Why Mikel Arteta and the Arsenal fans are really so upset about Newcastle United | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta and the Arsenal fans are one cup-tie away from Wembley.

Eddie Howe takes his Newcastle United team to the Emirates tonight.

A semi-final first leg match which very likely will go a long way towards deciding who plays at Wembley in March.

The Arsenal Fans and Mikel Arteta up against a club that they appear to get very agitated by, to say the least.

The way they go on is hilarious.

Conspiracy theories, dodgy match officials and so on, they really do scrape the barrel with their claims of injustice and why they are (supposedly) hard done by.

However, this is the real truth.

From the start of the 2007/08 season, right through to May 2022, Arsenal fans saw their team play Newcastle United 29 times, home and away, all competitions.

Newcastle United won two of those 29 meetings across 15 years.

Three draws and 24 Arsenal victories in those 29 games against Newcastle United over the course of a decade and a half.

Mikel Arteta actually played for Arsenal during this period, at the Emirates between 2011 and 2016. The ten matches against Newcastle United during that time saw a goalless draw at St James’ Park and then nine Arsenal victories.

Arsenal fans and Mikel Arteta only knew Newcastle United as easybeats over a decade and a half.

Coincidentally, a period of time that was almost exclusively played out under Mike Ashley…

Along came Eddie Howe and new owners, no more Mike Ashley and a string of (almost entirely) not up to the job managers.

Eddie Howe’s first Newcastle United away match was actually at Arsenal. A 2-0 home win, however, a series of shocking decisions by the match officials, including a number of disallowed Newcastle goals and clear penalty shouts that went against NUFC, Fabian Schar dragged to the ground when a corner was taken, absolutely beyond belief it wasn’t given. Funnily enough, nobody connected to Arsenal acknowledging any of that.

Anyway, once Eddie Howe got his feet under the table, Arsenal fans finding life a little different against Newcastle United.

The final Arsenal away game of that 2021/22 season would have seen the Gunners in effect, guarantee top four and Champions League football with a win. Instead, they came to St James’ Park and got battered, lucky to lose only 2-0. Spurs overtook them and finished fourth instead, no Champions League football for Arsenal fans or Mikel Arteta.

A superb disciplined goalless draw at an in-form Arsenal in January 2023 then followed, Mikel Arteta going off it on the sidelines. Gutted by the way Arsenal could find no way through, Dan Burn superb against Saka in particular. Of course, Arteta then accusing Newcastle and the match officials of all sorts, pretending that was why he was so upset.

That glorious 1-0 win in November 2023, Anthony Gordon helping United to a deserved win, Arsenal unable to manage any threat on the NUFC goal.

Almost exactly a year later, a very similar story, Isak a class headed goal and Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal team unable to pose any real threat.

There have been Arsenal wins in this period of time, a 2-0 win at SJP in May 2023 when everything fell the visitors’ way, then the 4-1 at the Emirates last season, when Newcastle United had so many players missing and Karius in goal…

The reality is though, this is unrecognisable from what went before. No wonder Mikel Arteta and Arsenal fans now get so upset by Newcastle United and Eddie Howe.

Opposition managers and fans don’t get upset by clubs that they beat time after time, they patronise them. Say how well the opposition did whilst banking yet another victory over them.

These last three years have seen Eddie Howe and Newcastle United with three wins over Arsenal, one draw and two defeats.

None of those wins a fluke either, Newcastle the better team in all three victories and Arsenal without a serious threat in that trio of defeats.

The last hoodoo that Mikel Arteta and Arsenals fans have over Eddie Howe and Newcastle United, is no NUFC victory at the Emirates.

Chris Hughton was the last Newcastle manager to win at Arsenal, a 1-0 Andy Carroll header in November 2010. Hughton ridiculously sacked by Mike Ashley only a couple of weeks later (NUFC had won 5-1 against the Mackems a week earlier than the Arsenal victory), with strong rumours Hughton was refusing to agree to the sale of Andy Carroll.

Jobless Alan Pardew (having been sacked by then third tier Southampton in his last job) was unbelievably appointed, he promised that there was no way Andy Carroll would be sold under his watch, then weeks later… Andy Carroll was sold.

Anyway, pre-Ashley, both Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson were able to get Newcastle to defeat Arsenal home AND away.

Now it is Eddie Howe’s turn hopefully, a first NUFC away win at Arsenal under him tonight would be absolutely perfect timing.