Eddie Howe praises 'unbelievable' Newcastle United player after going from hero to villain in a heartbeat on Sunday
The sting of going from 1-0 up to losing 2-1 at home to a sixth-minute injury time winner by a player who should have been sent off in the first half takes a while to fade, we're not going to lie.
We'd be being disingenuous if we said that it wasn't a fair result on the balance of play, as Arsenal outplayed Newcastle United for much of the game. However, football doesn't always work that way, so whether they played better or not, Newcastle can feel very dejected after failing to hold on to that lead and ultimately coming away with nothing.
We've covered the Gabriel issue to death today, so we're not going to go over all that again, but the fact that it was he who scored the winner is more infuriating than the manner in which he did.
The fact that the winning goal came about from that age-old issue of Nick Pope's inability to kick a chuffing ball wasn't lost on us; we just didn't feel it was right to rip Pope to shreds because, for 90 minutes, he'd been incredible.
Nick Pope was phenomenal for 90 minutes
Nick Pope made some absolutely world-class saves to keep Arsenal at bay, and while there wasn't much he could have done about Mikel Merino's equaliser, the Gabriel winner was all on him. A poor clearance returned the ball to Arsenal, who pumped it forward for Jamaal Lascelles to head out for a corner. That corner swung in, and Pope came off his line into a bunch of players, completely blocked off from getting the ball, and Gabriel out-jumped everyone and nodded home.
The clearance and the decision to come off his line were two errors in quick succession that cost Newcastle two points.
However, like Eddie Howe, we'd rather focus on the positives from his performance than pull him apart for 90 seconds of madness, which is how the gaffer chose to address the issue when speaking ot the media after the game.
Eddie Howe handled the question about Pope perfectly
In an interview shared by beIN Sport, Eddie Howe opted to focus on the positives from Pope's performance, which is absolutely the right thing to do after that. Nobody is going to be more critical of Nick Pope than Nick Pope after what happened.
“I’d prefer to reflect on the positives.
“Nick has made some unbelievable saves for us today. We’re indebted to how he’s kept goal.
“You can always critique. In any goal, you can critique the team’s function, you can critique individuals but it’s always about the collective.
“We’re just disappointed collectively that we didn’t defend better for the two goals.”
