Mikel Arteta with blinding honesty after Newcastle 2 Arsenal 0 | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta declared seven months ago, that Steve Bruce was one of the most important English managers of the last one hundred years.

Bruce had just been sacked by the new Newcastle United owners after predictably losing yet another match, at home to Tottenham.

Those new owners having been pressurised by a ridiculous campaign whipped up by his pundit and journalist mates, who demanded that Steve Bruce was allowed a ‘sentimental’ 1,000 match as a manager.

Arsenal fans must be left wondering now just what would have happened if Brucey hadn’t been allowed that extra ‘sentimental’ game as NUFC boss.

On Monday night, Mikel Arteta was left admitting that Newcastle were ‘one hundred times’ better than Arsenal in every department. I wouldn’t disagree, NUFC were absolutely dominant throughout.

Refreshing honesty from Mikel Arteta, recovering slightly from the bizarre Steve Bruce comments back in October (2021).

The Arsenal boss admitting that his players lost ‘every duel’ and that the home side deserved to win by more than the two second half goals that were scored.

Whilst this was a very important result in terms of Champions League hopes for the Gunners, Newcastle fans would argue that in its own way, it was just as important for NUFC.

This was superb stuff from Eddie Howe and his team…and I just wonder where Mikel Arteta might now rate the current Newcastle United Head Coach, in terms of comparisons with the likes of Bruce and other English greats of the last century or whenever?

Mikel Arteta reflecting on Newcastle 2 Arsenal 0:

“Normally I can sit here and defend what we have done…but today it is not easy.

“Newcastle were one hundred times better than us in every department, from the beginning to the end.

“It is hard to accept but that is the reality of what happened today on that pitch.

“We knew [what was at stake] but we didn’t cope with it.

“We didn’t compete, we never even got into the game.

“We were putting ourselves in trouble time after time.

“We lost every duel.

“Every aspect of the game we were second best and Newcastle deserved to win the match, probably by a bigger margin as well.

“No [I don’t feel let down by the players], I am responsible.

“If anyone has created an expectation this year that no one in this room probably talked about at the start of the season, then it is these players…and I will always defend them.

“But tonight it is a really difficult thing to do.

“We need to win [against Everton] and we need a defeat for them [Spurs at Norwich].

“We know that in football that’s always possible and if anything happens, you have to be there.

“In order to do that we have to put our heads down today and swallow all of the poison and tomorrow start again.”

Stats from BBC Sport:

Newcastle 2 Arsenal 0 – Monday 16 May 8pm

Goals:

Arsenal:

Newcastle:

White OG 55, Bruno G 85

Possession was Arsenal 49% Newcastle 51%

Total shots were Arsenal 11 Newcastle 16

Shots on target were Arsenal 2 Newcastle 4

Corners were Arsenal 8 Newcastle 12

Referee: Darren England

Attendance:  52,274 (Arsenal 3,000)

Newcastle United:

Dubravka, Krafth, Schar (Lascelles 49), Burn, Targett, Guimaraes, Longstaff, Joelinton, Saint-Maximin (Fraser 77), Almiron (Murphy 76), Wilson (Gayle 90+4))

Unused Subs:

(Newcastle 2 Arsenal 0 – The three big points that I’m taking from the match – Read HERE)