Ben Arfa magic seals points for Magpies! Newcastle 2-0 Bolton

toonsy

Ben Arfa takes the plaudits
As games though, I think it’s fair to say that this one won’t be filed in the ‘classics’ archive.

In fact for that bulk of the match everything was finely poised, with the hosts even looking like conceding a goal, until Hatem Ben Arfa produced a moment of magic to tip the balance in favour of the home side.

We’ve now won five games on the spin at just the right time of the season. We now sit level on points with 4th placed Tottenham Hotspur and three points ahead of 6th placed Chelsea, who have a chance to knock us back down to 6th by virtue of goal difference this evening as long as they beat Fulham at Craven Cottage. Should that happen there will be three teams sitting on 59 points and aiming for a Champions League place.

I’d like to say that we won the match with style, but I’d be lying if I did. Instead the game was settled with two moments of real quality, which we’ve been conditioned to believe over the years is a sign of a good team.

Most of the action was reserved for the second half, with returning skipper Fabricio Coloccini proving to be the source of any attacking play of note during the first period – his ball which Demba Ba miscontrolled on the edge of the area was one highlight, with a shot from fully 30 yards being the other.

However the second half sprang to life after a flat and drab first 45 minutes, but it was Bolton who could, and probably should, have drew first blood in the contest of attrition. First there was Chris Eagles, who fired straight at Tim Krul from ten yards after working his way into the penalty area. Then there was Mark Davies, who completely missed his shot from six yards out allowing Tim Krul the time to readjust himself for Davies’ weak second attempt.

With 17 minutes of the game remaining the course of the game changed thanks to a moment of sheer inspiration, and another Goal of the Season contender from Hatem Ben Arfa. Receiving the ball in his own half, Ben Arfa flicked the ball round Mark Davies before spinning round the other way to collect his own flick on. He then charged into the Bolton half beating three defenders with ease before nonchalantly sliding the ball past the Bolton goalkeeper. It really was a magical moment that deserved to change any game.

However gloss was added to the victory ten minutes later when substitute Shola Ameobi – on for the disappointing and rather petulant Demba Ba sent an inch perfect cross which Papiss Cisse converted from six yards out. That’s ten goals in nine games for the new number nine.

From then on the game petered out. It was job done for Newcastle whilst Bolton will have been left feeling that they could have got something out of the game had they managed to convert some of their earlier chances.

Next up we have Stoke at home, but before that we have a 12 day rest. Judging by the flatness of the performance and general lethargy of some of our players today, it is a break that is needed and should ensure that our batteries are sufficiently charged for the final five games of the season.

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon, Yohan Cabaye, James Perch, Jonas Gutierrez, Hatem Ben Arfa, Papiss Cisse, Demba Ba

Subs: Rob Elliot, Shane Ferguson, James Tavernier, Ryan Taylor, Mehdi Abeid, Dan Gosling, Shola Ameobi

Bolton: Adam Bogdan, Gretar Steinsson, David Wheater, Tim Ream, Sam Ricketts, Chris Eagles, Mark Davies, Darren Pratley, Nigel Reo-Coker, Martin Petrov, Kevin Davies

Subs: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Mikel Alonso, Zat Knight, Ivan Klasnic, David Ngog, Marvin Sordell, Ryo Miyachi

Attendance: 52,264

NUFC Blog Man of the Match: Hatem Ben Arfa – Not just for his goal, but for his workrate and willingness to try and make something happen.

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

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163 thoughts on “Ben Arfa magic seals points for Magpies! Newcastle 2-0 Bolton”

  1. i thought that here we go again another wolves game after great win at swansea,then benny stepped in,yes think players will welcome the break imo

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  2. Yay, had been waiting ages for this! COME ON FULHAM!!!

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  4. Great game in the end because of Ben Arfa’s magical goal, but it really was a poor odd 70 minutes indeed. Everyone looked tired and devoid of ideas, Demba Ba having a particularly poor game and justifying what I said the other day about appearing petulant. Really hope pards can sort him out.

    Just to clear-I’m a massive fan of Demba Ba the player but like I said there’s no room for egos and I sincerely hope he isn’t going to start throwing his toys out the pram now just because he’s not the main man anymore, its a bloody team game. He’s looked annoyed in the last couple of the games and his performances seem to be getting worse, not better. If someone like Shola had had as poor a game as Demba had today there would be “fans” screaming for him to be shot, so I only feel its fair to evaluate him in this manner.

    We got cut a little bit from the left and through the centre but regardless I thought Willo, Santon and Simmo all had very good games-Krul with some great saves and poor kicks as usual, Colo glad to be back in but we looked shaky without a defensive mid ahead of us.

    The subs-fergie and Shola were great shouts, Fergie has bags of pace and was all over the pitch-showed us what a player who isn’t tired can do. Shola helped out loads, great strength and a cross for Cisse’s goal and can help see out a game. If we’re going to revert to 4-4-2 then he needs more time, because hoofing it to Cisse and Ba just doesn’t work, they aren’t those kind of players despite being tallish and strongish.

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  5. Does anyone know what the Clean Sheet table looks like?

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  6. onwards and upwards 😉 😉
    and a special mention must go to the everton reserves for handing out a spanking to the unwashed 😆 😆
    which makes us the top dogs for a change 😉 😉
    just hope fulham can do to chelsea, what they done to us a couple of weeks ago 🙂

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  8. Who has the most? Hart? De Gea? Cech? Vorm?

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  11. JOE HART (Man City, 13 clean sheets this season)

    TIM KRUL (Newcastle, 13)

    MICHEL VORM (Swansea, 12)

    BRAD FRIEDEL (Spurs, 11)

    JOSE REINA (Liverpool, 11)

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  14. geordie ref @ fulham v chelsea game 😯 😯
    wonder, just wonder, if fulham get some 50 / 50 decisions tonight??
    fecking hope so 😉

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  15. Good job Toonsy lad what a funny old game it was starting to look like it was going to turn into a nightmare, then Benny turned it on.

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  16. Ben Arfa Ben Arfa Ben Arfa Ben Arfa Ben Arfa Ben Arfa Ben Arfa Ben Arfa Ben Arfa Ben Arfa Ben Arfa GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

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  18. Dave – definitely agree about fergie. Very smart positionally, kept the ball well, brought much needed energy in the second half and ran at the defence once or twice when the chance was there. Promising. Another that needs game time

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  20. And shola always looks a threat coming on from the bench in fairness to him. Just doesn’t look the same when he starts the game. I’d say it was his legs if he started games well and then faded, but he just doesn’t seem to play with the same urgency. Not a bad option on the right on a 3 – has a great cross on him

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  26. Howay Fulham, ffs win one! Even a draw against your bitter blue rivals would be feckin mint.

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  27. Great win for the lads today. Not the best performance but I did not think that the referee helped today he should have been booking the Bolton players for repetitive fouling in my opinion. It was stop start all the way through but King Arfa’s goal was immense got to be goal of the season.

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  28. Ba seems happy enough now…

    Demba Ba ‏ @dembabafoot Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
    Have you seen messi at SJP this afternoon??? Haha

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  29. song for ben arda! Anything messi does ben arfa does better anything he can do benny does better! 🙂

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  30. Big Dave- tough to recall a match where fergie hasn’t done well to be honest.

    Not getting my hopes up for CL as we have about as brutal a final 3 matches as you can have, but the lads are giving it a go and fair play to them.

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  31. Bloody penalties man!

    I swear this season we’ve earned what, three? Given away 10? These things do not “even each other out” 🙄

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  32. Areet Peeps.
    Wow wot a stunna from the Geordie Messi.
    Beardsley esk, if I say so myself.

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  34. Goal difference is gonna be our achilles heel I’m afraid.
    We are too far away from Spuds and Chelsea and Arsenal.
    2 matches that will come back to bite us. Spuds 5 and Fulham 5

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  35. Beardsley-I know what you mean, but if we lost out on champions league solely to goal difference it would still be unbelieveable. If we got to that stage we can’t blame ourselves, if we take maximum points then we take maximum points, its all we can do. You could say we should have battered teams better than 1-0 or 2-1 earlier in the season rather than playing safe, but then we may well have thrown points away then.

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  36. Seemed like the Lads were buckling from the pressure and weight of expectation, along with the short break between matches. Until Hatems 8 seconds of pure magic.
    Thats some skill there, as its really not that easy to finish off at the speed he was travelling, aswell as dodging multiple tackles etc.
    But he was so focused and determined, that nothing was gonna stop him.
    Breath taking stuff.
    It just gets better the more you look at it.

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  37. Fulham have been the better side from what I’ve seen…still i guess we should be grateful we got the 3points today.

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  38. a kna Newkie, it just would be a shame if we dipped out due to GD.
    Of course the Chelsea away match will be the biggee and probably deciding result.
    HTL

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  40. What a strike by penny! Am I right in thinking Cable has now 3 assists in last 3 games?

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  42. Set up both of Cissés vs Swansea, Johno, so 3 in 2. As much as that may go down as an assist though its all benny 😉 cabaye’s been great since we changed formation, much more freedom

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  66. Sitting 5th if only we’d never shipped them two lots of 5 goals and beat wolves at home 😉

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  67. that Frei seems like a decent player like doesn’t he, would love someone in that mould, can play on the left wing or on the left of a midfield 3

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  70. Bolton gave us a really good game today to be fair to them. They didnt come up and just park a bus like I thought they would, they really had a go and fair play to them for that like.
    But Bennys goal just looked like he was saying “right, I’ve had enough now like”.
    There are very few players in the premier league who could score a goal like that and he’s really backing Pardews decision to change the formation and play him through the middle.
    I think the players will certainly benefit the players now and allow them all to have a well earned rest and let those who have injuries to fully recover and push on for at least 5th place because I think today’s win guarantees us 6th.

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  72. What result do we want next week?

    Obviously a win for us…

    But Arsenal vs Chelsea?

    I’m thinking Arsenal win so we put a five point gap between ourselves and Chelsea… Would go a long way to securing top five…

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  73. Dempsey you beauty!!!!!!

    Yeah OH- very happy for his success this year. The guy came from nothing and worked his socks off to get where he is today….

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