Saliba and Arteta critical of Arsenal after “deserved” defeat at Newcastle

Arsenal had no complaints about that 1-0 defeat at Newcastleas the Gunners lose ground in the Premier League title race.

The north London club took one point from their last three games and never looked like winning in Newcastle.

Manager Mikel Arteta and star defender William Saliba both said Arsenal “deserved to lose the game” as the Gunners were lethargic and lacking creativity after falling behind early on.

This was another match where they missed captain and main creator Matin Odegaard dearly as Arteta was unhappy with the cutting edge and lack of intensity and felt the Gunners were falling 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 very well and were very dominant. We didn’t defend the box well enough. Thanks to them. They scored a great goal with a good ball,” Arteta told Premier League Productions.

“Then the game changes and you start playing a different game. You have to adapt and we haven’t done that well enough. I’m very frustrated. We got sucked into a game they were constantly looking for and we couldn’t play the game we wanted. We had two big chances: Mikel had a big one, Declan had a big one. We lacked answers.”

Arteta added that Arsenal’s staff and players “can say whatever we want” but they must show a response in a big Champions League match against 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 yet”

Saliba echoed his manager’s views as Arsenal never really got off the ground at Newcastle, but said they will not give up their title hopes anytime soon.

“We are all a bit sad because we wanted to win today. Unfortunately we didn’t do that and we didn’t play the game we wanted to play. I think we deserved to lose today,” Saliba said. “I think we didn’t play how we wanted to play and they were good too. It’s okay, we’re focused on the next week and it’s not done yet.”

Not all is lost for Arsenal, but their injuries have been piling up for some time and their current squad has hit the ground running.

Arsenal won’t use that as an excuse, but at Newcastle they played like a team that was low on energy and never really believed they would get back into the game.

Confidence levels have taken a hit and Martin Odegaard cannot return quickly enough to try and get the Gunners going again.