Arsenal Bukayo Saka was despondent after his side's Champions League hopes were left in tatters by a two-goal defeat against Newcastle on Monday night.
The Gunners were firmly second best throughout the game with a Ben White own goal and late Bruno Guimaraes strike earning a well-deserved victory for the Magpies. It was the second damaging loss for Mikel Arteta’s side in the space of four days after they crashed to a 3-0 defeat at North London rivals Tottenham.
Those two defeats have left Arsenal with a two-point deficit to Spurs going into the final day of the campaign with a vastly inferior goal difference – Antonio Conte's side are 15 goals better off. All that means that Tottenham need just a point at already-relegated Norwich to secure a top-four spot and Champions League football for next season.
This is a particularly painful manner for the Gunners to throw away an opportunity to return to the Champions League for the first time in six years. With 12 rounds of action remaining, Arsenal held a six-point advantage over Spurs and had played one game fewer but have now squandered that position.
Successive defeats against Crystal Palace, Brighton and Southampton last month proved to be particularly damaging but the last two performances have been equally concerning. When asked to explain what had gone wrong with Arsenal's performance at Newcastle, Saka explained that "everything" was at fault.
The 20-year-old, who was notably downbeat after the game, explained: "We lost every duel and we were not able to play out properly from the back. Overall the performance was so poor.
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"Obviously we are all incredibly disappointed. Technically it is not over but we have made it very difficult for ourselves. Because we had it in our hands, it is such a disappointment not to get Champions League football and that is why we are all so gutted.
"Yeah of course we have a young squad but it does not really matter about your age – when you have these opportunities you have to take them. The last two games we have had those opportunities to win and put ourselves in a great position but we could not do that."
Arsenal now host Everton on the final day of the Premier League campaign and must beat Frank Lampard's side and hope that Norwich can pull off a shock result at home to Spurs. The Gunners were not predicted to attain a top-four spot at the start of the campaign, but their lack of European football had given them an opportunity this season.
