Abou Diaby took another step on Saturday towards becoming the Patrick Vieira-style leader that the latest team being created by Arsene Wenger desperately needs.

If proof was needed of Diaby's quality, it came in the 64th minute of an ultimately comfortable victory against Newcastle at St James' Park.

The French international from the Ivory Coast exchanged passes with Robin van Persie in a powerful burst downfield before finishing decisively.

Memories of Vieira were inevitable and Wenger, significantly, was more than happy to compare Diaby with the Gunners' totemic midfielder.

"Abou has the same stature, the same size, and is growing at the moment," he said. "Patrick is a good role model, but Abou is only 22 and there is still a lot of room for him to get where Patrick was as a player.

"I thought he played extremely well in the second-half. He has power coming up the middle of the park and showed it on his goal and that, of course, is very interesting."

Diaby's determination and strength was needed to eventually subdue Newcastle, whose desperate need for points fuelled a purposeful and energetic opening hour from the home side.

Others in Wenger's team were equally prepared to meet the challenge, confirming there is steel as well as quality in a squad that excites the Gunners manager.

He added: "I am pleased with the way we played because there is nothing better than seeing what you work on coming together.

"This is a young team that can be so exciting in the future. I knew when I decided to go for such a very young team that I would be hit with criticism.

"But I was prepared for that and I'm just pleased that I was not wrong, although we still have a long, long way to go and a lot to improve on."

Even as a work in progress, Arsenal were just too slick for Newcastle, whose gamble in dropping Michael Owen backfired when Manuel Almunia saved a first-half penalty from Obafemi Martins, who later claimed the first goal the Toon have scored against the Gunners in four meetings.

That 58th-minute strike equalised a lead given to Arsenal by Nicklas Bendtner just 60 second before but any hopes of a home revival were dented by Diaby's powerful strike and soon snuffed out completely by Samir Nasri with 23 minutes left on the clock.

Wenger is now demanding his players sustain the pressure on the teams above them in the final weeks of the season.

He said: "A good end to the season for us would be to repeat the performance here and continue to improve from game to game."

Such improvement would boost Arsenal's prospects of moving up from fourth-place position, while Wenger is refusing to totally discount their chances of finishing in top spot.

He said: "I still have hope because I am a bit crazy. Realistically, we will not win the League but we have to give everything to go as close as possible to the top teams."

For Newcastle, things go from bad to worse and they are now sitting in the bottom three.

Kevin Nolan believes they need to become ruthless if they are to avoid an unthinkable relegation.

Midfielder Nolan, who joined the club from Bolton in January, saw enough in the opening hour of Saturday's match to make him believe they can stay up but said: "It's down to us now to start being ruthless, ruthless with each other and against teams.

"But the lad s are up for the fight and certainly, I believe we have got enough in the changing room and I don't believe we will go down.

"Even though we are in a sticky situation at the moment, I am 100 per cent positive that we will still be in this League come the end of the season."