Newcastle won 2-0 in their Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at the Emirates Stadium.
Alexander Isak made the difference for Eddie Howe’s side, scoring the opening goal and having his shot rebounded in by Anthony Gordon to give the Geordies a cushty lead going into the second leg on February 5.
Arteta bemoaned the lack of “real quality” in the Arsenal attack in his post-match praise of Isak and also complained about the Carabao Cup match ball, which is “very different” to the Premier League ball.
Speaking about the Swedish striker, the Gunners manager said: “He was involved in both goals, unfortunately the two times that he had the ball in the box and that’s what you have when you have the real quality up front.
“They can make the difference. They’re very clinical.”
And on the Carabao football, Arteta said: “We kicked a lot of balls over the bar, and it’s tricky that these balls fly a lot so there’s details that we can do better,” he told a post-match press conference.
“But at the end that’s gone – there’s no way back, it’s about the next game and that’s our world, the reality is our world.
“It’s very different to a Premier League ball, and you have to adapt to that because it flies different.
“When you touch it the grip is very different as well, so you adapt to that.”
Arsenal need more in attack, especially with Bukayo Saka out until around March, and club legend Wright has conceded that Arteta “needs help” with their goalscoring issues holding back their Premier League title bid. They are currently second, six points behind Liverpool.
“What I’m looking at now for Mikel Arteta and what he’s gonna need, he needs help,” Wright said.
“I know it’s very difficult to get anything in this January window, but he needs something else because if it carries on like this, it’s going to be very difficult to score.
“They aren’t scoring with the corners, we’re not scoring with the chances we’re making. Something needs to change. Something needs to happen.”
The very reliable David Ornstein of The Athletic reported this on Monday but said the potential finances involved make the January signing of Williams highly unlikely.
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