Newcastle boss Chris Hughton thrilled by spirited win

Newcastle boss Chris Hughton thrilled by spirited win

Click to play

Click to play
Advertisement

'Spirited' Newcastle delight Hughton

Newcastle manager Chris Hughton was delighted with his side's spirit and discipline in the 1-0 win at Arsenal.

He said: "This is a fantastic win. For anybody to come here and get a result is a difficult ask.

"We rode our luck a bit and we needed a particularly good save from Tim Krul. We needed a spirited performance by 11 players on the park and we got it.

"You have got to be resolute and defend well as a team. To keep a clean sheet here is outstanding."

The win is Newcastle's third in a row in the league and will ease the pressure on Hughton, who has had to cope with speculation about his job.

606: DEBATE
Survival is our man priority but, we look safe, (at the moment) so I think a top-10 finish is looking like a target now

Howay_The_Lads

Newcastle's victory came thanks to Andy Carroll's header just before half-time, when the big striker took advantage of a mistake by Arsenal keeper Lucasz Fabianski to nod in.

In contrast, Krul made one outstanding save from Samir Nasri, and Newcastle largely contained and frustrated Arsenal.

Hughton added: "Tim is a young goalkeeper who is learning and improving game by game. He has a confidence about him and today won't do him any harm.

"Keeping a clean sheet here is testament to the back four and the goalkeeper but also to a team performance that allowed us to always stay in the game."

Hughton also kept faith in a formation that had worked in the last two league matches, even though few teams come to Arsenal and play with two strikers.

"We kept two players up top because I felt that the same team that won our last two league games deserved to have another go," he continued.

"We adjusted the front two a little bit. It is very difficult to come here with two playing high up, so Shola Ameobi did a great job linking back in [with the midfield]. When you get a result, the shape generally works."

Click to play

Click to play

Defeat was harsh - Wenger

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger acknowledged that his side were far from their best but also believed the result was harsh.

"It was a big disappointment because our performance was not good enough. But I think we were unlucky because they had one shot on target the whole game and we lose 1-0," Wenger reflected.

"We never found our flow and we made a mistake on the set-piece where Newcastle are strong.

"We had some players coming back from injury who were not completely 100% and we had some players who played in midweek who were not the sharpest.

"And we put ourselves in a difficult position because if you go in at half-time at 0-0 you have a better chance of winning the game than losing it."

Wenger also refused to blame Fabianski for the defeat, although he did concede that the keeper was at fault for Newcastle's goal.

"Fabianski is strong enough. He has done extremely well lately," Wenger added: "Today, I felt he was too confident he could get the ball without any challenge and that punished him."

Wenger did, however, question the late sending off of defender Laurent Koscielny, who was shown a straight red for pulling back Newcastle substitute Nile Ranger.

"It was not only harsh, it was not right," Wenger stated. "Sebastien Squilacchi was covering Koscielny. It has to be a clear goal-scoring opportunity for a defender to be the last man. It was not the case."






_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
medical marijuana credit card processing
snowblower reviews