The Best Premiership Comebacks

Newcastle 4-4 Arsenal | 5th February 2011

The Gunners took a 4-goal lead in only 26 minutes. Theo Walcott opened the score in the first minute of the match, left one on one against the goalkeeper Harper after a wonderful assist by the Russian playmaker Arshavin. Just two minutes later Arshavin delivered from a free kick and the Swiss defender Djorou doubled the score with a great header goal. Everything in the game seemed to be decided in the 10th minute, when Walcott found van Persie in the box and the Dutchman easily found the net, to give Arsenal a comfortable 3-0 lead at St. James’ Park. The Magpies were totally shocked in the 26th minute, when van Persie scored his second of the match. Moreover, the Dutch forward could score his hat-trick, but he couldn’t hit the target left one on one against Harper just before the end of the first half. So, the score at the break was 4-0 in Arsenal’s favour and nobody could see how Newcastle would able to take something from the match.

However, the midfielder Diaby of Arsenal was sent off in the 49th minute and then Newcastle started to put The Gunners under pressure. There were 22 minutes left when Koscielny fouled Leon Best in the box and the referee gave a penalty to The Magpies. Joey Barton easily converted it into a goal and put the start of the most incredible comeback in The Premier League history. Just a few minutes later the referee unfairly disallowed another Newcastle’s goal because of an offside. However, 15 minutes before the final whistle Newcastle scored their second goal of the game – Leon Best found himself unmarked in the box and tucked it away. 2-4! Koscielny became the main sinner for Arsenal, making another foul in the box just 7 minutes to go. And Barton took the chance again to bring Newcastle back in the game. 3-4! The comeback was a fact in the 87th minute. The goal-scorer was Cheick Tiote with his only goal for Newcastle United! The Ivorian found the net after a great volley from outside the box.

Norwich City 4-4 Middlesbrough | 22nd January 2005

The match between The Canaries and The Boro in January 2005 has remained one of the most dramatic Premiership games in the history. So, let’s see what happened at Carrow Road more than 11 years ago.

Damien Francis gave Norwich City the lead in the 19th minute of the game. It took Middlesbrough 16 minutes to equalize the score. The legendary forward Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink found the net for The Boro. Just 4 minutes after the break, the defender Franck Queudrue tucked the ball away to complete the turnaround for Middlesbrough. Queudrue scored his second goal after another corner in the 55th minute, giving his team a comfortable 3-1 advantage against Norwich. Then, with 12 minutes to go, Hasselbaink converted a free-kick into a goal and The Boro were almost untouchable with their 4-1 lead, but almost…

Dean Ashton took advantage of an error in Middlesbrough’s box and scored a goal for Norwich City in the 80th minute. Everyone thought this goal was just a consolation for The Canaries, when McKenzie scored a header in the last minute of the regular time. Then, 3 minutes into the added time the captain Drury equalized the score to send the game in the history of the greatest Premiership matches.

Newcastle United 4-3 Leicester City | 2nd February 1997

Another incredible match, in which Newcastle United are involved. The Magpies took the lead against Leicester in the very beginning of the match, with a goal scored by Robbie Elliot. But, they were shocked during the second half, letting The Foxes score 3 goals in 13 minutes (from 55th to 68th). M. Elliot was the author of the equalizing goal, while Claridge and Emile Heskey gave Foxes the 3-1 lead.

Then, the bright star of Alan Shearer started to shine. The forward scored after a free-kick in the 77th minute to bring Newcastle back in the game. 3 minutes later the former England’s international equalized, and in the last minute he brought the three points for his favourite team. 4-3!