Arsenal icon Martin Keown was far from happy and singled out three of Mikel Arteta's stars for criticism in the Gunners' 1-0 defeat away to Newcastle.
It was a disjointed lunchtime performance from the visitors at St James' Park, compounded when Alexander Isak gave Eddie Howe's side the lead after 12 minutes.
On the surface it appeared a well-worked Newcastle goal, one the home crowd have grown accustomed to in recent years, as Isak met Anthony Gordon's stunning cross from the right.
Related articles
He wheeled away in celebration after a thumping header that left David Raya with little chance of saving, having found a gap between the two centre-backs.
And during his half-time analysis, Keown blamed both Gabriel and William Saliba while also picking out Thomas Partey for initially giving the ball away.
“This ball though it’s unfortunate,” Keown said when breaking down Newcastle’s opener as Partey gave the ball away. “Partey, playing full-back, there has got to be height and distance on that clearance.
“Then look at the distance between Gabriel and Saliba. Gabriel gets drawn to the ball, it’s up to Saliba to talk him back into that position and gets touch-tight in the box. Look, it’s a fantastic ball in, great execution.
“But it could have been avoided if you got tough-tight there in the box. There’s only one striker, there’s two defenders and they don’t deal with it.”
Former Chelsea and West Ham winger Joe Cole, who joined Keown to cast an eye over the match, took a different approach however and felt that the Arsenal hero was overly harsh.
“I just think it’s one of them goals where we are being hyper-critical,” Cole replied. “I think the ball is almost undefendable, it’s just dropped into that area.”
Arteta will be harbouring concerns regarding his defence, though he has been without a key number of starters in front of Raya.
They have not kept a single clean sheet in any of their past six Premier League matches, with a difficult week coming up. They are away to Inter Milan on Wednesday before travelling to Chelsea on Sunday.
