The Newcastle manager Alan Pardew was very impressed with the Arsenal side that demolished the Magoies by four goals to one, and although he was missing a couple of his top players he admitted that the Gunners played brilliantly.
Pardew told the Northern Echo: “We missed Moussa Sissoko (suspended) and we didn’t get the balance right,” said Pardew. “But we didn’t play well. They kept coming out on top on physical challenges and they played well.
“I don’t think many teams could have coped with them today. We were a bit sloppy in our passing and a couple of goals were really poor on our part.
“We caught them on a very good day. The front three were rested for midweek and I think that showed. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was outstanding and he caused us a lot of problems in our midfield area.”
“You know with Arsenal that they always give you a chance. If we’d got another goal at 3-1 it would have brought back nasty memories for them but it wasn’t to be.”
Not even Arsenal fans would have been surprised if Newcastle pulled another one back to cause a nail-biting finish (as usual this season!) but for once we managed to hold firm and stop Newcastle from getting back into the game. Even though we have a massive injury list and played with yet another makeshift defensive line-up, we managed to easily beat an in-form Toon side.
Let’s hope that we are just as decisive next week against Liverpool….