On whether there were any similarities to the West Brom defeat…
I think against West Brom we were complacent but not today. In fairness the two teams who have beaten us here are good teams. They have shown that before and when we met them. I believe that today we were never in full flow. We played against a good Newcastle team who are a team of men [who are] strong physically and mature.
On his team's performance...
Overall I still believe we were very unlucky to lose the game. They had one shot on target and that was their goal. Apart from that they defended well and we were not sharp enough to get them out of position quickly enough. We were a bit unlucky because we hit the post two or three times and their keeper made a very good save. We put ourselves in a bad position just before half time with the goal we conceded and after we came close a few times.
On Lukasz Fabianski’s part in the goal...
He didn’t have a lot to do today and I think he was a bit too confident to take the ball and didn’t expect to be challenged. It was not a technical mistake it was a problem of timing and he thought maybe he wouldn’t be challenged. That’s how it looked from the outside.
On Andy Carroll’s performance…
Carroll is a handful. I believed our two centre backs handled their strikers well. I believe the two centre backs were our best players today because they did very well.
On Laurent Koscielny’s sending off...
It’s not a sending off because it wasn’t a clear goalscoring opportunity and he was not the last man. Squillaci was covering him so I don’t think it was a red card.
On Arsenal’s home form…
Our home form is a concern because against Birmingham and West Ham they were struggling wins. Everybody comes here and plays very tight and when we are not in full form we have problems to play through the lines. When you score the first goal it is alright because teams have to come out but as long as they can sit deep we have a problem to play through when we are not on full power.
On the fitness of Cesc Fabregas…
Cesc I think still played a little bit restricted today. He has no real pain but is still a bit affected I feel.
On missing the chance to close the gap on Chelsea...
We had the opportunity to come back to within two points of Chelsea today but we didn’t take it. Of course it’s disappointing for us today. We did not look sharp and we never found any sharpness. We never found the second gear.
On the fitness of Samir Nasri…
Samir has a calf problem that will be assessed tomorrow. We think it is small.
Source: Arsenal.com on 7 Nov 10
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