Arsene Wenger wanted Theo Walcott to emulate Arsenal's all-time leading goalscorer Thierry Henry. Well, on Saturday at the Emirates the 23-year-old showed exactly what he is capable of, putting on a performance for the ages, that had Henry, watching from the stands, grinning from ear to ear, with a hat-trick as Arsenal demolished Newcastle 7-3.
Along with Walcott's three goals, Olivier Giroud netted a couple of brilliant efforts, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lukas Podolski scoring the other two. Demba had a brace for Newcastle, coupled with a goal by Sylvain Marveaux.
Arsenal needed to come out a make a statement of sorts to underline the capabilities of this team, and how well they did that - via a second half performance that hasn't been seen by the Gunners faithful since King Henry strutted his stuff at Highbury.
Walcott opened the scoring in the 20th minute with a finish that even Henry could not have bettered. Put through on goal by Podolski, Walcott stormed down the left, before brilliantly curling a ball past Tim Krul into the left-hand bottom corner.
Arsenal were looking pretty good, and did not seem to be in any kind of trouble, but Newcastle struck the equalizer just before halftime through their top scorer Ba. The Senegalese international saw his freekick from 22 yards take a wicked deflection of Jack Wilshere and wrong-foot Wojiceich Szczesny to nestle into the back of the net.
The Gunners upped the tempo in the second half and deservedly went ahead, with Oxlade-Chamberlain firing in a low drive past Krul's right in the 50th minute. However, the lead lasted just nine minutes as Newcastle struck again, this time Marveaux ghosting into the far post to tap in from a yard into an empty net off a cross from Gabriel Obertan.
Arsenal went into the lead again through Podolski -- the forward heading into an empty net after some brilliant work from Wilshere down the left.
Ba, however, equalized five minutes later in the 69th minute, slamming home at the far post, with Marveaux turning provider.
Arsenal went all out for the winner, and Walcott completed his brace, latching onto a cross from Kieran Gibbs, before slamming the ball into the roof of the net amid much traffic.
Wenger brought on Giroud right after they went 4-3 up, and the French striker made a big impact, icing the game with a brilliant diving header off an equally outstanding cross from Walcott down the right.
With three minutes remaining, it was 6-3, as Giroud slammed a low right-footed strike past Krul at the near post.
If Arsenal fans thought they had been treated to some brilliant English Premier League action from their club, the best was still to come as Walcott capped off his hat-trick with a finish that will make any striker in the world proud.
The England international, using his pace, drove into the box under the attentions of three Newcastle defenders, with Obertan bringing the Arsenal man down inside the area; however, despite going down, Walcott quickly picked himself up and wickedly chipped the ball above Krul to complete his hat-trick.
The Arsenal fans were delirious - with chants of sign him up, sign him up reverberating through the stadium. On this evidence, signing Walcott just might be the best piece of business that Arsenal will do in January.
