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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta feels it is “inevitable” bitter memories of last season’s controversial Premier League loss at Newcastle will come flooding back when his side return to St James’ Park.
Magpies forward Anthony Gordon bundled home the only goal of the game a year ago, with three VAR checks – to see if the ball went out of play, if there was a foul, and if there was an offside – all going in the hosts’ favour.
Arteta was incensed by the decision to allow Gordon’s effort to stand, branding it “embarrassing” and “an absolute disgrace”, while his team ultimately missed out on the title to Manchester City by two points.
The Spaniard insists he has moved on from the contentious incident but expects thoughts of the perceived injustice to resurface in the hours before Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off against Eddie Howe’s men.
“I think the players have a memory of all the games that they play,” said Arteta.
“And when there are certain situations in a specific moment, whether individual or collective, in certain grounds, you tend to recall those moments: whether you scored a goal, or you were sent off, or you won that game, the victory, the dressing room.
“You get to a stadium and you start to have things that are familiar and you relate that particular moment or that smell or the visual with something that happened to you or the team there, that’s inevitable.”
VAR checks of Gordon’s scrappy 64th-minute finish last November lasted more than four minutes before the 1-0 defeat halted Arsenal’s unbeaten start to the season at 10 games.
The 42-year-old is one of only five top-flight managers not to have been shown a yellow card this term amid a concerted effort to avoid a touchline ban.
Arteta believes his players have also become better at controlling their emotions ahead of what potentially could be another hostile atmosphere on Tyneside.
“Our emotional state normally is very, very good and it’s very demanding,” he said.
“In this league, you have to do it, it doesn’t matter where you play, whether it’s home or away.
When you go to these grounds, you know the intensity, you know the levels of duels you are going to be approaching
Mikel Arteta
“Obviously it (playing home or away) changes certain things in terms of the energy that the crowd provides but you have to be so good at that (controlling emotions) and I think the team has evolved a lot on that.
“When you go to these grounds, you know the intensity, you know the levels of duels you are going to be approaching.
“And that is something we have improved a lot but doing it in the right way, in the right manner to be very efficient.”
