Gary Neville says Arsenal were right to not panic buy in January but believes the side’s crushing Carabao Cup defeat to Newcastle proves a brand new striker is an absolute necessity in the summertime.
Trailing 2-0 from the semi-final first leg in north London, Arsenal had a mountain to climb as Jacob Murphy increased the deficit inside 20 minutes to send the St James’ Park crowd into raptures.
The Gunners offered little or no in response and gifted Newcastle their second of the night within the 52nd minute, with Anthony Gordon making no mistake from close range after David Raya’s clumsy pass was intercepted by Fabian Schar.
The Magpies held firm to secure their place at Wembley with a 4-0 aggregate win and Eddie Howe’s men will face off against the victor from tomorrow’s semi-final second leg between Liverpool and Tottenham and Anfield.
Arsenal had a £60million bid rejected for Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins before the January transfer deadline and Arteta admitted he was left ‘disillusioned’ by Arsenal’s failure to strengthen up front within the build-up to this evening’s clash.
An emphatic 5-1 win over Manchester City had briefly quietened talk of Arsenal’s need for attacking reinforcements but their latest setback saw these questions rise to the surface once more, with Kai Havertz enduring one other frustrating night in front of goal.
‘This has shown a large highlight on the toothlessness of Arsenal’s forward players in comparison with what we’re seeing at the opposite end of the pitch,’ Neville said on Sky Sports’ commentary of the tie.
‘They need to [strengthen in the position] this summer.
‘I used to be supportive of them not panicking, finding the player they need, I get that.
‘But after they bid for Ollie Watkins, they’re sending a message to the remainder of the squad, those up front aren’t ok. They were never going to get him anyway.’
Facing the media shortly after Arsenal’s elimination, Arteta’s admitted his players were unable to ‘generate enough situations’ to mount an unlikely comeback against Newcastle.
‘We had so many expectations, obviously, to consider that we could turn it around, we wanted to generate momentum, especially in the primary half,’ the Arsenal head coach told reporters.
‘The sport began in the primary motion almost with them scoring after which the goal being denied.
‘Then we had the moment, two big moments, with Martin [Odegaard], we didn’t capitalise the subsequent motion, they scored the goal and clearly, the sport shifted.
‘Then, you want to stay cool, to attain a goal as early as possible. We didn’t manage to try this in the primary half despite the fact that we had one other big likelihood.
‘Within the second half then we began to struggle as the sport went by and we didn’t generate enough situations, establish ourselves in the ultimate third enough. The sport began to get away from us.’
Asked whether Newcastle represent certainly one of Arsenal’s hardest opponents, the Spaniard replied: ‘Yes, they’re a tricky opponent. Yes.’
Arteta conceded that Newcastle superior ‘effectiveness’ contained in the box had been the difference between the 2 sides of their two most up-to-date meetings.
‘When you need to be within the cup finals, you need to win trophies, at the tip those are hard,’ he continued.
‘They’ve been really effective within the box within the last two games that we’ve played against them and we haven’t. Overall, that was the predominant difference.
‘It’s true that today we’ve been a bit more unsettled, especially when the sport became more chaotic or after they were very direct with their play.
‘Normally, we’re rather more composed, today we lacked a little bit of that and the sport went away from us.’
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