Though his side were behind for well over an hour, Nick Pope was rarely troubled in the Magpies goal with David Raya the goalkeeper required to keep the score down. The absence of Martin Odegaard at St James' Park was telling with Arteta delivering his verdict on where things went wrong.
"We started really well. I think we were on top of it, we looked sharp, we looked alive. And then one action, which they are really good at - they put the ball wide and have an unbelievable cross and finish," he admitted in a press conference.
"When you create three big chances in the game you're hoping to score a goal because these are the fine margins we're always discussing. I think the team should have generated more and that's my responsibility." One of those huge chances fell to Mikel Merino, seven days on from his first goal for the club.
A deep corner was not cleared with the ball ricocheting to his feet but his effort was blocked on the line by Lewis Hall. Deep into added time, Declan Rice had a free header at the back post but his effort went narrowly off target. Those were the two big chances for Arsenal, however from Arteta's perspective there was another.
When asked about Rice's late opportunity, he told TNT Sports: "We had two [other] big chances, Mikel had a big one and Gabriel Martinelli had another big one." It is certainly interesting that Martinelli is mentioned given the fact he did not have one shot at goal during his 61 minutes on the pitch.
It is entirely possible that Arteta misspoke or was of the belief that Martinelli squandered a great chance in the build up, especially as he did not have any efforts on goal, but it is certainly interesting that he was named specifically
The Brazil international has struggled for consistent form this season, but showed glimpses of his quality in the Champions League victory over Shakhtar Donetsk. Prior to that however, he was ruthlessly singled out after defeat to Bournemouth for missing a golden opportunity while the game was still goalless.
"We didn’t capitalise and got punished," Arteta said after the game. "We had the biggest chance in the game with Martinelli. It’s a game of errors and tonight we made two big ones and it cost us the game." Arsenal were keen on signing a winger during the summer transfer window with Nico Williams the priority target.
Ultimately, the Gunners were unable to make a permanent addition with Raheem Sterling instead joining on loan from Chelsea. However, it has seemingly become very clear what Arteta believes his transfer priority now is with sporting director Edu likely tasked with acquiring an elite attacker to take Arsenal to the next level.
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