Newcastle United made a big tactical mistake against Arsenal on Saturday night.
That is the view of Perry Groves, who has been reflecting on Newcastle United’s dismal performance against the Gunners this weekend.
Eddie Howe’s side lost 4-1 at the Emirates Stadium, unable to get close to the Premier League title challengers. Arsenal were dominant, while the Magpies were fairly embarrassing. The only positive was Joe Willock’s return from injury.
This was meant to be a battle, but it was actually a stroll in the park for Mikel Arteta‘s side. They had complete control, while Newcastle played into their hands.
We made so many individual errors on Saturday night, and were the masters of our own downfall.
That is the view of TalkSPORT pundit Perry Groves, who does not understand why Newcastle tried to play out from the back.
Perry Groves highlights key error Newcastle made vs Arsenal
Groves has been speaking on TalkSPORT and has highlighted a key mistake that Newcastle United made against Arsenal.
“Loris Karius, that was his first Premier League game since 2018 and they still tried to play out from the back. Schar split, Botman split,” he said.
“If you said to Mikel Arteta how would you want a team to play against you, he would say please can you have a nervous goalkeeper and two centre halves who don’t want it, try and play out from the back so we can just come and press the life out of you.
“I’m watching it thinking it’s old fashioned but just tell Isak to go wide and just ping it to him for 15 or 20 minutes.”
Newcastle played into Arsenal’s hands
As Groves says, Newcastle played exactly how Arteta would have wanted them to. It was clear that Loris Karius was nervous, as you would be given the circumstances. It was his first appearance in a year, and just his second for the club.
But Fabian Schar and Sven Botman are usually so comfortable on the ball. However, they were far from it on Saturday. They were absolutely disastrous in possession, which was so uncharacteristic.
Watching the game on Saturday night, I had the same feeling as Groves. There were times you just wanted them to knock it long towards Isak and try and play off the loose balls, as it was clear that we could not play out from the back and into midfield.
We played into Arsenal’s hands, and they punished us time and time again.
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