By Matthew Jones
February 9 2003

Newcastle skipper Alan Shearer has told his teammates that Arsenal are beatable. The league leaders visit St James's Park today to take on the ever improving home form of Newcastle. I (the webmaster) go for a 2-1 win for Newcastle, but what does Shearer think? Alan Shearer has warned Newcastle they will have to play their very best if they are to beat Arsenal in todays top-of-the-table clash at St James' Park. But the Magpies skipper does not subscribe to the theory that the double winners are invincible. "Arsenal are beatable," said Shearer. "Everton have proved that and one or two others also and if we play like we can who knows? For the past week all people have been talking about is this huge game we are involved in with Arsenal.

"It is easy to say it's just three points at stake but these are three very, very big points.

"Without a doubt this is our biggest game so far this season. If they win it takes them further away from us but if we win we can claw our way back nearer to them. When the season started our aim was to edge that bit closer to Arsenal and Manchester United.

"Obviously we were bitterly disappointed last week when our match at Middlesbrough was called off - we would have preferred to have played to keep our momentum going. But we had a couple of days off last weekend and we have had a decent week's training since then. We know Arsenal will be one heck of a test to our own record but the confidence in our camp is very high."