A reminder ahead of Newcastle game – Ten times Arsenal came back to win | OneFootball

To get to the Carabao Cup final, we have to overturn a 2-0 first-leg defeat.

If we thought Newcastle were a tough nut to break down at the Emirates, imagine them now with something to protect.

Then there’s the atmosphere. While some clubs dismiss the importance of this competition, tonight will mean everything to the Geordies, and they will try to make it as hostile as possible for our players.

Something us Gooners failed to really do in the first leg.

Let’s be honest—we haven’t coped very well in our last few trips to St James’ Park.

Despite this, I still think it’s our best hope of a trophy this season, which is more of a reflection on our failure in the winter transfer window.

If ever a first goal is important, it’s tonight.

A win by two clear goals takes the tie to penalties, which I would bite my hand off for.

Here are my 10 best comebacks of all time

(Covers my time watching football, so older fans—include more in the comments!)

Arsenal 5-3 Middlesbrough (Premiership)

There was almost a cruel irony in the game where we tried to equal Nottingham Forest’s 42-game unbeaten run—we faced arguably one of our toughest tests.

In three crazy second-half minutes, Middlesbrough raced into a 3-1 lead, so you might assume this was actually more dramatic than it was.

The Gunners didn’t panic, upped the pace, and 11 minutes later were winning the game. That last 30 minutes might be the best the Invincibles ever played.

Arsenal 3-0 AC Milan (Champions League)

I didn’t know if I should include this on the list because, technically, it wasn’t enough to advance to the next round. We were a goal away from it being our most epic ever comeback.

Yet, for pure effort and a refusal to give up, this night deserves a mention.

After a 4-0 humiliation in Italy, other clubs might have phoned in their performance in the second leg. It takes incredible spirit to even believe that could be turned around.

It’s almost like we put too much into the first half—racing into a 3-0 lead but leaving ourselves physically and mentally exhausted as the second half progressed.

We couldn’t have given it any more, and the current version of Arsenal could take motivation from this.

Arsenal 3-2 Bournemouth (Premiership)

The visitors were 2-0 up after 57 minutes—a scoreline that would have meant Man City being only two points behind us with a game in hand.

Easily Reiss Nelson’s finest moment of his career, his 97th-minute winner felt like one of those moments where it seemed destined for us to be champions. If we hadn’t fallen apart in the title race, this would have ranked higher.

In the end, Gary Neville was correct—our young team was constantly playing on emotion, and eventually, it caught up with us.

Reading 5-7 Arsenal (Carabao Cup)

In terms of how many goals we had to come back from to win, this is factually our greatest comeback on the list. It’s only not higher because the fourth round of the League Cup isn’t as prestigious as the other games I’ve chosen.

That’s why Arsène Wenger rested the majority of his first team, as he tended to do in the early rounds of this competition.

The Gunners were 4-0 down after 37 minutes, but as crazy as it sounds, the turning point was Theo Walcott scoring before the break. It was a classic example of how goals change momentum.

It was 4-2 after 89 minutes, but we equalised with the last kick of normal time.

Giroud and Coquelin famously didn’t realise that meant extra time. Thinking they had earned a replay, they had thrown their shirts into the away end. They then had to kindly ask for their jerseys back to play another 30 minutes!

Arsenal 5-2 Spurs

Arsène Wenger had never finished outside the top four, meaning at this point, this would have been his rock bottom. When Spurs raced into a 2-0 lead, they were heading 10 points clear of us. The Gunners’ roaring comeback changed the momentum in North London.

We would go on to finish above our rivals in third place, which turned out to be crucial in terms of European qualification. Chelsea lifting the Champions League meant fourth place wasn’t enough to dine at UEFA’s top table.

Arsenal 4-2 Liverpool (Premiership)

Recovering from 2-1 down to win 4-2 isn’t mathematically the biggest comeback, but context is everything.

In the space of a week, we had been knocked out of both the FA Cup and Champions League and physically and emotionally, we looked finished.

Within a few minutes, we had conceded to Liverpool, and our whole season felt like it was collapsing.

Thierry Henry said he had never felt that kind of energy at Highbury. Martin Keown has since explained how he ordered his teammates not to feel sorry for themselves.

The second half is often seen as the turning point in the greatest-ever campaign in our history.

Bolton 2-3 Arsenal

There are a few examples where we won after being 2-0 down, but this was achieved with 10 men.

It was also at a ground where a young squad had often been bullied. We were playing under the pressure of having to win to stay in the title race.

Diaby was sent off after half an hour, and we were 2-0 behind at half-time. The assumption was that we wouldn’t have the character or mentality to turn it around.

Given how defensive we have been this season after red cards, we could take inspiration from this performance.

Chelsea 2-3 Arsenal

Quite simply, Kanu’s finest hour—there is no other way to put it.

The Nigerian was never a prolific goalscorer but had a knack for scoring great goals.

Chelsea were 2-0 up with 15 minutes to go and had mostly controlled the derby.

Kanu scored a hat-trick, but his third goal became immortal.

The keeper had randomly followed the ball out of the area, in line with the byline. Most players, at 2-2 in the 90th minute, would have crossed the ball. Had Kanu missed, he would have had angry teammates. The easiest choice was a simple square pass—but instead, he somehow scored from an acute angle.

The moment lives forever.

Arsenal 3-2 Hull

Obviously, the occasion of this comeback was huge.

The Gunners had gone nine years without a trophy, and away from home that season, they had fallen apart in most of their high-profile fixtures. There were huge question marks regarding our mentality.

From the semi-finals onwards, Arsenal knew they were beating Championship side Wigan and then Hull away from finally lifting silverware. It created this fear of failure, and we seemed crippled by anxiety.

2-0 down after eight minutes, the fear was that a defeat would set this squad back years.

We found resilience and spirit that many thought we didn’t have, winning with Gunners’ Player of the Year Ramsey getting the winner in extra time.

Liverpool 0-2 Arsenal (First Division)

Okay, this is kind of cheating because we were never behind in the game, but we essentially had to mount a comeback to lift the title.

It’s also the biggest inspiration the current squad could take when approaching a scenario where they need to win by two clear goals. Not that I am remotely comparing the pressure of a Carabao Cup tie to the final day of a season where the championship was on the line.

Arsenal didn’t just have to win at Anfield to finish above Liverpool—they had to do so by two clear goals. That would be difficult even in 2025, but for those not old enough to remember, there are no words to explain Liverpool’s dominance in the 1980s and how hard it was to beat them at their ground, let alone by a two-goal margin.

We also went into the fixture having thrown away a huge advantage and slipped up in our two home matches that week, so momentum and confidence were not with us.

George Graham’s approach was fascinating. Rather than panicking about the need for goals, he focused more on how Liverpool would mentally react to various scenarios.

The assumption was that he would go all-out attack, yet his thought process was that conceding would end any chance, whereas scoring once would cause Liverpool to panic. He even said he would have accepted 0-0 with 10 minutes left. His players were shocked at how positive their manager was about being goalless at half-time.

When Alan Smith headed in the opener, just as Graham predicted, Liverpool didn’t know how to respond. There are famous images of their players telling each other there was only one minute left.

Then, all John Barnes had to do was keep the ball in the corner—the biggest regret of his career.

The rest is history… The greatest ending to a title race.

What comebacks have I forgotten or am too young to remember?

Dan Smith