penalty areas which Bellamy brings to Newcastle's game was badly missed on Saturday.
Only the willingness of the 19-year-old Jermaine Jenas to get forward and support Alan Shearer through the middle promised them something remotely similar.
Robson tried to convince himself that Newcastle had been the better team in the first half. But the football man in him knew better. "We didn't play badly but we lost to a very good team," he admitted.
The ease with which Arsenal shrugged off the loss of Thierry Henry, who had a groin injury, was crucial to their victory. A Frenchman's speed of movement was replaced by a Dutchman's speed of thought, and, for Patrick Vieira, Pires and Sylvain Wiltord, blending with Bergkamp was no different.
Having survived 10 minutes or so of ardent but artless Newcastle attacks, Arsenal took the lead with what was less a mere goal than a tale of mystery and imagination. Bergkamp swept a pass out to Pires on the left, then moved forward and called for a centre which was duly provided.
As the ball reached him, and under pressure from Nikos Dabizas, Bergkamp controlled the ball at a touch then spun like a diabolo, utterly confusing the Greek defender. On completing his turn, and without pausing, Bergkamp slipped a simple shot past Shay Given while St James' Park rubbed its eyes.
Newcastle's defenders weren't very clever when Arsenal scored their second in the 41st minute. Bergkamp's free-kick from the right found Andy O'Brien going with Vieira but Dabizas failing at the far post to pick up Campbell who headed past Given on the bounce.
NEWCASTLE UNITED: Given, Hughes (Cort 82), Distin, O'Brien, Dabizas, Solano, Jenas, Speed, Robert, Ameobi (Lua-Lua 64), Shearer. Subs Not Used: Elliott, Acuna, Harper.
ARSENAL: Seaman, Dixon, Stepanovs, Campbell, Luzhny, Lauren, Vieira, Grimandi, Pires, Bergkamp (Kanu 70), Wiltord (Edu 87). Subs Not Used: Wright, Aliadiere, Halls. Booked: Pires. Goals: Bergkamp 11, Campbell 41.
Referee: N Barry (Scunthorpe).
