Theo
Walcott scored his second hat-trick of the season as Arsenal routed Newcastle
United 7-3 in a pulsating encounter at the Emirates Stadium.
It was the Gunners’ fourth consecutive Barclays Premier League
victory and took Walcott’s goals total for the season to 14, with eight of
those coming in the League and his other treble arriving in the Capital One
Cup.
The result was Newcastle’s fourth defeat in five League matches
and left them in 15thplace, without
an away win all season.
Walcott put Arsenal ahead in the 20th minute
with a curling shot from Lukas Podolski’s pass but Demba Ba levelled just
before half-time when his free-kick deflected in off Jack Wilshere. It was 1-1
at the interval but the floodgates opened in a remarkable second period.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain restored the Gunners’ lead five minutes
after the break through good work by Santi Cazorla. Again the Magpies
equalised, this time through a Sylvain Marveux tap-in after a centre from
Gabriel Obertan.
In an end-to-end contest, Podolski made it 3-2 by heading home
Wilshere’s cross, only for Ba to finish off a glorious cross by Marveux to
level again in the 69th minute.
Arsenal moved up a gear and Kieran Gibbs ran on to a Podolski
pass and pulled the ball back for Walcott to drive his second into the roof of
the net. Substitute Olivier Giroud came on and within 10 minutes had headed in
a Walcott cross to make it 5-3.
The same combination struck again in the 87th minute with a Walcott run being
finished off by Giroud before Walcott scored the goal of the match when he cut
into the area on the left and weaved through the defence before lifting the
ball over Tim Krul.
“The result was not an accurate indication of the match but we
cannot ask much more than three goals and the performance Theo gave today,”
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said.
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew said: “When we got back to 3-3 we
should have shut up shop and for 70 minutes it was pretty tight. But we did not
have the energy to cope with them in the last 20 minutes and some of the goals
we gave away were not good enough for us.”
Arsenal went on to finish fourth and claim the final UEFA
Champions League place by beating Newcastle 1-0 away on the final day of the
season, while Pardew's side avoided being dragged into a relegation battle as
they came 16th, finishing five points clear of the bottom three.
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