Mikel Arteta shared his thoughts on Isak’s devastating display against the Gunners on Wednesday.
Mikel Arteta and his men were dominated
The Gunners manager has admitted that Alexander Isak’s impact was quite clear on Wednesday. He had a great game in Newcastle’s dominant win over Arsenal.
Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United led the fixture with two goals from the first leg. It looked like a walk in the park for his players in the second leg.
They dominated the Gunners throughout the game, scoring two goals. They won the game 4-0 on aggregate and reach the Carabao Cup final in style.
The Sweden international was toying the Arsenal’s defenders. His beautiful striker in the first 5 minutes was ruled out for offside. VAR cancelled his effort for tiny margins.
The 25-year-old had another attempt that hit and came back off the post into Jacob Murphy’s feet. Murphy then put the ball in the back of the net on the rebound.
The Swedish striker gave a tough time to William Saliba throughout the game. He was subbed off with three minutes remaining on the clock. He received a standing ovation from the fans for his impressive night at St James Park.
The north London side have been linked with Isak for a while. Many see him as the solution for their goal scoring crisis.
Arsenal may again try to sign him in the summer after failing to get him in January.
Mikel Arteta on Isak’s performance
The Gunners boss was asked about Isak’s performance against his side but he refused to share his views. He said: “I’m not here to evaluate opposition players but it’s clear that he had two actions to finish and you know what happened.”
He was also asked if the tight schedule had any impact on last night’s poor display. “I wouldn’t like (to say that),” he said.
“Especially when we lose a game, physically, we were tired and you know we played so many games. We played so many games every three days, and we knew that this was going to be a really high-intensity one.
“I think emotionally as well, it was a very different game that we needed to get there to believe right until the end that we could do it. And before that game got away from us.”
He added: “We need to swallow this one, it’s a tough one and we had a lot of expectations.
“We knew the difficulty of the task because of the result that we brought from London. But there’s nothing we can do right now. What we could do was on the pitch a few minutes ago.
“Now we have to look forward, first of all I think this is going to be a painful one. And when we’re in Dubai, recharge and go again because we still have a lot to play for.”
The London side traveled to Dubai last season too. It was widely praised because after that trip they had a great run of form in the Premier League. They were in the touching distance of the title last time. Arsenal will look to repeat that run this time too. They are still in race to win the Premier League and Champions League.
Newcastle took a dig at the Arsenal manager
The Magpies couldn’t help themselves from taking a dig at Mikel after his side was humbled at St James Park.
The Gunners were trailing by two goals from the first leg. Kai Havertz was highlighted as the main reason for their first leg loss. He missed a series a chances that could’ve changed this fixture.
Instead of accepting his centre-forward’s poor finishing, Arteta blamed the match ball for his side’s failure to score. He suggested that the Carabao Cup ball is manufactured by a different company to that one which is used in the Premier League.
The Spaniard was therefore being trolled by the fans after his comments. Newcastle also shared a picture of the match ball on their X account with the caption ‘the culprit’.
Author’s Opinion
Alexander Isak certainly had a standout performance against the Gunners. This shows why they were desperate to bring him to the Emirates in the January transfer window.
Arsenal will surely try again to make efforts to sign him in the summer. It will be exciting to see if they succeed in landing the deal.
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