ARSENAL DESIRE CAN LIFT MAGPIES – ELLIOT
ARSENAL 1 NEWCASTLE UTD 0: KEEPER THINKS POSITIVELY AFTER MAGS’ NARROW DEFEAT
Rob Elliot says Newcastle United must start making their own luck – after dropping into the Premier League relegation zone.
Rafa Benitez’s side are 18th after Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Arsenal, an eighth loss in nine games
Newcastle, however, put in a spirited performance and stayed in the game against the Gunners, who claimed all three points thanks to a stunning firsthalf volley from Mesut Ozil.
Asked about the Magpies’ league position, keeper Elliot – recalled in place of Karl Darlow – said: “We’re there because we have lost the last eight out of nine, so you can’t say ‘oh, we’ve been unlucky’.
“We need to make sure that going forward we address it and we make sure we are putting in performances like we did at Arsenal.
“When we play the teams around us, the attitude and the way we played against Arsenal will hopefully allow us to create more chances and we won’t face the quality like Ozil’s strike every week.
“We need to make sure we take what we had in this match into West Ham (this Saturday), first and foremost. Because if we go in with that attitude and commitment and shape and strength of the team, I think we can turn the results around quicker.”
Elliot believes that the dressing room is very different to the season before last, when the Tynesiders were relegated.
“We’re talking to each other all the time. If people criticise each other, it’s not personal, it’s because they care,” he said.
“Unfortunately, results aren’t going our way. It’s not falling for us like it was at the start of the season. But I can promise it’s not down to character, it’s not down to the commitment of the players.
“I think it’s a bit of inexperience, a bit of naivety sometimes. And then just that little bit of quality sometimes when we need that final finish. It’s just not falling for us.
“Arsenal was a good start of getting back to the basics we had at the beginning of the season. Hopefully, we can push on with that and build from there.”
Ozil beat Elliot with a stunning volley after the visitors half-cleared a cross.
“That’s a quarter-chance for anyone else,” the 31-yearold added. “He’s hit it coming down on the volley from God knows how far up. That’s