Game of Toon halves
Monday 7 February 2011 11:54, UK
Newcastle's dream draw dominates Kammy's picks, but Wolves and Everton get a mention too.
Chris Kamara's Picks of the Premier League weekend
Every Saturday afternoon, Chris Kamara heads to stadiums up and down the country to deliver his unique match reports for Soccer Saturday. On Sundays you can see him back in the Sky Sports studios as he brings you all of the highlights on Goals on Sunday. And then on Mondays you can find Kammy right here on skysports.com as he brings you his picks of the weekend. Join us every week as he runs through his highs and lows... GAME - Newcastle 4-4 Arsenal
This was a Premier League classic. At 4-0 to Arsenal the game was all over and even when they went down to 10 men you couldn't really see anybody coming back against them because they play such good football and can destroy teams on the break. I know Arsene Wenger had some cause for complaint, especially over the soft second penalty, but you have to give the credit to Newcastle for building up their momentum. You won't see anything like that again. It was crazy!
This was an amazing weekend of football overall. We've had some wonderful times on Soccer Saturday over the years, but this week all the pundits had a fantastic game at the same time. Everybody was buzzing and it was all-round entertainment for the viewers.
TEAM - Newcastle
I've never played in a team that has come back from 4-0 down. I've been in dressing rooms when you're a few goals down at half time and the manager always tells you to make sure you win the second half. I'm sure Alan Pardew will have spoken to his players at half-time and asked them to restore some pride for the supporters who had turned up. I'm sure he wasn't expecting any more than that, but they came away with a point!
That's the beauty of football. Who'd have thought Newcastle would do that? Who'd have thought Liverpool would go to Chelsea and win on Fernando Torres' debut? It was an amazing weekend with so much to talk about.
GOAL - Cheik Tiote
I was down at Spurs and I was listening to the lads down the line in the studio when it got to 4-3. I was just waiting for that little scream that Thommo does and when it came I knew immediately what had happened, as hard as it was to believe.
When I saw the goal, it was absolutely fantastic, especially under the circumstances. When you're team has come back from 4-0 down to make it 4-3 then you can only dream of hitting a strike as sweet as that. Maybe it was written?
GAFFER - Mick McCarthy
Nobody gave Wolves a prayer against Manchester United and when they went 1-0 down in the first three minutes we all thought that was the end of the story. Perhaps the epitaph was being written for Wolves' Premier League survival hopes, but they came back showing spirit, fight and courage. Mick's been saying that they've been showing that all season, but not getting the rewards for it - but they certainly did on Saturday.
The confidence will be flowing through them now. People have been questioning where the goals would come from, but Mick can now tell his players that if they can do it against Manchester United they can do it against the teams around them in the table. He can point to two games where he's been disappointed with his players, but they've had a chance in all of the other games. The work rate and approach play has been fine, but they haven't been finishing teams off. However, Mick made them believe on Saturday. They reduced United to shots from distance in the second half and he'll be very happy with that.
PLAYER - Louis Saha
He's never scored a Premier League hat-trick before, never mind four goals, so he deserves great credit for his efforts against Blackpool. He's been one of life's underachievers, possibly due to injuries, but maybe the penny has dropped now. People say managers have to get performances out of players, but often it's down to the individual. Saha has been a very good player, but hasn't shown the consistency of the real top stars.
He showed fantastic form at Fulham and after his dream move to Manchester United didn't work out he moved to Everton, but injuries and loss of form have cost him at Goodison Park. I'm sure Moyesy is as puzzled as anybody else as to why he can't play like this every week!
GRIPE - Clattenburg clangers
Mark Clattenburg didn't have a great game in the Spurs v Bolton game. He missed a stone-wall penalty for Bolton, he made Rafael van der Vaart retake his second penalty for encroachment (which was the right decision, but the first penalty was no different) and I think Jermaine Jenas can consider himself very fortunate not to be sent off for a Bruce-Lee-style kick. He didn't make serious contact, but he jumped high off the ground.
In the Arsenal game, I must admit I felt sorry for Abou Diaby. There's no doubt he should have been sent off, but this is a player who had broken a leg against Sunderland and had a bad injury against Bolton following poor tackles. Footballers can have short careers when those things happen and even though Joey Barton didn't deliberately mean to hurt him I can see why he reacted like he did. Graeme Souness said on Goals on Sunday that you can't take that into consideration, but I can see why he went a bit mad. He had to get sent off, but when Kevin Nolan put the goalkeeper in a headlock then why wasn't the outcome the same? I thought that was inconsistent.
These things are part and parcel of the game though. It definitely gives us plenty to talk about on Goals on Sunday!