NEWCASTLE 1 ARSENAL 3:AS A REGULAR casino visitor Mike Ashley surely appreciates the perils of high-stakes gambles but he appears strangely oblivious to the gargantuan risk involved in leaving Newcastle United effectively managerless.
Should Newcastle, now third from bottom, fall out of the Premier League, though, the sports retailer will suffer the financial equivalent of severe pneumonia.
With Joe Kinnear, whose short-term managerial contract expires in June, convalescing from major heart surgery and the team having gone five games without a win under Hughton’s caretaker charge, Newcastle clearly lack leadership.
The word is that nothing will change until Kinnear’s expected return in mid April but Newcastle’s manager has admitted that everything hinges on a check-up scheduled for April 6th.
“It’s D-Day for me,” he said. “If I pass all the tests I’ll have the green light.”
Noting that “if” is a loaded word and remembering the club would forfeit millions by falling into the Championship, Ashley should surely have paid Kinnear off and asked Terry Venables, Alan Curbishley or David O’Leary if they fancied a short-term challenge. All three are available and, unlike Hughton – a fine coach but not a manager – possess the sort of authority and clout required to drag Newcastle’s individually talented but collectively underachieving players to safety.
Ominously, Newcastle’s two best recent performances have come in losing to Arsenal and Manchester United – they gave Arsene Wenger’s team a few first-half frights here and may not have lost had Sebastien Bassong and Steven Taylor not limped off – but the players clearly struggle to motivate themselves against “lesser” opposition.
“Newcastle have enough quality to get out of it but the longer this goes on the more dangerous it gets,” said Wenger, whose young side are now unbeaten in 16 Premier League games. “It will be very close for them now.”
Arsenal’s manager expressed “surprise” at Hughton’s decision to omit Michael Owen but the erstwhile England striker struggled after replacing Taylor. By then Newcastle were 2-1 down. After Obafemi Martins saw a poorly struck penalty saved by Manuel Almunia, Nicklas Bendtner headed Arsenal ahead before Martins levelled on the volley.
With Taylor having touchline treatment the impressive Abou Diaby – subsequently likened to Patrick Vieira by Wenger – powered through the middle to score number two. By the time Samir Nasri added a deserved, sublimely executed third, Wenger was smiling broadly. Everyone enjoys being vindicated and Arsenal’s manager is certainly delighting in politely putting his critics in their place.
“Of course it’s nice that I was right,” admitted a man whose insistence on persisting with youth when all around him were urging investment in experience has not been misplaced after all. “I knew criticism would hit me. But it’s very exciting when you work at something and it starts to come right.” Watching the wonderfully balanced and perceptive Andrey Arshavin repeatedly use the ball to incisive effect and Robin van Persie conjure all sorts of danger, Aston Villa must certainly have felt fourth place slipping from their grasp.
What Newcastle would give for Villa’s woes though. Despite Hughton’s protestation that “we have enough winnable games left”, the caretaker conceded he is experiencing “sleepless nights”.
* Guardian Service
