I’ve managed Newcastle and I was really upset with what Arsenal did after the game Former Newcastle United boss Alan Pardew has not held back.
Mikel Arteta left former Newcastle United boss Alan Pardew ‘really upset’ with his comments following Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat against the Magpies.
Arsenal could have no complaints after the visitors mustered just one shot on target in their third defeat in four seasons at St James’ Park. Defender William Saliba was the first to admit that his side ‘deserved to lose’ after Arsenal could not find a response to Alexander Isak’s 12th-minute opener.
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However, rather than giving outright credit to Newcastle for a committed performance, Arteta repeatedly hissed in various interviews that Arsenal got ‘dragged into the game’ that the black-and-whites wanted to play. Arteta even went as far as to say that ‘when Newcastle are ahead, they take a very different approach’ and Pardew felt it was a ‘really poor show’ from the Arsenal manager.
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“I was really upset with Arteta because, sometimes, he antagonises the media and antagonises the opposition,” Pardew told talkSPORT. “He came out with a line, ‘We were dragged into a game they wanted to play.’
“I’ve had that as a manager before. You’ve beaten a top team and, then, suddenly, they’re questioning your style and the way you’ve gone about the victory. There’s not a cast-iron beautiful way to win a game of football. You just need to win.
“Sometimes you don’t have to play a beautiful game to win it. You just have to be effective in what you do and the pressing and organisation from Newcastle was absolutely spot-on. Arsenal had one shot on target. That’s what Arteta should really question – not the opposition.”
Eddie Howe, for his part, labelled Arteta’ comments ‘irrelevant’ because Newcastle ‘just try to do what we do to win games’. Newcastle won 55.5% of their duels and 57.5% of their aerial duels against Arsenal and the Magpies also made 45 more sprints and five more successful tackles than the visitors.
