Mikel Arteta rues missed Arsenal chances and praises ‘very clinical’ Isak | OneFootball

Arsenal lost 2-0 at home to Newcastle in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final and Mikel Arteta believes things could’ve been very different if his side had taken their chances.

Newcastle striker Alexander Isak was the difference between the sides as he socred one and made another for Anthony Gordon.

Arsenal strikers Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli as well as defenders Gabriel, William Saliba and Jurrien Timber all could and should have scored on a night when Newcastle rode their luck and deserved to win.

Arteta commented afterwards: “Obviously and the ball arrived to Isak he created and had a lot of big chances. He was involved in both goals as well, unfortunately the two times he had the ball in the box and that’s what happens when you have real quality up front and they can make the difference, and they’re very clinical.

Agitated Arteta

“If you look at what both teams produced and the dominance its not the result that reflects the story of the game but the reality is they were super efficient with the chances they had and we weren’t.

The Arsenal manager refuted the suggestion his players have become nervous in front of goal and argued: “We’re always going to discuss that when we don’t score a goal because when we score five against Palace, or three the next game we’re not going to discuss that. We will try to help the players as much as we can.

“Iif we lose the game or draw the game, it’s going to be down to that (people saying we are tired), if we win it and today we score three, that we should have scored, three goals,  the story would have been different.”