Features
Away days: Arsenal
Written by Tom Easterby
The Magpies will travel to London to take on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in their penultimate away game before Christmas later this year…
Club: Arsenal
Stadium: Emirates Stadium
Capacity: 60,432
Distance from St. James’ Park: 273 miles
Previous Premier League visits: 9 (1 win, 1 draw, 7 defeats)
Since it opened in 2006, the Emirates Stadium hasn’t provided the happiest of memories for travelling Newcastle United fans. In fact, the Magpies have only won once on the Gunners’ patch since they moved from Highbury – a 1-0 victory in November 2010, which came courtesy of an Andy Carroll header.
United’s first visit to the impressive 60,000-seater stadium came in November 2006, when Kieron Dyer’s goal put Newcastle ahead before Thierry Henry pegged them back with 20 minutes remaining to earn a 1-1 draw for the hosts.
Since then, though, Arsene Wenger’s men have had much the better of the two sides, winning the other seven encounters, including a 3-0 triumph in what was Kevin Keegan’s first away game of his second spell in charge of the club in 2008.
It is a trend that Rafa Benitez will be hoping to buck when his team travel to the capital in their second-last league game prior to Christmas on Saturday, 16th December, and he can perhaps take heart from a handful of memorable results in North London in the Premier League era; there was a 3-2 win at Highbury in the 1994/95 season where Ruel Fox’s strike proved decisive, with United in the middle of an 11-game unbeaten run to start the league season, and a 3-1 win in December 2001 which sent Sir Bobby Robson’s side to the top of the table.