Arsenal had no complaints about their 1-0 defeat at Newcastle, as the Gunners are losing ground in the Premier League title race.
The north London club have picked up one point from their last three games and never looked like winning at Newcastle.
Manager Mikel Arteta and star defender William Saliba both said Arsenal “deserved to lose” the game as the Gunners were lethargic and lacked creativity after falling behind early on.
This was yet another game where they missed captain and chief creator Matin Odegaard massively, as Arteta wasn’t happy with the cutting edge and lack of intensity and felt the Gunners fell into the trap of playing the game Newcastle wanted them to play.
Arteta - “I’m very frustrated”
“We deserved to lose today. I thought we started really well and were really dominant. We didn’t defend the box well enough. Credit to them. They scored a great goal with a good ball,” Arteta told Premier League Productions and added: “I am very frustrated. We got dragged into a game they are looking for constantly.”
He then went on to criticize Arsenal’s lack of problem-solving during the game as they couldn’t wrestle back control of the game.
“Then when 1-0 down you know you have to play a different game. They try and drag you into a certain way of playing and we didn’t have enough answers to get out of there consistently enough to be more of a threat and score the goals,” Arteta add to BBC Match of the Day.
“A goal would have changed the dynamic of the game completely. We had two or three big chances and didn’t put them away. The level of consistency we demand to be more of a threat we didn’t realize today.
“Credit to them for what they do and how they do it. With us, with the ball especially, were very inconsistent in our actions. We didn’t threaten the goal enough or put the ball into certain areas. We needed more answers but we didn’t find them. The margins are so thin.”
Arteta added that Arsenal’s staff and players “can say whatever we want” but they have to show a reaction in a huge Champions League game at Inter Milan on Wednesday. “You have to be at your best every time to give yourself a chance to win,” Arteta added.
Saliba - “It’s not finished”
Saliba echoed the views of his manager as Arsenal truly never got going at Newcastle, but said they won’t be giving up on their title hopes anytime soon.
“We are all a bit sad because we wanted to win today. Unfortunately we didn’t and we didn’t play the game we wanted to play. We deserved to lose today I think,” Saliba said. “I think we didn’t play how we wanted to play and they were good as well. It’s OK, we are focused on the next week and it is not finished.”
All is not lost for Arsenal but their injuries have piled up for a while now and their current squad have been run into the ground.
Arsenal will not use that as an excuse, but at Newcastle they played like a team which is running low on energy and never truly believed they would get back into the game.
Confidence levels have taken a hit and Martin Odegaard can’t return soon enough to try and get the Gunners going again.
