Defeat for Arsenal at Newcastle very ‘hard to swallow’ for Wenger

Ross Gibson

Arsene Wenger was in disbelief that his side didn’t come away with any points from their match against Newcastle on Sunday.

Ayoze Perez and Matt Ritchie scored for Newcastle to cancel out Alexandre Lacazette’s opener.

“It’s the story of the season,” Wenger said after the match.

“70 per cent of the ball, 2-1 up. You wonder how we lose the game.

“We concede two goals from nowhere. Second half I feel some players paid a bit physically from having the game on Thursday night.

“We played with good spirit but a bad result is the outcome. It’s very hard to swallow.”

The Gunners have now lost five successive league matches away from home for the first time since December 1984.

On their worrying away form, Wenger said: “Of course it’s a concern.

“Traditionally we are strong away from home. It has a subconscious weight in our mind.”

Wenger felt his side should have had a penalty in the first half, but refused to criticise the referee for the decision going against Arsenal.

“The referee is the referee. What you want is to help the referee, unfortunately the Premier League has decided not to go for VAR. I think that is a very bad decision.

“I believe with that decision we are behind the rest of the world.”

The Gunners manager also confirmed that Aaron Ramsey missed out through injury, rather than being rested.

“Ramsey had a wound so couldn’t get into any contact. The rest are little knocks – the recovery tests were not good enough.”