Gary Lineker: Good evening and welcome to Match of the Day for our thoughts on the 2014/15 Premier League season! It seems the race will be as tight as ever this time around and as we all know it is those direct 6-pointer clashes that play a decisive part in deciding who will fly and who will fall. For this reason we will be focusing solely on those giant games in Match of the Day. Stay with us as Alan Hansen and Alan Shearer aid me on analyzing the key aspects of what happened and why it happened for you!
Gary Lineker: Arsenal welcomed league leaders and reigning champions Newcastle to the Emirates in hope to put the disastrous weekend loss behind. The postponed midweek game gave them just the opportunity to do so while keeping an eye on how the Manchester derby went in the same time. Newcastle were also hopeful of registering a good score to at least open a gap to Chelsea. It was the Gunners to start in a brilliant manner though with Candreva scoring an early opener to sent the home crowd into ruptures. The Magpies went looking for an equalizer but the goal gave Arsenal new-found belief and they struck again on the half hour mark with a good Giroud finish from inside the box. Newcastle wouldn't give up despite the two-goal deficit at half time and pulled one back through a Januzaj cross the home keeper misjudged badly to let it end up in his net. That was all the visitors could pull out though and it was Arsenal taking the three points at the Emirates.
Alan Hansen: I felt the Gunners wanted it more in the first half and once the early goal went in and the home fans got behind their team it was an uphill struggle for the Magpies. They were aggressive and creative as usual but lacked their famous bite in the final third and the equalizer didn't come to fruition despite the triple shake-up subs Hristov tried in the second half. By the way I am still at a loss why he withdrew Januzaj when chasing the game, the kid was looking sharp and didn't seem tired to me.
Alan Shearer: Other than the Arsenal goalscorers, I was impressed with Diego Reyes and Ben Davies who created the goals for the hosts. We simply must highlight the incredible PoM worthy performance by captain Vermaelen, who completely erased memories from the nightmare game he had last weekend. Januzaj was the only bright light in a largely threatening but even more wasteful Newcastle team.
Gary Lineker: This is a massive win for Arsenal and they can now look forward to the run in knowing they can get the results required to retain this golden 4th position. The Magpies had a poor game but must not dwell on it as they still have it all in their hands with so few games left to play.
