Mikel Arteta was left hugely disappointed as his young squad produced a terrible performance at Newcastle on a night when only a win would do in the race to finish fourth.
After the 2-0 defeat, the Spaniard was interviewed by Sky Sports. Here’s what he had to say…
On a tough night…
It’s a really difficult night to swallow. Newcastle deserved to win the match comfortably, they were much better than us from the beginning to the last minute. We had nothing in the game.
On how he explains the performance…
They were much better in every department, better in the duels, the second balls, every time they kicked the ball up, they could manage to do so. We were poor with the ball, we didn’t defend restarts of play or set pieces the way we have to do. We had nothing in the game.
On why they were poor…
A lot of things happen during the night, the substitutions we had to make through injuries, everything. It’s no excuse, Newcastle deserves to win the match from the beginning because they were much better than us in everything that a football requires to be on top of that.
On his side lacking experience…
That’s what we have to think about. It’s true that we could not cope with the game that we had to play here.
On whether he was worried from the kick off…
Yeah, yeah, yeah and we tried to change something and it didn’t make it better. We had some moments where we looked a bit better, the start of the second half was a tiny bit better, we understood better what we had to do but the execution was so poor. The goals that we gave away were extremely poor and they deserved to win the match.
On Arsenal conceding the opener after making a foul throw…
We know that’s where is starts.
On what he’s said to his players…
What I’m saying here, that it’s extremely disappointing that Newcastle were 10 times better than us and fully deserved the match. The performance was nowhere near the level we had to play if you want to play in the Champions League.
On being shocked by the performance…
I am incredibly disappointed. I don’t know if the word is stunned. When you see the team that we have at the moment, there is a lot of question marks in a lot of positions because, the injuries and the suspension that we have. Again, it’s not an excuse, we weren’t at the races.
On how many players were not 100 per cent fit…
It’s not about 100 per cent. When you jump on the pitch you can’t use anything else as an excuse, they are the players that we had, we’ve been playing like that the last few weeks and trying to get through that. Players want to be on the pitch, which is a credit to the players, but today, we weren’t good enough.
On it being the worst performance of the season…
I don’t know. But it’s a very painful one.
On surrendering a six-point lead over Spurs…
A lot has happened to the squad with the amount of injuries we’ve picked up and the changes we’ve had to make but still, it was in our hands. Today, it’s not in our hands. We have to beat Everton and we have to wait for Norwich to beat Sp*rs. There’s always a chance in football and you have to be there just in case that chance appears.
A fair and honest appraisal of a hugely disappointing night.
But he’s the manager who’s had all season to prep for this?
Watching that game you could see how we were still feeling the effects of Thursday night. We just couldn’t get near Newcastle physically, and that’s kinda the first thing you have to be able to do in any football match if you’re to be successful — you have to be able to match your opposing man physically all over the park. And we just weren’t able to do that. Not really the time for it, but I did always feel (and say on here) the residual risk of not strengthening in January would eventually catch up with us. It looked… Read more »
Funny, I see it very differently. You point to other teams as competition, but speak as if they don’t play each other as well. That competitive West Ham team will take points off Spurs and Leicester just like they might us. MU have been in a malaise since Ferguson retired, Chelsea’s position is now completely different (and much worse) with their unlimited resources disappearing. Personally, I fully expect the youngest squad and youngest manager in the league to learn and progress again next season. As painful as it is to miss out on CL, the only long term effects are… Read more »
Not sure I subscribe to this — for large parts of the season we have been really poor. We’ve lost nearly half of our league games.
The fact we were in 4th place for as long as we were losing that many games is down to variance in the league rather than any real improvements from us.
Can’t say I understand what you’re getting at. All of those teams will be better next season and I’m not sure we will be?
Why are you sure other teams will improve but we wont?
other teams have to do more than us generally. we have a good platform to add players to, others have to shift players on etc.
We can agree to disagree, but what I’m getting at is I think there’s more reason to believe we’ll be better next season than there is to believe the same of our direct rivals. And I don’t agree that we’ve been poor for large parts of the season. We’ve been poor for a few stretches of games, and most of us expected that with a thin, young squad. This year was meant to establish a platform from which to build, and as far as I’m concerned, mission accomplished. With a season’s sample size to reflect on signings, I don’t think… Read more »
That’s a great summary. Absolutely agree. For the past two seasons though, inability to take great chances to score has been our downfall. Great pity that Aubamayang went sour and wasn’t replaced.
Don’t agree with all your doom ‘n gloom, however your comments on Spuds are well made… and that’s what really bites my arse after this:
Can’t underestimate how NB this 4th spot actually might turn out to be.
“That was our best opportunity to secure Champions League football in 10 years.”
Weren’t we one Aubamayang missed penalty kick vs. Spurs away from a top four finish three seasons ago? I know that wasn’t the last game of the season, but we finished 5th and only one point behind them.
You’re right, he should have run on the field, dribbled the entire Newcastle 11, megged St. Maximin and rainbow flicked the keeper. What a rookie. #artetatrout
Agreed. Arteta trout….
Give a man a fish and he wont go hungry, teach a man to fish and he will ask. ‘where is the free fish from yesterday?’
Yeah he took resposibility, and that’s great.
But he didn’t give a straight answer on what went wrong. Why they were much better than us in everything (given what was at stake)?
I think Arteta bottled it. When Partey was injured he started Lokonga and Tavares who hadnt played for a while over the more experience Elneny also he should’ve switched immediately to a back 3 if he didn’t trust Tavares but no he stuck to his guns for 2 games and we lost to Southampton and Brighton then he finally figured it out and dropped Lokonga for Elneny and we won 4 on the bounce until spurs. HOLDING cost us against spurs and honestly haven’t been sold on Ben white and I think he is slightly overrated. Still a good player… Read more »
Not easy.
Bin cedric, elneny, pepe, laca, eddie, holding please
And Taveras
We could’ve been much better with chambers at right back instead of this rubbish Soares
And pyramid pirlo / egyptian zidane my ass
Same Chambers that doesn’t even start for Aston villa. U want him in the team
Theres plenty of rightbacks that dont start that i’d have as back up over cedric.
Our 11 can compete with the best our there. It’s 12 through 17 that’s the issue.
Elneny is useful… And he’s also content to be a squad player. You’re not going to find a lot of those types of players around. So I’ll keep Elneny and bin all those you mentioned plus Tavares and send Lokonga on loan he’s not ready. Guendouzi is still better than Lokonga. Under pressure guendouzi would never fold under pressure Lokonga couldn’t handle it against Brighton and Southampton that’s the difference in mentality. We got rid of a strong mentality player to buy a weak mentality player and that’s what you get. Roughly about the same skill level but mentally miles… Read more »
Andi Arteta
That’s taveres 3rd foul throw of season. He leads the stats 😂😂
A professional footballer.
Maybe he didn’t take any throws on the YouTube compilation we used to sign him.
😂😂
Target got away with foul throws. Only called vs us tough, aren’t they?
In hindsight, Bruno Guimaraes would have been a BRILLIANT signing. And he was affordable, too. Shame that ship has now sailed.
We cannot pay petrol money. So no it was never an option.
As would Renato Sanches or Aouar….
We had a season with no Europe, and early cup exits.
And our squad still wasn’t deep enough. Probably have ourselves an uphill battle with the lack of (could even say net-negative) work in the January transfer window. Could we have say found another Martin Odegaard style loan?
Ahhhhhhh laments.
It wasn’t for lack of trying. Vlahovic turned us down, and Juventus wouldn’t give us Melo on loan.
Bollocks – we were in for Bruno and then pulled out. Likewise Arthur, Renato Sanches, Aouar, etc – any of those would have made a difference over the past 2 months!
Can’t argue with that. I have to say, apart from all the other stuff in the match, one thing I never agree with is throwing on a load of forward players when you’re trailing in a game. It’s been a habit of Artetas and Wenger used to do it too but I swear it never or very rarely works, as shown by our record at coming back from behind. No point having loads of strikers on the pitch if there’s no one to work the ball up to them.
Going for broke, it’s great when it does work.
I fondly remember in 1999 at Wembley when we beat AIK Solna 3-1. It was 1-1 at the time, Wenger brought off our two wide players Overmars and Ljungberg, stuck on Henry and Kanu (we already had Bergkamp and Suker on the pitch) and we scored two goals in the 90th+ minute.
Oh the memories. Just seeing those names makes me realise how far we’ve fallen
Troodat – here’s a thought; imagine having Guendouzi or Torreira or – even – AMN to bring into midfield to drive at Newcastle last night…
Taking it further – imagine us having Bruno instead of them? Or Renato Sanches? Or Melo or Aouar?
All of which was entirely possible coming into the January window.
Piss poor A lot of pressure as a consequence of poor game management from the derby game. We didn’t need to win that, could’ve set up the stall for a draw and hit them on the counter. Instead two championship players in holding and Cedric showed why we are a distance from being champions league standard. This was always going to be tough but we were out fought and challenged everywhere on the pitch. You’ve thought they were trying to get to the champions league and we had a nowt to play for. That’s on the manager- Rookie Needs to… Read more »
Unfortunately it was our golden boys who weren’t at the races tonight, but they must be physically and emotionally exhausted. Remember they are just kids really. Hey maybe we think too much of them when we win a few games and they score a few goals. Maybe they aren’t that good. Time will tell.
Did his feet leave the ground? Because the ball definitely went over his head
It seems that some will jump on Arteta.
Myself I don’t agree with all his desicions.
However what we’re our cold blooded expectations this year?
For me top 6. Top 4 special. Out of top 6 sacking.
He delivered top 6.
Of course we could’ve should’ve but only throwing money into the pot and changing managers every October isn’t what I would like
I peraonaly don’t believe Esr and odg line up well together, I wish they could but something seems stale when they are on together from the start. Maybe it’s just me.
Martinelli would have been a better option for this game. However it may not have ended any different; Newcastle were on another level.
Our only fully “fit” defenders had to be subbed and our 2 centre backs completely off the pace, understandably. And why was Nket yellow carded because thier player fell awkwardly?
And how was thier fake white hair prick of a player not carded for consistent fouls.
Agree
1st and 2nd place are pre-determined.
Chelsea has a ridiculous squad frankly, not comparable to ours.
Utd have European Champions and World Cup Winners.
Spurs have Kane, Son, Lloris.
It was always going to be a battle.
Partey and Tierney need to sort their fitness out. They’re only playing a game a week
And we have Saka, ESR, Martinelli, Odegaard, Ramsdale, Tommi, Partey, Gabriel, Tierney and White.
That is the spine of a fucking good side. We just need some decent strikers and to upgrade our fullback cover and defensive midfield cover.
If we had nothing….where should we point the blame?!
Pepe has been the major disappointment of all the players this season. The rest we knew were green dog shite but he looked good the end of last season. Came into this season and was awful again. Time for him to move on
Last night was the final straw for me. I’ve defended Pepe to the hilt on here and questioned his lack of playing opportunities. Well, he’s had opportunities – albeit off the bench – during the last few games and produced the princely sum of fuck all. It’s beyond a joke to even think about his having any future at the club. On his day, Pepe is unplayable, but then so was Charlie Nicholas, who went missing in games so often that George Graham eventually lost his patience and couldn’t move him on quick enough. Within a year, minus Charlie, we… Read more »
You and me both Q – I’ve always felt Pepe had something and just needed some time/nurturing to get it out there onto the pitch. But there’s point where one needs to just say ‘Fuck it’ and move on… Arshavin was better, but similar mould, likewise Podolski – brilliantly mercurial, agonisingly inconsistent.
Sad, but true.
the two players youve named were great for us. arshavin could have been the worlds best player if he got his head down and podolski was slow but had a rocket shot and was great for the changing room.
pepe isnt good enough and his fee is the only interesting factor of his time at arsenal.
Even joel cambel had a more interesting story.
Arteta has no idea. Why not start your most effective player- Martinelli? Why brutally alter formation when you have to prepared your team to do so adequately? Why not add last January (and properly last summer) to fully meet a long campaign instead of over reliance on inexperienced youth players. (We see Betancur and Kulujevski added for free to Spurs. One signing Guimares in Jan completely turn them round + sound management) Why not get a more experience DoF? We were out of all cup competitions plus Europe which meant we were playing less games then immediate rivals for CL.… Read more »
This game was lost after the Sp*ds game when the mentality line was “I’m excited To be at the next game” it should have been “ this is war, this is life and death” . Hugely disappointed after such a good season. Thanks for the emoticons. Proud gunner.
Such a massive opportunity to get into the champions league and we just couldn’t do it this season. I hope I’m wrong but I think we won’t be as close next year. We’ll have Europa league football on Thursday nights and we’ll have more competition in the form of man united and Newcastle. Very depressing
That was a pretty gutless performance. So disappointed. But we’ve ultimately overachieved this season.
We have the youngest team in the league; even at 5th, we have punched above our weight. I have nothing but respect for the gallant warriors: they gave their all – and got some good wins along the way. It’s time for a post mortem. Arteta should learn from his mistakes. We lost 13 games! That is way too much for a team aiming for Champions League. If even five of those were draws – Brighton (h), Soton (a), Everton (a), Man United (a) and City (h), – we’d be needing a draw on Sunday to make it. I hope… Read more »
Spurs brought in 2 starters in January who stabilized their team. We didn’t bring anyone in. Maybe we didn’t find any players that could help us but everyone knew we had a thin squad. Calculated risk that didn’t work out. Not blaming anyone. Just an observation.
Don’t agree that we couldn’t find any players – we were in for Bruno and then pulled out. Likewise Arthur, Renato Sanches, Aouar and others….
We need a quick pick-me-up. A signing of someone everybody wants. Announce Gunnersaurus fast!
January cost us dearly.
Moving on Auba in January and not replacing him was a massive mistake.
Continuing to play Lacazette, who has all the mobility of an obese tortoise, was another.
When he came on last night that was it, I switched off; I couldn’t take anymore.
2 big screw ups this season – lost 3 games in a row to mid table teams recently, and now 2 in a row. 18 pt difference if u consider spuds’ was a 6 pointer. Lets not count the opening 3 games cos they were against teams above us. The saddest thing bout this is not being able to attract quality talents cos we have no CL – nunez, frenkie, sterling, gabriel (if we had any hope at all in the first place.) It just goes to show we need anoyher CM at odegaard’s level at least to play the… Read more »
It was not just this Newcastle result that lost Arsenal 4th place, but the 6 defeats in last 11. They have been unconvincing for some time, and every game they play could go either way. The squad is missing several key players, and that showed again last night. They did not truly believe they could do it.