Daylight Robert-y

(Excuse the slightly inappropriate title for this post - I'm a sucker for a good pun...)

Since arriving on Tyneside in the summer of 2001, Laurent Robert has established himself as the most maverick left-winger in Britain after Tony Benn. Some days he traipses around the pitch in a daze of disinterestedness. Some days he at least displays ambition and effort - though sending the ball whistling way over the crossbar from 40 yards out for the umpteenth time and shouting his Gallic mantra of "Putain!" is not what you might call value for our £9.5m outlay. And on some days he's simply untouchable, more than capable of leaving you scratching your head and wondering why he's not in the French squad, even if they are the best side in the world, rather than just scratching your head.

Saturday, thankfully, was one of the latter, Robert singlehandedly destroying a shell-shocked Spurs side with two brilliant strikes from distance and then laying on two further goals for Shearer. For someone who, according to last season's official statistics, shoots more often than nearly every other player in the Premiership (including strikers), he's never really weighed in with a decent number of goals. This season, though, he's already got several to his name, and in important matches. As a creative force, too, he's a vital figure - when he's on his game, Shearer must lick his lips in anticipation.

As for the skipper, his first of the afternoon marked his hundredth for the club at St James's Park. For Shearer, at the age of 33, and in a league boasting such frightening striking talent as Henry, van Nistelrooy, Owen and Crespo, to be out in the clear at the top of the goalscorers' chart is some achievement.

A final word about the opposition. There's always a particular satisfaction in beating Spurs, especially when it's a thrashing, and I'm not entirely sure why. Perhaps it's something to do with the conviction of their fans that they're a big club who have some divine right to success - a case of recognising ourselves in them, then? At least we seem to be in a much healthier position to achieve that long-yearned-for triumph, and hopefully someday soon we might leave them to their misty-eyed reminiscences of the days of yore in favour of some glory in the here-and-now.