‘We can improve in many areas’ – Arteta calls for ‘powerful’ reaction against Newcastle

Mikel Arteta has called on his players to use the defeat against Porto in the UEFA Champions League as motivation for the visit of Eddie Howe’s Newcastle to the Emirates on Saturday, live on TNT Sports.

The defeat ended a five-game winning run and Arteta hopes to see an immediate reaction from his side and asked fans to play their part in creating a charged atmosphere, the which helped them beat Manchester City earlier in the season after a shock loss to Lens in the Champions League group stages.

“That is the reaction that we need,” Arteta said. “We want to create an atmosphere in the stadium from the beginning and I ask everybody to go there tomorrow night with full energy because the team is going to need it.

“We are in a really good moment in the Premier League and we want to continue to be there and tomorrow’s game is vital to achieve that.

“What happened in another competition is there, but what you cannot deny is what is in your tummy after a defeat. We have to use it in a really powerful way to be better.”

And asked whether his players need to be more ruthless in future, Arteta added: “Yes, we certainly can develop a lot of things and those experiences are really relevant to judge whether we were or we weren’t.

“Just because of a goal, I don’t think it’s that fair, and I was very clear with them about it because I believe that they did a lot of things right.

“Managing games and things like that we can still improve, but in a year’s time, for sure we can improve and we can improve in our build-up phase and we can improve in our restarts and we can improve in many areas.”

The last time Arsenal and Newcastle met, Anthony Gordon’s controversial second-half goal decided the match and sparked a furious backlash from Arteta.

The Spaniard described it as “embarrassing” that Gordon’s goal was allowed to stand after it survived three VAR checks for separate incidents before the ball hit the back of the net.

‘Significant improvement’ in VAR since Newcastle outburst, says Arteta

He admits his reaction was “pretty strong” but he wasn’t punished by the Premier League and has been pleased to see what he believes has been a marked improvement in how the technology is being used.

“That’s what we all wanted, that at the end the decisions are better,” he continued. “The last stats that came across showed that it was a significant improvement and a lot of decisions were getting right, so hopefully that’s the case and we continue to do that.

“I talked the way I felt and I was very straight. I did it in a way that was pretty strong but within the law because I didn’t get charged for that, so that tells the story.”

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