More away-day blues for Arsenal
DEFENCE AGAIN FOUND WANTING AT NEWCASTLE Wenger’s men have now lost five in a row on their travels.
Arsene Wenger admitted Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat at Newcastle was “the story of our season” after the Gunners crashed to a fifth consecutive away defeat in the Premier League.
Wenger’s side took an early lead through Alexandre Lacazette, but Ayoze Perez equalised before Matt Ritchie bagged the second-half winner at St James’ Park yesterday.
Newcastle’s fourth successive win ended Arsenal’s unbeaten run of seven games in all competitions.
“It’s been the story of our season, 70% possession, 1-0, lots of chances and then you wonder how you lose the game,” Wenger said.
“We didn’t put our chances to bed and made unbelievable mistakes.”
The sixth-placed Gunners are 13 points behind fourth-placed Tottenham with only five games remaining in the race to qualify for the Champions League.
With little to play for in the league, Arsenal were unable to find enough momentum to maintain their recent revival, even though Lacazette opened the scoring in the 14th minute.
Just moments after he was left writhing on the turf following a crunching challenge from Kenedy, Lacazette exacted revenge.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ran on to a long ball into the Newcastle area and picked out Lacazette, who fired in his 13th goal of a difficult first season.
Alex Iwobi almost doubled Arsenal’s lead moments later with a stinging strike that forced a good save from Martin Dubravka.
Jonjo Shelvey’s long pass picked out Dwight Gayle in the Arsenal area and, with Gunners defender Shkodran Mustafi out of position, he laid off to DeAndre Yedlin.
Perez made a perfectly-timed run to meet Yedlin’s cross with a fine finish that flashed by Petr Cech at his near post.
The Spanish forward’s third goal in his last three appearances was a clinical effort, but Wenger would have been furious with how easily Newcastle carved open his defence.
Calum Chambers could have restored Arsenal’s lead before the interval, but the defender shot wide from Mustafi’s knockdown.
Ritchie tested Cech before 18-year-old Arsenal midfielder Joe Willock’s poor finish wasted an opportunity to mark his Premier League debut with a goal.
Iwobi lashed narrowly wide from long-range as Arsenal chased their first away point of 2018.
But it was Newcastle who landed the knockout blow in the 68th minute.
More sloppy Arsenal defending let in Islam Slimani and his header was flicked on by Perez to Ritchie, who beat Cech from closerange. – AFP