OLIVIER GIROUD’S brace condemned Newcastle to their third straight defeat but John Carver’s threadbare team provided him with plenty of positives, particularly in a dominant second-half display which saw them run Arsenal ragged.

“I thought we were in the game until they scored the first goal but it was disappointing because they opened us up from two set plays,” said Carver.

“But the way we came back in the second half, we’ve scored an Arsenal-type goal and we took the game to them. There certainly wasn’t anyone on the beach with their flip-flops on.”

There was little hint of what was to come at half time as Newcastle trudged off the pitch two down and with the boos of their fans ringing in their ears.

It was little wonder that both the goals came from set pieces as the Magpies had only two defenders on pitch and one of them playing out of position.

With just 24 minutes played, Giroud deflected in Danny Welbeck’s header before heading home himself four minutes later.

But Newcastle were back in the game just three minutes after the break. Moussa Sissokko grabbed a deserved goal and from that point on Remy Cabella and Ayoze Perez caused Arsenal all sorts of problems. It was a measure of the change in momentum that the visitors were wasting time with 15 minutes still to play.

The win leaves Arsenal just four points behind leaders Chelsea, albeit having played two games more, and Arsene Wenger felt that left his side with too much to do.

“I think Chelsea have enough of a cushion to be serene. We have a fight first to be in the top four. We just need to go to the next game and win it and after that we need to win the next one.”