Eddie Howe labels Mikel Arteta remarks ‘irrelevant’ after Newcastle beat Arsenal

Eddie Howe has played down Mikel Arteta’s ‘irrelevant’ remarks after Newcastle United recorded an impressive 1-0 win over Arsenal on Saturday.

Alexander Isak scored the only goal at St James’ Park, with the Gunners having now failed to register victory across their last three Premier League games.

Speaking after the loss to Howe’s team, Arteta delivered a backhanded compliment and said that Newcastle ‘are really good at what they want to do’.

Arteta made the comment three times, according to The Athletic, which they say was ‘a half-compliment delivered like an insult or perhaps the other way round’.

Howe, quizzed about Arteta’s remarks, said: ‘It’s irrelevant to me what anyone says, really, apart from my team.

‘And that’s how we’ve always looked at it because there’s always outside noise wherever that comes from.

‘We just try to do what we do to to try to win games on a consistent basis. Generally the last few games, our performance level has definitely increased and we’ve been consistent with it.

‘Initially the results didn’t come. The last two games, I think we’ve been rewarded for that upturn.’

Newcastle beat Arsenal by the same scoreline 12 months ago – a result which saw Arteta go on an angry rant about the standard of refereeing in English football.

Anthony Gordon scored the only goal that time, which was allowed to stand after VAR official Andy Madley checked three potential infringements in the build-up.

There was no controversial goal for Arteta to blame this time around – but that didn’t stop the Spaniard from bringing up Newcastle’s physicality.

‘They are really good at what they do,’ Arteta said. ‘They drag you into the sort of game they want. They are all big and very physical, Joelinton especially.’

Arsenal will attempt to get back to to winning ways on Wednesday when they travel to Inter Milan in a Champions League showdown.

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