Newcastle vs Arsenal: Arteta won't talk about title race after defeat

Mikel Arteta has refused to rush Arsenal's title chances after his side suffered a devastating 1-0 defeat at Newcastle United on Saturday.

Alexander Isak's 12th-minute header ended a hard-fought encounter at St James' Park in which Arsenal struggled to overcome the hosts and managed just one shot on target.

Arsenal are seven points behind leaders Liverpool after their win against Brighton later on Saturday and Arteta said: “I understand that but after eight, nine or 10 games last year we weren't (talking about the title) and we won. “I'm not talking about it now.

“It's about how you react to it. We won't find the right words or answers to describe how we feel. We have to show it on this field on Wednesday night against Inter Milan (in the Champions League).”

Arteta suggested Newcastle made the game more physically intense after Isak's goal and believes his team should have handled the task better.

“We deserved to lose today,” he said. “I thought we started really well and were really dominant. We didn't defend the penalty area well enough. Many thanks to her. They scored a great goal with a good ball.”

“Then the game changes and you start playing a different game. You have to adapt and we didn't do that well enough. I’m very frustrated.”

“We got sucked into a game that they're constantly looking for and we couldn't play the game we wanted to.”