Given the wafer-thin difference between the teams, Mikel Arteta rued our lack of goalscoring chances in the 1-0 loss to Newcastle United.
In a game of few clear-cut chances, Alexander Isak popped up with the vital goal to hand the hosts the three points and the boss was left disappointed our own entries into the Magpies’ final third didn’t yield enough major opportunities to test Nick Pope in the hosts’ goal.
“We are obviously very frustrated and disappointed with the result,” he 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.”
The result meant we suffered back-to-back league defeats for the first time since May 2022, but with massive away days next week in Milan and against Chelsea, the boss has backed his players to recover quickly with new challenges on the horizon.
We head to Italy on Tuesday as the games come thick and fast, and Mikel feels that he’ll see a reaction from his team, given their ability to bounce back from setbacks in recent years.
“Today we have to really swallow that one because it’s always painful losing a game in this league,” he added. “It’s painful, it’s got its consequences and today we’re not going to find the right words to describe it but by Wednesday we really have to be ready.
“That’s the sport, you get knocked out, you are in a difficult position, you feel terrible about and in a few hours, you need to start to stand up, find solutions, work more and get into it.”
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