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For Arsenal things seem to remain forever the same, while Newcastle are crying out for a change.
The Gunners cruised to a 3-0 win over the Magpies at the Emirates Stadium last night, as goals from Laurent Koscielny, Mesut Ozil and Olivier Giroud secured one of the more comfortable wins of their campaign, which looks destined to finish with them in the top four for the 18th successive season, a season in which they’ll again finish above Tottenham.
Times are troubled at Newcastle though, with their fans repeatedly calling for returning manager Alan Pardew — back from his touchline ban — to be sacked from a position he’s held since December 2010.
Newcastle had actually made a decent but limited start but Arsenal gradually found their rhythm and Ozil fired wide after Tim Krul had done well to punch away Santi Cazorla’s fine cross, before another Cazorla delivery resulted in the opening goal after 26 minutes.
The Spaniard’s floating delivery from a free-kick was turned in by a sliding Koscielny.
That was almost the signal for the floodgates to open but Krul denied Lukas Podolski twice.
That next goal was imminent though and came three minutes before the break when Giroud ran onto Bacary Sagna’s through ball and, after slashing two shots at Krul, watched on as Ozil tapped in the second of them after it had been parried by the Dutchman.
It was now simply a case of how many Arsenal would score, with Newcastle fans venting their anger at Pardew with increasing volume.
Yoann Gouffran did at least test Wojciech Szczesny but fellow Frenchman Giroud soon showed how it was done with a firm header from Ozil’s cross.
Again, it was all too easy.
Arsene Wenger was able to withdraw Ozil, Giroud and the excellent Aaron Ramsey before the end and said afterwards: “It’s a step forward. But it (fourth) is not done yet. To get over the line is always difficult and we need to do the final job well.”
On the fans’ protests, Pardew said: “They’re frustrated. There were 2,000 here, they’ve seen us lose again, they’re not happy and I respect that.”
