'Arteta wrote:
"The performance was nowhere near the level if we want to play in the Champions League.
"When you see the team we have at the moment there are a lot of question marks in a lot of different positions, because of the injuries and suspensions we had. But it is not an excuse. Today we weren't at the races."
I guess it is an excuse in the end then? Our players have question marks over them and because of suspensions (just the one) and injuries (Partey and Tierney) meant we can't get it up to win a game against a team with nothing left to play for when we are in a prime position to get CL.
Arteta wrote:
"It’s a really tough night. Normally, I can sit here and I can defend, but what we’ve done today, it’s not easy. Newcastle were one hundred times better than us in every department from the beginning to the end and it’s hard to accept, but you have to accept it and that’s the reality of what happened today on that pitch."
"We tried to change some things, but the execution was so poor and the goals we gave away were extremely poor."
Even his defence of the players is quite backhanded. So normally he defends them, but this time it's difficult in reality Newcastle were better in every department. And that whenever he tried to change things it wasn't executed by the players "on the pitch". So the players failed to follow his instructions and that's why we lost. Nice.
Arteta wrote:
"There are a lot of similarities, we had six or seven players out. At the time (of the Villarreal game) Aubameyang hits a header, the ball goes on the post and it goes out. [/b]Then it’s personality, or no personality.[/b] The situation is, it was a very different game against Spurs. What happened today, it was about the performance and about how we competed, and we were nowhere near the level we have to be at, to have a chance to play in the Champions League."
Gotcha boss. We are also lacking personality, that's another thing that's stopping us and another cause of our failures.
Arteta wrote:
on whether he has regrets on not buying players in January…
"We have done what we can, and with what we were allowed to do, what we could do and the resources we had from the start of the season. The team that we were able to build is what we were able to build."
So much for the argument that there was plenty of money to go around and resources last season were used used wisely considering our defence has conceded just as many goals as last season, whilst our attack and midfield hasn't looked any better on the whole.
God, I'd just about have anyone else in charge at this point. Arteta is most definitely, not IT.
