Habib Beye Watch at Arsenal

Newcastle were given a timely reminder of the power of the top four and how paper-thin the current squad is. Habib Beye soldiered on bravely with his injured ankle and was unfortunate not to intercept with a number of last ditch tackles. A typically full blooded performance from Beye was devoid of his trademark charges and a foul tackle by Fabregas seemed to take it's toll on Beye who was replaced in the second half by David Edgar. We'd prefer to see Habib take a breather for the Hull game and come back strong after resting over the international break too,

Shola Ameobi lumbered upfront with an understandably less than sharp Michael Owen and the toothless attack meant that there was no respite for the Newcastle rearguard. Beaten three times, Shay Given was arguably Newcastle's man of the match and kept the sc0reline respectable.

We'll leave the speculation to continue about who NUFC will sign. Suffice to say Milner would have made a difference and the current squad needs more quality soon if we are to get anything from away days such as this.