Mikel Arteta bemoans Arsenal decision as Newcastle United handed another top-five boost

Newcastle United have put themselves in a brilliant position to not only secure Champions League football, but potentially finish the season as runners-up in the Premier League.

Supporters would have snapped your hand off for this season before a ball had even been kicked and that's testament to the work of Eddie Howe and his staff behind the scenes. It's been an incredible campaign, though it's still far from over.

The Magpies head to Arsenal and the Emirates Stadium knowing a win will see them leapfrog the Gunners into second place.

Newcastle have already beaten the Gunners on home soil this season, a 2-0 win in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final victory and will be hoping for a similar performance next weekend.

Mikel Arteta is already facing a selection headache for the visit of the Magpies, with Declan Rice a huge doubt for the game having missed Arsenal's trip to Liverpool at the weekend.

The Gunners came from two goals down to share the spoils with Liverpool at Anfield at the weekend. Arne Slot's side raced to a 2-0 lead inside just 21 minutes with Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz on the scoresheet.

However, Arsenal fought back in the second half with Gabriel Martinelli scoring after the half-time interval and former Newcastle midfielder Mikel Merino scoring on the 70th minute mark.

Nonetheless, the Spanish international's joy was short lived after he was sent off for a second bookable offence just nine minutes later.

Merino lunged into a tackle on Dominik Szoboszlai on the edge of the Arsenal box, catching the Hungarian international late, meaning he'll now miss the clash with Newcastle next weekend.

Speaking at full-time, Arteta told our sister title football.london: "I haven't seen it on TV to be fair. I know that Mikel goes to the ball and he gets a little bit pushed and after he reacts it looks like he touches him and he made the decision so that's it."

If Newcastle are to beat the Gunners next weekend, then a win in their final game of the season against Everton would guarantee the Magpies second place in the top flight ahead of a huge summer in the transfer market.

"We’ve become used to the big games," Howe told reporters after the win over Chelsea moved Newcastle up to third. "I don’t think that was the case when we first arrived, but we’ve slowly built our league position.

"Having two cup finals and the Champions League experience has definitely helped us in that respect. Now there’s a much better reaction to the bigger occasions and no bigger than today, really.

"The pressure on us was huge, with the expectation and the crowd, and you’ve got to try to use all of those things to your advantage. "But, if you’re not careful, they can become a disadvantage.

"Credit to the players, who were magnificent, and credit to the crowd. "It was the early kick-off, but they were there for us from before the game and that certainly helped us relax into the game."