Eddie Howe admits he felt rushed into playing 24-year-old Newcastle man vs Arsenal

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Eddie Howe has claimed that one of his star Newcastle United players was still getting back to full fitness in their defeat to Arsenal.

Howe made some big changes to his team as they hoped to get a big result at the Emirates, but there was one player in particular who Howe was effectively forced to start despite not having his match sharpness.

Having played against Bournemouth without a recognised striker, Howe started Alexander Isak through the middle in his return from injury, but speaking to NUFCTV he admitted that he wasn’t yet fully fit.

Newcastle star wasn’t at his best vs Arsenal

From the moment the game kicked off it was obvious that Isak was going to have a very difficult game for Newcastle who struggled to get a hold of the ball and give the striker any service whatsoever.

The 24-year-old has been missing from the squad since the 3-1 win against Aston Villa in which he was forced off the pitch, but there was a lot of hope that he would be fit enough to start this game.

With Callum Wilson now ruled out for three months with a pectoral injury, Isak is going to have to carry a lot of the goalscoring burden for Newcastle and will be hoping for improved performances from the Arsenal game.

Little was expected from the team in general in a stadium where they hadn’t scored since 2014, and Howe knew that Isak wasn’t yet up to match sharpness but he had little choice but to play the Swedish striker.

On Isak, Howe said: “Alex got minutes which he needs, probably getting his sharpness back in the match which isn’t ideal but I don’t think we had an alternative today. He’s a huge player for us and the quicker he gets up to full speed the better.”

Newcastle need to get their players back and reset

It’s been a season of ups and downs and right now Newcastle must stay calm and reset before taking on the final run of games this season, starting with an FA Cup tie against Blackburn on Tuesday.

It was ultimately a terrible performance against Arsenal, but the positives for Newcastle will be seeing Isak an Joe Willock back out on the pitch which should give them at least a bit of hope moving forwards.

What we’ve learned from the latest run of games is that a midfield trio of Bruno Guimaraes, Sean Longstaff and Lewis Miley simply does not work and getting Willock back in the mix will be a big boost.

Newcastle now have to just put this result behind them completely and try to focus on what made them so successful last year and emulate exactly that.