Mikel Arteta’s Gunners were out-fought and outsmarted tactically by Eddie Howe’s Magpies at St. James’ Park on Saturday. After some initial pressure, Arsenal conceded a soft goal from Anthony Gordon’s cross which found an unmarked Alexander Isak in the box, with the Swede heading home his effort in the 12th minute.
Aside from creating a handful of chances through crosses and set-pieces, Arsenal failed to get into second gear despite holding much of the possession. The north Londoners’ lack of creativity, along with a lack of success in the duels (winning just 43%), was alarming to see in their third consecutive Premier League match without a win.
A 2-0 loss to Bournemouth and the 2-2 draw at home to Liverpool, as well as this latest defeat, mark a huge blow to their title hopes this season. Club legend and pundit Wright has now offered a brutally honest assessment of where things are going wrong, citing the absence of captain Odegaard as the primary reason why Arsenal are failing to break down teams.
Wright said: “It was a very poor performance from a team that are supposedly title contenders. I thought we passed the ball very slowly, there was no energy in the team, it was very predictable.
“Yes, we are missing Odegaard, our chief creator. But for us to not be able to find a solution to that. Again, you look at the Bournemouth game, one shot on target, this game, one shot on target.
“A poor performance from everybody. If I'm going to be totally honest, it's one of those that the manager's going to have to have a serious think about what's going on with this squad at the minute, with the boys and their output.”
He added: "Some drastic changes are going to have to happen at Arsenal for us to get ourselves back in it. But at the moment, I think there's a lot more to be thinking about in respect of creating chances."
Odegaard was injured while playing for Norway in early September. The 25-year-old playmaker has been out of action since, though he reportedly has a chance of making Wednesday’s tough Champions League trip to Inter Milan.
Arsenal finished the day in fourth place as league leaders Liverpool extended the gap to a concerning seven points. The Gunners have dropped points now in five of their 10 opening league fixtures.
Offering his own thoughts post-match, manager Arteta said: “We lacked more purpose, more threat and more capacity to really go and hurt them. We gave the ball away, I think we gave 17/18 free-kicks away, so that stops the game constantly, so it’s not a good outcome for us.”
The Spaniard added: “It’s about how we react. We’re not going to find the right answers or words right now to describe, but how we feel, we certainly have to put it out on that field on Wednesday night against Inter.”
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