Thomas Vermaelen scored a last-gasp winner as the Gunners moved to within a point of third-placed Tottenham.

Haten Ben Arfa gave the visitors a shock lead with an acute low finish that managed to creep inside Woljciech Szczesney’s left post.

But the Magpies’s lead only lasted for a minute, after Theo Walcott fired in a cross into Robin van Persie, with the Dutchman letting the ball run before finishing smartly into the bottom right corner of Tim Krul’s net.

Tempers flared at the final whistle after Vermaelen’s dramatic winner as Arsene Wenger’s side managed to come from behind for a fourth successive game.

It was the first time in Premier League history that a side had ever managed to come back from behind on four consecutive occasions.

And it was a fighting spirit and never-say-die attitude that was needed to do just that, keeping the Gunners’s Champions League hopes in tact as a 12-point gap between Wenger’s side and their arch-rivals only six games ago was reduced to a mere point.

The result piled further misery on Newcastle, ending their North London trips for the season with two successive losses after the humiliating 5-0 defeat to Tottenham only a month ago.

But Alan Pardew’s side struck the first blow, as Mikel Arteta clumsily lost the ball in his own half to find a grateful Cheick Tiote. The Ivory Coast midfielder found Ben Arfa on the right, who turned Kieran Gibbs with consummate ease, to then finish stylishly past an unexpected Szczesney low past inside near-post.

It was a movement filled with the utmost guile and swiftness that belied Arsenal’s dominance in the first fifteen minutes.

And it was a sheer testament to Arsenal’s new found resolve and resilience that they immediately managed to draw level, as Theo Walcott raced past the poor Davide Santon - substituted at half-time for James Perch - and Jonas Gutierrez, to cross in for van Persie.

With 44 goals from his last 45 league games, it was no surprise to see the Dutchman find the net once more as he collected Walcott’s cross from the right, dropping his shoulder before firing past a reeling Mike Williamson and Tim Krul.

All the momentum was now with Wenger’s side. But the match almost became a side issue as tempers began to flare up between Alex Song and Cheick Tiote, with the Ivory Coast international lucky to escape a booking after sinking his studs into the Cameroonian’s ankle with an ill-timed challenge.

The arrival of the second half saw more Arsenal pressure, with Mikel Arteta and Tomas Rosicky – who signed a new two-year-contract earlier today – going close.
Rosicky, who had a game that typified his recent resurgence in form, was guilty of one of the misses of the match, skewing his shot wide with the goal at his mercy after more good work from Walcott.

Robin van Persie then joined the skewing-party, shooting wide with his right foot as the Gunners became even more desperate for a winner.

Wenger brought on Gervinho and Aaron Ramsey in search of just that. And it was the Ivorian that made the greater impact, missing from five yards after failing to properly connect with Arteta’s freekick.

It was a performance that typified the winger’s season, dribbling past his opponents with ease before fluffing his lines in front of goal.

As the Emirates raised its voice, as did the Gunners’s urgency, with Tim Krul pulling of a superb save to deny Thomas Vermaelen’s goal-bound header.

But it was the Belgian that would have the last laugh, driving into the box to sweep in Walcott’s half-cleared cross.

Ugly scenes then transpired between Dutch colleagues Tim Krul and van Persie, the former squaring up to the Arsenal captain after Vermaelen’s late, dramatic winner.
 

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About the author
Jay Allan
Jay is our Tennis and Arsenal Editor at Vavel.com. He harbours unlikely ambitions to become the new Manish Bahsin from the Football League Show, and even unlikelier aspirations to mould himself into a half-Indian version of Des Lynam.