Arsenal 5-0 Newcastle

The Frenchman was nimble of foot, sharp of mind and Newcastle could find no effective antidote for him as Arsenal kept themselves snapping on the heels of Manchester United.

As a team who had allowed a two-goal lead to evaporate once this week, Arsenal were doubtless wary when they found themselves in the same position at Highbury yesterday.

There was no need for any such alarm. On a good day, Newcastle United can hardly claim to be in the same class as Bayern Munich. And this was not a good day for Newcastle.

Before half-time, manager Bobby Robson wore the look of a little boy just digesting the news that Santa Claus had lost his address. In Robson's case, he was actually bemoaning the loss of his defence.

Henry was a persistent menace, a man whose pace and vision proved too hot for Newcastle on a cold afternoon in north London.

But, in truth, Arsenal looked capable of scoring goals from all over the pitch. In the first half alone, Kanu, Roberto Pires and Freddie Ljungberg might have further embarrassed Robson's team.

The manner in which Newcastle were repeatedly ripped apart was testimony to amateurish defending. Too often for comfort, one sweeping pass would leave goalkeeper Shay Given exposed.

Fatefully enough, Newcastle were doomed from the 13th minute when Gilles Grimandi released Henry down the left. With the deftness of a conjuror, Henry controlled the ball in an instant, turned inside Aaron Hughes, and curled a sweet, sweet shot beyond Given.

Three minutes later and Parlour was celebrating his first League goal of the season. Kanu created the space for the England international with a pass that was weighted to perfection.

Once in receipt of the ball, Parlour's finish was clinical, burying his right-foot half-volley into the left-hand corner of the net from the edge of the penalty area. Kieron Dyer had inexplicably wasted Newcastle's one moment of first-half promise.

He allowed himself to be ushered so wide of Alex Manninger's goal by Martin Keown, a steward was entitled to ask him to pay for re-admittance to the game. Against such an unprofessional background, the exact tenor of Robson's conversation with his team during the interval can only be imagined.

Yet it can be assumed his voice was the only one to be heard because, surely, not one of his team could have had the temerity to have raised a word in protest to the manager's criticism.

Whatever Robson had decreed clearly went unheeded as they began the second half as uncertainly as the first. In the 47th minute, Henry again left Newcastle's defence in his wake, but on this occasion he showed just enough of the ball for the ever-alert Given to deny him.

Given's resistance, however, was short-lived. After 52 minutes, the Newcastle goalkeeper was again left in the firing line as Kanu sprinted on to Ljungberg's perceptive ball into space.

Kanu, without a goal in the Premier-ship this season, easily deceived Given with his left foot. The game was now destined to become no more than an exhibition.

Robson tried to revitalise his team, removing Robert Lee and Andrew Griffin in favour of Stephen Glass and Didier Domi. Frankly, these men were not destined to be the cavalry, not on this afternoon.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger began to reshape his team, too. Holland striker Dennis Bergkamp joined the applause for Kanu, as he stood on the touchline waiting to replace the Nigerian in the 66th minute.

The sight of Bergkamp, of course, was not likely to instill Robson with encouragement, though Bergkamp did squander a chance to claim a fourth for Arsenal after being given the freedom of Highbury by Pires' pass.

Given also had to be alert to sprint out of his area and head clear after Keown put Pires in the clear with a superb long pass. Dyer's miserable afternoon was completed when he was substituted soon after Arsenal goalkeeper Alex Manninger turned his right-foot shot over the bar.

Robson's own forgettable afternoon in the capital was finished off when Parlour scored Arsenal's fourth with a close-range header from a Pires cross.