Not a bad four days on home turf for Arsenal.

There was an outbreak of competence against a pretty limited FC Twente managed by Steve McLaren – or should that be Shteve McLaren in the manner of his interview on Dutch TV which he gave in what he presumably fondly thought of as Dutch accented and phrased English. It made him come over like a Dutch Yoda. “Let Fabregash run midfield my team, shall not you”. Wonder what the Dutch made of this. Flattered by this attempt to “speak DutchEnglish” or thinking what kind of prat they have been suckered into appointing as manager.

Whatevs as the young folk say. It did nothing for FC Twente whose performance featured crossfield or backward passing that made Ray Wilkinsh such a favourite and the sort of frequent low level fouling characteristic of a Championship side intent on damage limitation. Be that as it may, four goals, a clean sheet, and a bit of drive and intelligence from midfield (thanks Fab) and that was job done.

The person who stood out for me on Wednesday, and not for good reasons, was the Danish donkey himself, Nicklas B, who had a mare. The more he tried, the worse he got. His goal was either the most undeserved ever or some sort of karmic payback for not giving up.

And so to Saturday against the bar codes, where we built on Wednesday’s performance. Difficult to really say how good we were because Newcastle were pretty average. Ameobi and rat boy upfront were dismal. The only time they combined was when Ameobi deflected Owen’s shot away for a goal kick. Their midfield was poor and the defence was static at best. Was Enrique hauled off because of injury or just to save him from further embarrassment?

Did we make them look poor? We had pace, flair and we concentrated for the whole game. Some of our football, particularly on the break, was breathtaking.

Almunia looked solid, the defence pretty good. Honourable mention here for Toure’s arse, which, following the retirement of Jimmy Floyd from Premiership action, must be the largest in the division. Is an expanding posterior a side effect of malaria? Mind you, I thought that Kolo had also inherited JF’s right peg – two cracking shots in the first half, and both on target(ish).

In midfield, and I know this is controversial, but I thought that Eboue had a good game. He stayed on his feet, passed to team mates (nice backheel for RvP’s second) and gave glimpses of why AW picks him.

I thought it was great that Denilson scored. Still not sure about him and his passing was wayward but he never gives up, never hides, and seems very committed to the cause. Good on him.

Mixed news on the RvP front. First goals - good, first injury - bad. At last he and Adebayor were combining well and looked pretty dangerous as a partnership. Talking of Adebayor, AW said “Clasp this man again to your collective bosom, treat him as the prodigal son. He is not malicious or deceitful. He is guilty only of being a prat. His heart is pure.”

Well, we clasped away and were rewarded by a good all round performance. He wasn’t offside that much, he worked really hard, and passed to all his team mates when they were in better positions. Mind you, I shall not mind if he makes an exception from the “passing to a better placed colleague” rule for young Theo. I do not think that a well taken goal against FC Twente can make up for overall performances still featuring too many mindless moments. Seeing Vela’s cameo on Saturday should have been a reality check for those claiming Theo as the new messiah.

The crowd were in pretty good form. We got well and truly behind the team, not only Adebayor, and were rewarded with a good performance. There was one person who was excluded from the general love in and that of course was Joey B. King Kev has lost the plot on this one.

Joey B came on, immediately tried to deposit ball and Nasri over the dug outs, gave Nasri the sort of look that says try it if you think you are hard enough and if you do I shall shove this Egg McMuffin where the sun does not shine, and then KK went on about how disappointed he was with the crowd and gave Nasri a right finger wagging for tripping his boy Joey.

Get real. We should give anyone a second chance I suppose. This seems to have happened with Lee Hughes, whose crime was much worse than Barton’s but who appears genuinely remorseful and perhaps deserves redemption. Barton, on the other hand, is a scally with anger management issues (to put it tactfully), a serial offender who has had any number of chances. Ignoring the moral weakness of Newcastle’s position (and those other Premiership clubs who allegedly would have signed him if Newcastle had cancelled his contract) is it good for a team to have a player whose idea of upping the intensity of training is to smack a colleague and who thinks the Christmas party will go with more of a swing if he stubs a cigar out on a trainee’s face?

Well, can we just put the Fulham shambles down to a combination of injuries, early season rustiness, and post international blues? Yes and no. The players showed they can perform well and dispose of ordinary teams like Newcastle but we are still heavily dependent on a few key players staying fit and in form for the whole season. And I would hate for AW to decide that reinforcements are not necessary on the back of this performance. Not only do we have to overcome the curse of the international break but the effects of long away trips in the Champions League. Our next two games in the Premiership are away to Blackburn and Bolton after an international break and the Kiev trip respectively. We are not out of the woods yet.

Come on you Reds.