Arsenal went from having Champions League destiny in their own hands to needing a miracle on the final day of the season after a 2-0 loss at Newcastle which was more comprehensive than the final score would indicate.
Buoyed by their usual fervent supporters at St. James' Park, Newcastle were on top of Arsenal from the first minute and the Gunners had no response.
Arsenal's inability to show up in a big moment — two wins in their final two matches would have guaranteed a Champions League group stage berth — even had manager Mikel Arteta questioning whether his squad's youth hurt them at a critical juncture of the season.
When asked whether his team looked like an inexperienced team that wasn't ready to take the next step, Arteta did not disagree.
"That's what we have to think about," he said in reply. "But it's true that we could not cope tonight with the game that we had to play here [in Newcastle].
"And we tried to change some things and it didn't make it better," he continued. "We had some moments where we looked a little bit better, and the start of the second half was a tiny bit better — we understood better what we had to do — but then the execution was so poor. The goals that we gave away were extremely poor. They deserved to win the match."
"It was a really difficult night to swallow"
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 16, 2022
Mikel Arteta reacts to Arsenal's 2-0 defeat to Newcastle 🔊 pic.twitter.com/GgHsiNirTB
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Arsenal are now two points behind rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the battle for fourth place with just one match left in the 2021-22 Premier League campaign. With Tottenham heading on the road to face last-place and already-relegated Norwich City, it would seem a formality that Spurs will be the ones playing in the Champions League group stage next season.
It's a massive blow to Arsenal, who were hoping to take an important step forward this year under Arteta, at the helm for two-and-a-half seasons.
The 40-year-old Spaniard shared his postgame message to the squad and it didn't sound like he was going out of his way to keep the spirits up.
"That I'm extremely disappointed, that Newcastle were 10 times better than us and fully deserved the match," Arteta told his players, according to the manager himself. "And the performance is just nowhere near the level that we have to play if we want to play in the Champions League."
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Arsenal looked like they were still left shaken from the derby loss against Tottenham last week. They've also lost form in recent weeks and were not helped by Kieran Tierney's long-term injury, Rob Holding's suspension, and fitness concerns for starting center backs Gabriel and Ben White, with the latter sitting out the previous three matches.
Things got worse at Newcastle when Arteta was forced into an injury substitution of influential defender Takehiro Tomiyasu just before halftime.
Arteta pointed out that "there is a lot of question marks in a lot of positions because of the injuries and suspensions," but he wasn't trying to spin the woeful performance on the night.
"It was a really difficult night to swallow. Newcastle deserved to win the match comfortably. They were much better than us from the beginning to the last minute and we had nothing in the game.
"They were much better in every department. They were much better in the duels, in the second balls.... We were poor with the ball. We didn't defend the restart of plays or set pieces the way we have to do. We had nothing in the game.
"A lot of things happened as well during the night with the substitution that we had to make through injury. But it's no excuse. Newcastle deserved to win the match from the beginning because they were much better than us in everything that a full match requires to be on top of that."
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Arteta stopped short of calling it the worst loss of the season — "it's obviously a very painful one," he quipped — but his disappointment was palpable in his postgame interview.
"It [qualification to the Champions League] was in our hands. Today it's not in our hands.
"We have to beat Everton and wait for Norwich to beat Spurs. That's what we have to wait now. There's always a chance in football and you have to be there just in case that chance appears."
