Vieira’s first-half cracker guns down tigerish Toon

Newcastle 0 Arsenal 1

Patrick Vieira’s deflected strike deep into first-half injury time was enough to claim all three points in a contest which was as close as the scoreline suggests.

The Magpies will count themselves as desperately unfortunate not to have come away with something to show for their efforts. They will feel they should have had a penalty minutes before the Gunners got the decisive goal when Ashley Cole appeared to handle inside the box, although referee Steve Bennett was unimpressed.

Arsenal were as slick and enterprising as ever, but Graeme Souness’ side matched them for long periods. Without injured duo Alan Shearer and Patrick Kluivert, despite a good performance from Shola Ameobi, they lacked a cutting edge.

Having seen their side fail to win at St James’ Park in their last six attempts, the Toon Army turned up knowing the odds on them ending that run were not promising but determined to play their part. For all but a few seconds of the 46 minutes which comprised the first half, the team on the pitch responded in much the fashion the one in the stands would have hoped, harrying their opponents when in possession and breaking with pace and flair when they managed to wrestle the ball away from them.

They may not have been the better side before the break and they may have had to soak up wave after wave of attacks, but they were far from out-classed. The pace and touch of the Gunners was, as ever, almost frightening, but Newcastle’s refusal to wilt was just as admirable.

Shay Given got his slice of good fortune with just four minutes gone when Robin van Persie’s shot hit him in the face, and Ameobi cleared a Sol Campbell header off the line as the Gunners attacked at every opportunity.

However, with the home side’s midfield five - Craig Bellamy, Lee Bowyer, Jermaine Jenas, Kieron Dyer and Laurent Robert - snapping into tackles and closing down space, they were always in the hunt.

Ameobi had forced a good save from Manuel Almunia with a curling ninth minute shot, although Bennett enraged the home side by awarding a goal-kick, and he was to become less popular as the game wore on.

Tight contests often turn on a handful of key moments, and two arrived in the final six minutes of the first half. First Bennett failed to award what almost everybody else inside St James’ thought was a clear penalty when Cole appeared to handle Jenas’ cross as he tried to prevent Bellamy from reaching it.

The Magpies were still bemoaning their luck in injury time when it took a turn for the worse as Vieira got the benefit of a kind ricochet and fired in a shot which hit Jenas and looped up over the stranded Given to hand the visitors the lead.

Thierry Henry continued to terrorise down the left as the second half got under way, but with Bellamy and Robert playing their part in wide areas for Newcastle, the contest remained on a knife-edge.

They might have been level on 53 minutes had Bowyer managed to maintain his balance as he ran on to Bellamy’s pull back, but he did not and the ball cleared Almunia’s crossbar by some distance.

But the Gunners might have extended their lead on 62 minutes after Robert Pires and Henry created an opening for van Persie, although he shot well wide. Lauren left the pitch on a stretcher 18 minutes from time after injuring himself in making a dreadful challenge on Olivier Bernard, and his return a couple of minutes later was greeted with a chorus of boos.

However, by that point, his side was in real trouble after van Persie had been penalised for a trip on Bowyer and Freddie Ljungberg compounded the problem by arguing and earning the home side another 10 yards.

Robert’s free-kick hit the Swede in the defensive wall and the rebound was scrambled away with time running desperately short.

Jenas sent a dipping volley straight into Almunia’s arms with seconds of injury time remaining, but there was to be no late twist.

NEWCASTLE: Given, Taylor, Bramble, Hughes, Bernard (N’Zogbia 87), Dyer, Bowyer, Jenas, Robert, Bellamy, Ameobi.

ARSENAL: Almunia, Lauren, Toure, Campbell, Cole, Ljungberg, Vieira, Flamini, Pires, Henry, Van Persie (Clichy 76).

Referee: S Bennett.