Arsenal's Premier League title challenge took a slight dent on Tuesday night as they played out a tense 0-0 draw with Newcastle United at the Emirates Stadium.
The hosts started lively, looking full of confidence after their impressive 4-2 win against Brighton on New Year's Day. However, the Magpies' defence was resilient as they recorded their sixth successive clean sheet - the first time anyone had shut out the Gunners in the league this term.
Despite struggling to create many meaningful openings, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta decided to make just one substitution, bringing on right-back Takehiro Tomiyasu for Ben White in the second half. The likes of Kieran Tierney and Fabio Vieira were both left on the bench, a decision that Manchester United legend Gary Neville picked up on.
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Speaking about Vieira during Sky Sports' coverage of the match, Neville said: "Arteta, he looks at £34 million Vieira on his bench and doesn’t bring him on, so he doesn’t have faith that he’s going to improve the team that was out there. They do rely on the perfect pass and the thread.
"They haven’t got full-backs that deliver really good crosses, they haven’t got a midfield player that switches play or plays (Kevin) de Bruyne-style crosses - they’re always relying on the short bits of play around the box, which Newcastle to be fair defended so well and so resiliently and so compactly, made it so difficult for them, and they didn’t have another plan off the bench."
The Portuguese playmaker was brought to the Emirates Stadium during the summer transfer window, signing from Porto for a fee in the region of £34million. However, he has struggled for consistent game time - playing just 244 minutes in the league so far this season.
Considering there are still 21 league matches to be played this term, the 22-year-old will be hoping he will be able to feature more regularly during the second half of the 2022/23 campaign.
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