Mikel Arteta cut visibly frustrated figure during damaging Newcastle defeat as he watched Arsenal title hopes fade
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Mikel Arteta was left seething with his team as he watched them slip to a 1-0 defeat against Newcastle United.
That made it back-to-back Premier League away defeats for the Gunners, and Arteta cut a moody and frustrated figure throughout.
It’s a result that means Arsenal have lost more ground on Liverpool and Manchester City – and ex-Watford captain Troy Deeney told talkSPORT the Gunners could now be OUT of the title race.
The Arsenal boss is an incredibly fiery coach, and I watched him for the full 90 minutes.
The first thing to notice about Arteta is that he never sits down. For the entire 90 minutes, he patrolled the touchline in his Arsene Wenger-type coat.
This is a manager who wants to be involved at all times.
Newcastle scored through Alexander Isak, and the Spaniard turned and screamed at his coaching staff.
However, to his team, there was no anger, it was all encouragement despite the fact the Toon’s striker was left with the whole of St James’ Park to bury a header.
A late Joelinton tackle on Thomas Partey on the right saw Arteta head over to the fourth official to have a quiet word, but nothing more.
Joelinton made a few fouls in the first half, and Arteta was keeping count.
After his fourth, he simply looked at the fourth official and held up four fingers.
Arteta was slowly getting more angry, and Mikel Merino was deemed to have fouled Bruno Guimaraes.
There was then a bit of a flashpoint.
Sean Longstaff and Fabian Schar stopped an Arsenal counter-attack, leading to Arteta and Newcastle assistant manager Jason Tindall exchanging some harsh words.
The fourth official had to step into separate the two.
Since Eddie Howe became Toon manager, there has been a bit of a rivalry between Newcastle and Arsenal, and the tension between the two benches was evident throughout.
The second half started with a Joelinton foul, and a death stare from Arteta to Darren Bond.
Despite having a team talk to get his side going, it was Newcastle that started the second half the better.
His chats with the fourth official increased in frequency as his frustration boiled over.
On 60 minutes, he’d seen enough and the substitutions came on.
Oleksandr Zinchenko and Ethan Nwaneri both received hugs and words of encouragement before coming on or Mikel Merino and Gabriel Martinelli.
Zinchenko’s first contribution to the game was to gift the ball to Anthony Gordon and trigger a counter-attack.
Arteta simply rocked his head back and look to the sky before binging Ben White and Gabriel Jesus on for Leandro Trossard and Jurrien Timber.
An injury to Nick Pope, allowed Arteta the chance to speak to his men, and the anger was clear to see.
Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice received a particularly stern talking to.
As time ticked away, a sense of resignation came over Arteta.
He knew his team hadn’t played well, and they were slipping to consecutive away Premier League defeats.
Arsenal did have one final chance as Rice connected with a cross at the far post and headed wide.
There was barely any reaction from Arteta, who knew it hadn’t been his day.
At the end of the match, Arteta shook hands with Howe, briefly clapped the Arsenal fans and marched down the tunnel.
This was not a memorable trip for Arteta and co.
After the game, he spoke exclusively to talkSPORT’s Sam Matterface, but he didn’t stick around for long.
Speaking to Matterface, a clearly frustrated Arteta said: “The damage is that we feel disappointed because we didn’t get the result and the performance that we needed to win here.
“I thought we started really well and were very dominant.
“We were on top of the match, and in one action, they put the ball in and scored a goal.
“After that, the game changes, the energy changes, and you get dragged into a game they want to play.
“Chances-wise, I thought they created nothing and the big chances we created, we didn’t take.
“We have to be more clinical and more ruthless and purpose to damage the opposition.”
