Sport

Arsenal secure the runners-up spot with draw

Arsenal sealed their place as runnersup in the Premiership by collecting the point they needed at Newcastle, but they were made…

Wed May 16 2001 - 01:00

Arsenal sealed their place as runnersup in the Premiership by collecting the point they needed at Newcastle, but they were made to fight all the way for it. Bobby Robson's side, stirred by recent criticism after a poor run, produced a performance full of character to shackle the Gunners in a hugely entertaining game which ended goalless but was packed with goalmouth incident.

Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry went close for the visitors, and Ray Parlour saw a viciously-struck goal-bound effort superbly turned away by Shay Given.

But home strikers Carl Cort and Kevin Gallacher were equally, if not even more, impressive as they gave Tony Adams and Martin Keown a tough night's work.

At the back too, there were creditable performances from the home side in the face of a stern examination, and their reward was just a second clean sheet in 33 attempts.

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Arsene Wenger made three changes to his starting line-up from Saturday's Cup final defeat, as Bergkamp came in for Sylvain Wiltord, Lauren replaced Fredrik Ljungberg and Parlour returned at the expense of Gilles Grimandi. However, with the prize at stake, all three omissions were named on a strong bench.

Arsenal's pace and movement were at times frightening as Henry and Robert Pires in particular threatened to carve holes in the home defence, but on each occasion that the seemed certain to break through, a last-ditch tackle arrived to thwart them.

But far from sitting back and trying to soak up the pressure, Newcastle instead caused as many problems at the other end as their opponents. Cort had gone into the game vowing to show the home fans just how good he can be, and despite the exalted company of England duo Adams and Keown, he made a real nuisance of himself.

He fired just wide from Nolberto Solano's cross on 10 minutes and sent a diving header even closer 14 minutes later, and he would have had a penalty had Lee Dixon not got away with a blatant tug on his shirt.

As time ran down, the home side began to enjoy an increasing share of the possession. Stephen Glass set the alarm bells ringing in the Gunners' defence with a 20yard snapshot which blazed over Seaman's bar.

The England goalkeeper had to beat away a 76th-minute Gallacher shot and there were fresh appeals for a penalty as Christian Bassedas appeared to get a nudge in the back as he tried to reach Cort's header back across goal.

But it was Given who pulled off the save of the game 11 minutes from time after Parlour ran into space on the right and delivered a thunderbolt towards the top corner which the Irishman did brilliantly to turn away.

NEWCASTLE: Given, Barton, O'Brien, Hughes, Dabizas, Solano, Glass, Bassedas, Speed, Gallacher (Ameobi 80), Cort. Subs Not Used: Harper, Quinn, Lua-Lua, McClen. Booked: Solano.

ARSENAL: Seaman, Dixon, Cole, Keown, Adams, Vieira, Parlour, Lauren, Pires, Bergkamp (Kanu 69), Henry. Subs Not Used: Ljungberg, Wiltord, Manninger, Grimandi.

Referee: A Wiley (Burntwood).