Arsenal loses to Newcastle, mighty blow to its EPL top-4 bid
The Hindu
After losing 0-2 to Newcastle United in the Premier League, Arsenal no longer has UEFA Champions League qualification in its own hands
With his team's Champions League qualification ambitions in ruins, Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka felt it was time to deliver some home truths.
“Disastrous” was how Xhaka summed up Arsenal's 2-0 loss to Newcastle on Monday that left Tottenham in charge of the race between the north London rivals for a top-four finish in the English Premier League. Then he went further.
“If someone is not ready for this game or too nervous, stay on the bench, stay at home, don’t come here,” Xhaka said, appearing to turn on some of his own teammates. “We need people to have the (character) to come here and play.”
If only Arsenal had shown some of that fight on the field at a rocking St. James' Park.
Mikel Arteta's young team buckled under the pressure of playing its biggest match of the season, with an own-goal by Ben White and a late strike by Bruno Guimarães capping a dominant display by a Newcastle team that might soon be a Premier League force to be reckoned with.
This night was all about Arsenal, though, and whether its players could keep Champions League qualification in their own hands. They couldn't.
“We could not cope with the game we had to play here,” said Mikel Arteta, who described Newcastle as “10 times better” than his team.
Asian Games champion Avinash Sable opened his season in the 3000m steeple chase with a silver in the Portland Track Festival, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze event, in Oregon on Saturday. He clocked 8:21.85s. Asian champion Parul Chaudhary took the bronze in the women’s 3000m steeple chase in a season-best 9:31.38s. Former Asian bronze medallist Sanjivani Jadhav struck gold in the women’s 10,000m in 32:22.77s, a time which was a second off her personal best, while Seema was sixth in 32:55.91s.