Head to head: Time Krull and Robin van Persie square up
to each other during the game
Rivals: Van Persie grins at Krul after taunting the
goalkeeper about Arsenal's late winning goal
Thomas Vermaelen scored a dramatic, last-gasp
winner against Newcastle to take Arsenal to within a point of
third-placed Tottenham, but the victory was marred by ugly clashes
late on.
A verbal spat between Arsenal’s Robin van Persie —
who earlier cancelled out Hatem Ben Arfa’s opening goal — and
Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul triggered the scenes after the
Belgium defender’s 95th-minute winner.
It is understood the arguments spilled into the Emirates
Stadium tunnel at full time.
It is claimed Van Persie was furious with Krul for what he
viewed as constant time wasting by his fellow Dutchman.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said: ‘I don’t know what
happened between Krul and Van Persie — I don’t know if they have
history from Holland. I will speak to Robin to find out. But it
shows just how committed Robin is to the cause.
‘We are refusing to lose at the moment. We are one point
from Spurs but we only want to focus on ourselves. We have
confidence and belief.’
Getting physical: Van Persie is booked by referee
Howard Webb
Newcastle boss Alan Pardew added: ‘I don’t really
know what was going on at the end. When there’s a last-minute goal
things tend to spill over.
‘There were verbals between Van Persie and our goalkeeper.
Maybe our keeper took a bit too long for one or two of the
kicks.
‘Obviously we are disappointed, even more so because we
had the ball in their corner in the 94th minute. We were running
out of steam and I can’t fault my players for their commitment and
effort. We have to make sure this doesn’t put us on a downer
between now and the end of the season.’
Man of the match Theo Walcott said: ‘Tottenham have got to
be watching over their shoulders. We’ve got the players here and
believe we can go further. We’ve got great attacking players but
are getting it right defensively.’
Vermaelen added: ‘I think we can overtake Tottenham. We
are on a good run and we are close to Tottenham now.
Playing till the death: Thomas Vermaelen scores the
winner in injury time
Flat out: Arsenal got their reward deep into stoppage
time
'We showed the mentality of fighters. It's the
fourth time we've come back from 1-0 down.
'In the second half we were pushing and pushing. We knew
we had to be patient and in the end we will score a goal, and
that's what happened.'
