Mikel Arteta calls for 'powerful' reaction against Newcastle - ‘We can improve in many areas’

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 Gunners lost to Porto in the first leg of their last-16 tie on Wednesday evening after Wenderson Galeno’s stunner in the 94th minute.

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

“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.”

Following the loss to Porto, TNT Sports pundit Martin Keown said his former side showed a lack of experience in failing to close out the game after conceding possession sloppily in the build-up to the decisive goal.

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.

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.”

TNT Sports is available across all major TV platforms, offering a line-up of up to four TV channels (TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports 2, TNT Sports 3, TNT Sports 4), and up to six digital or red-button channels (TNT Sports 5 to 10), and TNT Sports Ultimate plus TNT Sports Box Office HD.

Arsenal v Newcastle United will be live on TNT Sports 1 and TNT Sports Ultimate with coverage from 19:00 on Saturday, February 24 ahead of kick off at 20:00.

You can subscribe to TNT Sports through discovery+, BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media.

To find out where your local establishments showing TNT Sports are, use our Pub Finder tool.

- - -

TNT Sports presents the premium live sports rights previously carried by BT Sport including the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, Gallagher Premiership Rugby, Investec Champions Cup, EPCR Challenge Cup, MotoGP, Cricket, UFC, Boxing and WWE. The streaming home for TNT Sports in the UK is discovery+, where fans can enjoy a subscription that includes TNT Sports, Eurosport and entertainment in one destination. You can also watch TNT Sports through BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media.