Martin Keown calls out 3 Arsenal stars for error that led to Newcastle United's winner in Premier League clash

Arsenal legend Martin Keown has claimed that Gabriel Magalhaes, William Saliba, and Thomas Partey are to be blamed for the Gunners' 1-0 loss to Newcastle United on Saturday, November 2. The former defender believes the three were poor in the move that saw Aleksander Isak score the match's lone goal.

Keown felt Partey should have stopped the cross that led to the goal. He also thinks Saliba and Gabriel should have done better in marking Isak and beating the Newcastle striker to the ball.

“This ball though it’s unfortunate. Partey, playing full-back, there has got to be height and distance on that clearance. Then look at the distance between Gabriel and Saliba. Gabriel gets drawn to the ball, it’s up to Saliba to talk him back into that position and gets touch-tight in the box. Look, it’s a fantastic ball in, great execution. But it could have been avoided if you got tough-tight there in the box. There’s only one striker, there’s two defenders and they don’t deal with it,” he told Sky Sports.

Following the loss at St James' Park, Arsenal are fourth in the Premier League table. They could slip to sixth if Aston Villa and Chelsea earn favorable results in their respective games on Sunday, November 3.

---

Mikel Arteta explains decisions made during Arsenal's loss to Newcastle United

Mikel Arteta claimed he played Thomas Parey as a full-back because he didn't have options. He believes the Ghana defensive midfielder did well in his new role and said in the post-match press conference via Football London:

"I will have to make that assessment when I have more clarity about where he did struggle but I don't think he struggled much. Every time we have that situation with Thomas playing in a different position we're always gonna have that debate, but we could not do it different because we don’t have another right-back. Thomas is fantastic. We love Thomas."

When quizzed if Arsenal lack courage in the Premier League title race, Arteta responded:

"I didn't feel that. I think I would have felt it at the beginning of the game. I didn't have that feeling. What I did feel was that when we fell behind it we lacked threat and more capacity to go and hurt them. We weren't consistent enough and when we gave the ball away we were in transition and allowed them to run or sustain attacks. I think we gave 17 or 18 free-kicks which stops the game constantly and that was not a good outcome for us."

The Gunners, with 18 points from 10 games, are now seven points behind league leaders Liverpool in the Premier League.