While Ray Parlour brought many qualities to Arsenal, being a regular and reliable source of goals was not one of them.

However, there was something about the year 2000 that appeared to tempt out the midfielder's clinical side.

During the UEFA Cup quarter-final clash against Werder Bremen in March, Parlour struck a hat-trick to help book his side's place in the last four of the competition.

Then, when Newcastle United made the trip to Highbury nine months later and 14 years ago today, the England international repeated that goalscoring feat as the visiting Magpies were put to the sword.

Yet it was not Parlour that opened the scoring in North London, but Thierry Henry, who collected a long punt forward before going on to fire in his 11th goal of the campaign with 13 minutes on the clock.

Just three minutes later Parlour opened his account for the afternoon when he raced onto Nwankwo Kanu's through-pass and powered his low effort across Shay Given and into the far corner of the Newcastle goalkeeper's net.

Nigerian striker Kanu then turned scorer in the 52nd minute of the contest as he converted Freddie Ljungberg's pinpoint ball to make it 3-0 to the Gunners. After that, the remainder of the clash would belong to Parlour.

He scored his second goal and Arsenal's fourth in the closing stages with a rare header from an Henry cross and then he completed the scoring with the final action of the game. Robert Pires was the creator on this occasion as Parlour controlled the French playmaker's pass on his thigh, before he slid the ball out of Given's reach.

Speaking after the final whistle about Parlour's impact on proceedings, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said: "Ray Parlour was outstanding, not only because of his goals, but for his workrate, which was unbelievable."

Meanwhile, defeated boss Sir Bobby Robson admitted: "We just got smashed, it was as simple as that. They had too much quality for us."

ARSENAL: Manninger; Dixon, Keown, Adams, Grimandi (Lauren); Pires, Parlour, Vivas, Ljungberg (Luzhny); Henry, Kanu (Bergkamp)

NEWCASTLE: Given; Barton, Caldwell, Griffin (Domi), Hughes; Acuna, Lee (Glass), Dyer (Cordone), Speed, Solano; Lua-Lua