Article:Cannonballs: Can We Play Newcastle Every Week?

That question does seem hold something given the fact that Arsenal have recently played Newcastle United twice in a row and come away with two 3-0 wins. Saturday saw the Gunners beat the Geordies in the FA Cup 4th round and yesterday saw the boys in red and white win against the black and white clad lads in the league. Two wins by the same scoreline against a team that has just hired their "savior" as manager one Kevin Keegan. To be honest neither game saw Arsenal all that troubled by King Kev's team.

Of the six goals that Arsenal scored against Newcastle 3 of them came from the tremendously in form Emmanuel Adebayor. The big man from Togo scored twice in the FA Cup and notched one goal last evening. One thing that I think all Arsenal fans can be grateful for is the fact that Togo failed to qualify for the African Cup of Nations. Clearly the dear Adebayor is our biggest scoring threat and had he been playing for Togo instead of Arsenal right now the goals would have been harder to come by.

Speaking of the African Cup of Nations it seems that Kolo Toure has picked up some sort of groin injury while playing for Ivory Coast. It has also been reported that Toure flew from Ghana to France to receive treatment for the injury. Hopefully the injury will not be one of those lingering ones. I also hope that he does not make it worse as Ivory Coast appear to be one of the stronger teams in the tournament and they will go through to the next round.

Another player that deserves special mention is Mathieu Flamini. Yesterday he scored an absolute stunner of a goal. Flamini got the ball about 30 yards out to the left of goal and then shot a rocket into the far upper corner. It was one of those goals that left me saying things like "Oooooooo" and "OOOOOOoooo" and "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO", well you get the picture. Not only did he score a fantastic goal he was for my money the best player on the pitch. His relentless effort and energy in the midfield allows the entire to get forward and also provides some very important cover for the defenders. Given all that it was nice to see today that the official club's website's lead story is that Flamini wants to sign a new deal to remain at the Emirates. This is one deal that needs to be done as soon as possible. Mathieu has proven his worth this season now get the deal done so I no longer have to worry.