Newcastle United’s defeat to Arsenal’s ‘dark arts’ should inspire Eddie Howe’s side

The Magpies have been beaten just five times in the league this season. Liverpool, champions-elect Manchester City, an Unai Emery-inspired Aston Villa and title-chasing Arsenal are the only teams to get the better of Newcastle so far this season - and we’re currently approaching the middle of May.

The defeat to the Gunners on Sunday was a bitterly disappointing one - but the team can still take pride from being able to match Arsenal for the majority of the game. That match was decided by very small margins and saw Arsenal emerge victorious because they were able to take their chances when presented to them, whilst Newcastle, meanwhile, saw the woodwork and Aaron Ramsdale deny them during a frustrating 90 minutes.

And frustration was the overriding emotion around St James’ Park as fans left the stadium and ventured out into the city. Frustration not about the defeat, but mainly the manner in which the game played out.

From almost the word go on Sunday, you could feel frustration rising around the stadium as they saw Jacob Murphy’s effort strike the post before Chris Kavanagh, after a three minute VAR check, overruled his original decision to award the hosts a penalty. These feelings only escalated when Martin Odegaard put the visitors ahead largely against the run of play.

And then, the ‘dark arts’ started. For all the lovely football Arsenal play, the Gunners showed a willingness to engage in the other side of the game and do everything in their power to ensure that Newcastle were not able to build any sort of fluidity in their game.

Anyone who has watched Newcastle this season will recognise that yes, this is a tactic the Magpies have employed to great effect this season. They don’t do it any more than other teams, but their rise up the Premier League table to threaten the ‘establishment’ means incidents of simple game management have been twisted against them.

And the fallout to Sunday’s game has seen this exact response with people like Martin Keown praising Arsenal for doing just what he bemoaned Newcastle doing to the Gunners at the Emirates Stadium back in January. However, Howe’s side should take the subsequent fallout from Sunday’s game as a major compliment.

Their defeat to Arsenal came because they simply weren’t allowed to play their natural game by the visitors - something that Arteta’s side had identified as a major threat. Aston Villa, although done without the ‘dark arts’ that Arsenal felt they had to resort to, also stopped Howe’s side from playing their natural game. On that occasion, Villa out ran and out fought Newcastle on a rare off day from Howe’s side.

Defeat to Arsenal at the weekend shouldn’t derail this team’s Champions League hopes and they have shown in the past an uncanny knack of being able to bounce back from disappointments at the earliest possible opportunity. They now need to harness their great team spirit and use Sunday’s defeat to spur them on against a rejuvenated Leeds side managed by one Sam Allardyce set on getting revenge over the club that sacked him over a decade and a half ago.