It was a day Steve Bruce had dreamt about for decades but his first Premier League game in charge of Newcastle United ended in bitter disappointment.
A rare home defensive mistake permitted last season’s joint Golden Boot winner Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to pounce in ruthlessly opportunistic fashion and secure a 1-0 victory.
“The big disappointment is to lose in the way we did,” Bruce said. “We’ve defended fantastically, I can’t remember my goalkeeper [Martin Dubravka] making a save – and against Arsenal that’s a big positive – but we’ve made a mistake, left ourselves open and got punished.”
Rafael Benítez’s successor has five summer signings to integrate into this side and early teething problems arrived when the Netherlands left-back and Eintracht Frankfurt loanee Jetro Willems came off the bench and briefly took up the wrong position. Bruce briefly bellowed invective from the technical area but subsequently played the incident down. Unfortunately, Willems was swiftly involved in the error which preceded Aubameyang’s goal.
“It was just a lack of communication,” Bruce said. “It was quickly sorted out, not a problem. We made a genuine mistake for the goal. I understand there’s always going to be criticism here, that’s part and parcel of it but I think it would be wrong to criticise us for having a go in the last 15 minutes when we chased the game and left ourselves a little bit stretched. But we’ve only all been working together for four or five days.”
He seemed similarly unfazed by the slightly quiet top-flight debut of Joelinton, Newcastle’s £40m striker signed from Hoffenheim. “I’m quietly convinced Joelinton will do very well,” he said. “But he’s got to get used to the Premier League and his new surroundings.
“We made a few mistakes but the effort and endeavour was there for everyone to see. My job is to improve us, get the supporters back onside and enjoying watching their team.”
Last season Arsenal took until April to collect a clean sheet away from home in the Premier League, but Unai Emery did not seem overly excited by getting one here. “It’s good to have a clean sheet but first we always want to win,” said Arsenal’s manager. “We want to be a team that are mostly offensive.”
Emery said he “did not know” whether Mesut Özil and Sead Kolasinac would be available this weekend after they remained at home because of security threats. “The club is managing this circumstance,” he said. “We want them to be with normality in training and playing as soon as possible.”