Gary Neville says Arsenal were right not to panic buy in January but believes the side’s crushing Carabao Cup defeat to Newcastle proves a new striker is an absolute necessity in the summer.
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 very little in response and gifted Newcastle their second of the night in 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 ‘disappointed’ by Arsenal’s failure to strengthen up front in 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 again, with Kai Havertz enduring another frustrating night in front of goal.
‘This has shown a massive spotlight on the toothlessness of Arsenal’s forward players compared to what we’re seeing at the other end of the pitch,’ Neville said on Sky Sports’ commentary of the tie.
‘They have to [strengthen in the position] this summer.
‘I was supportive of them not panicking, finding the player they want, I get that.
‘But when they bid for Ollie Watkins, they are sending a message to the rest of the squad, the ones up front aren’t good enough. They were never going to get him anyway.’
Neville believes Arsenal have no option but to strengthen up front in the summer
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 believe that we could turn it around, we needed to generate momentum, especially in the first half,’ the Arsenal head coach told reporters.
‘The game started in the first action almost with them scoring and then the goal being denied.
‘Then we had the moment, two big moments, with Martin [Odegaard], we didn’t capitalise the next action, they scored the goal and obviously, the game shifted.
Gordon put the Carabao Cup semi-final to put with Newcastle’s second on the night
‘Then, you need to stay cool, to score a goal as early as possible. We didn’t manage to do that in the first half even though we had another big chance.
‘In the second half then we started to struggle as the game went by and we didn’t generate enough situations, establish ourselves in the final third enough. The game started to get away from us.’
Asked whether Newcastle represent one of Arsenal’s toughest opponents, the Spaniard replied: ‘Yes, they’re a tough opponent. Yes.’
Arteta conceded that Newcastle superior ‘effectiveness’ inside the box had been the difference between the two sides in their two most recent meetings.
‘When you want to be in the cup finals, you want to win trophies, at the end those are hard,’ he continued.
‘They’ve been really effective in the box in the last two games that we’ve played against them and we haven’t. Overall, that was the main difference.
‘It’s true that today we’ve been a bit more unsettled, especially when the game became more chaotic or when they were very direct with their play.
‘Normally, we are much more composed, today we lacked a bit of that and the game went away from us.’