Newcastle United welcomed Arsenal to St James' Park in February of 2011.

Nobody, anywhere in the world, could have predicted what happened next, as the Magpies staged one of the most incredible comebacks ever seen in Premier League history.

Newcastle’s week started badly as Andy Carroll was sold to Liverpool and Shola Ameobi picked up an injury, leading manager Alan Pardew to field Leon Best in attack for the visit of the second-placed Gunners. At the time, they were chasing Manchester United for the title.

It got even worse inside the first ten minutes, when Theo Walcott, Johan Djourou and Robin van Persie made it 3-0 to Arsenal, before the Dutchman bagged a second - and his team’s fourth - on 26 minutes.

It was a disaster which, perhaps in hindsight, gave a glimpse of what was to come: Newcastle, who had sacked a manager the fans were behind in Chris Hughton, had sold their best attacker on deadline day without adequately replacing him, and had won just three games since his dismissal, were now facing utter humiliation in front of their own fans.

A comeback wasn’t evident, either. Half time came and went without a sign of Newcastle life, and it wasn’t until Abou Diaby inexplicably lost his head that the game started to come away from the Gunners’ grip.

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It was, naturally, Joey Barton who lit the touchpaper. A loose ball in midfield was pounced upon by both Diaby and the Newcastle midfielder, when the Frenchman saw red: he grabbed Barton by the neck before shoving him to the floor and pushing Kevin Nolan, who had come in to intervene.

At 4-0 up, that’s far from a smart move, and he was rightly shown a red card. Not only did it make life more difficult for an Arsenal side who already lacked leaders in their team, but it rallied the Magpies who started to believe that there was some way back.

It would take nearly another 20 minutes for that to come to any sort of fruition: on 68 minutes Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny brought Best down in the box, and Barton fired home to cut the deficit.

Their tails were up, and so was the spikiness. Arsenal’s soft underbelly was ruthlessly exploited by a midfield duo of Barton and Nolan.

A man light, Arsenal succumbed again when Best stepped in front of his man to head the Magpies’ second goal of the game past Wojciech Szczesny in goal. With just seven minutes to hold out, the Gunners failed to hold their nerve as Koscielny again brought down a Newcastle player and referee Phil Dowd pointed to the spot once again.

It proved to be a second goal for Barton and the stage was set: not just for a Newcastle comeback, not just for an Arsenal meltdown, but for one of the Premier League’s most memorable strikes.

As the Gunners dropped deep into their box to defend a lead which had narrowed dramatically, they failed to adequately deal with a free-kick from the left. Headed only as far as the late Cheick Tiote, the Ivorian lashed a stunning strike into the bottom corner to send a sparsely populated St James’s Park into raptures.

Those who had left their seats did so at half time or in the start of the second half and missed one of the most memorable comebacks of the Premier League era.

But it was to be a fleeting moment of joy in a decade characterised by false dawns for Newcastle.

Unable to use that comeback as a springboard, Pardew’s side would win only three more Premier League games all season before shocking the league with a fifth-placed finish the next year: again, it didn't last.

Still, the memory remains particularly sweet.