The real reason why Mikel Arteta was so upset after Saturday’s game at St James’ Park

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·5 November 2023

The real reason why Mikel Arteta was so upset after Saturday’s game at St James’ Park

Even genuine Arsenal fans must have been embarrassed by the behaviour of Mikel Arteta.

The Gunners boss giving such an over the top cringeworthy reaction after the game at St James’ Park.

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Mikel Arteta claiming he had been the victim of the worst miscarriage of justice in the entire history of football.

The Arsenal boss claiming his side had been cheated out of all three points because the Anthony Gordon winning goal was allowed to stand.

Hilarious to listen to, such delusion.

VAR looked at the goal for around five minutes and tried and failed to find any reason why the goal should be disallowed.

On top of that though, was the fact that the main reason the goal happened was due to Mikel Arteta ditching Aaron Ramsdale who was excellent last season, replacing him with David Raya who somehow failed to deal with an easy cross, flapping at it like a severely damaged seagull. There would have been no goal if had had dealt with it, no Mikel Arteta attempting to desperately use this as a lame excuse for him and his team’s shortcomings.

Arteta’s claims of cheated out of all three points were so beyond the pale, as Arsenal didn’t have a single serious attempt at goal all game. The only time Nick Pope had to get involve was when Martinelli had Arsenal’s only effort on target in the entire game just before half-time, a shot from the edge of the box that Pope didn’t have to move for, it would have hit him in the face if he hadn’t put his hands up to comfortably deal with it.

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Quite clearly, the Arsenal boss’ claims were ludicrous, so what this really all about?

Well, this is the real reason why Mikel Arteta was so upset after Saturday’s game at St James’ Park.

A stat I kept heard getting quoted after yesterday’s match, was that before Saturday, the previous 24 matches between the two clubs had seen only two Newcastle United wins.

That stat is true BUT so is this one.

After Saturday, the most recent AND relevant stat is that, in the last four meetings between the two clubs, Newcastle United have now won twice, drawn once and lost just the one time.

Mikel Arteta is so upset after Saturday because he knows that Eddie Howe has got his number.

In three of these last four games between Newcastle and Arsenal, Arteta’s team haven’t managed to score a single goal.

This is quite astonishing, considering that Arsenal in recent times have been second best to only Man City, that last season only Man City scored more goals than Arsenal, that in their previous 17 games (all competitions) this season, the Gunners had never failed to score.

Yet Arsenal have lost twice and had a goalless home draw in these last four matches against Newcastle and yesterday couldn’t even manage a single proper shot on target.

No wonder Mikel Arteta has been acting like an oversized baby / toddler, launching his toys out of the pram.

Mikel Arteta is getting repeatedly schooled by Eddie Howe and he doesn’t like it one bit.

If you don’t believe me, just look at Arsenal’s recent record against the other top teams…

Manchester City – Arsenal beat Guardiola’s side in the Community Shield in August and then did it again in October, winning 1-0 at the Emirates.

Manchester United – Arsenal have won three of their last four matches against Man U, scoring three goals each time. The two most recent saw the Gunners win 3-2 in January and 3-1 in September.

Liverpool – Last couple of matches have seen Arsenal win 3-2 against Klopp’s side in October 2022, then in April 2023, the Gunners going 2-0 up at Anfield and the scousers getting a very lucky eventual 2-2 draw having been outplayed for most of the match, needing an 87th minute equaliser.

Chelsea – Last three matches have seen two Arsenal wins and one draw.

Tottenham – Same story, last three matches seeing Mikel Arteta with two wins and a draw.

It is glorious to see.

All of those years under Mike Ashley, where a resource starved NUFC club and team helped allow the likes of Arsenal to dominate Newcastle United BUT now the worm has turned, with finally some decent investment (though still nowhere near what Mikel Arteta has spent AND the quality of squad he inherited) and a brilliant manager in Eddie Howe, United now putting it to Arteta and Arsenal and he simply can’t handle it.

A shame that the cowardly journalists and interviewers don’t put this to Mikel Arteta when he is diverting attention away from his own failings, cynically making ludicrous over the top claims of having been cheated, to cover for the fact that now Arsenal are coming up short when facing Newcastle United.