Tribal Football

Arsenal boss Arteta: Newcastle dragged us into way they wanted to play

Paul Vegas
Arsenal boss Arteta: Newcastle dragged us into way they wanted to play
Arsenal boss Arteta: Newcastle dragged us into way they wanted to playAction Plus
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta admits they failed to play their own game for defeat at Newcastle on Saturday.

Alexander Isak struck early for the Toon's 1-0 win.

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“We are obviously very frustrated and disappointed with the result,” Arteta admitted post-match. “I think we started the game really well, we were on top of it and in one action we found ourselves 1-0 down after a brilliant cross and finish.

“I think the energy and momentum changed. We got dragged too much into the game they wanted to play and weren’t good enough or consistent enough to get out of that. You look at the chances, possession and dominance and there’s no difference between the teams.

“Probably we had to be on top of that, but the reality is when we had it we didn’t score and we didn’t create enough threat constantly against an opposition that does very well at what it does.

“Defensively they are really good, when they are ahead in that result they take a very different approach and we struggled to open them up. When we did the final pass, the quality of those deliveries and positions wasn’t good enough to really hurt them and when we had three big chances, obviously, we didn’t score.”