ALAN SHEARER has slammed one Newcastle player for his performance against Arsenal.
The Magpies legend has claimed Sven Botman had his worst ever game in a Newcastle shirt against the Gunners.
Arsenal ran riot over the Tyneside team with a superb 4-1 win at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday night.
Mikel Arteta’s high-flying Gunners moved within two points of league leaders Liverpool with another convincing performance.
But it wasn’t just their dominant display they earned them the three points, but also a lacklustre showing by visitors Newcastle.
Botman, who signed for the Geordies for £39million in 2022, was a shadow of his usual self scoring a shocking own goal and failing to deal with Arsenal’s rampant attackers.
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And Shearer singled the 24-year-old centre-back out alongside Kieran Tripper as the worst performers for Eddie Howe’s side.
Speaking on Premier League Productions, he said: “If you look, you have three or four players of Newcastle standing and watching in passive [for Arsenal’s second goal].
“You have got to get up. You have to put pressure on the ball, otherwise, with the players Arsenal have, really, really good players, talented players, they are going to hurt you.
“Trippier is all over the place at the back. Botman’s all over the place at the back and they end up getting a tap-in.
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“Really good from Arsenal, but terrible from Newcastle. Where is the pressure? Where is the desire to go and close someone down?
“You are being battered by a very good team, so you have to roll your sleeves up and you have to put up a bit of a fight. None of that from Newcastle.”
Botman has been a stand out player for Newcastle since his arrival from French outfit Lille, but he looked almost unrecognisable from the player who stood out for the Magpies last term.
And Shearer went on to explain that is was such an uncharacteristic performance from the Dutchman that he would label it as his worst in the black and white of Newcastle.
He added: “Botman had his worst game in a Newcastle shirt, he gave the ball away and they couldn’t recover.”
Arsenal have now scored an astonishing 18 Premier League goals in the month of February and look to be mounting a real title challenge.
Newcastle on the other hand are struggling to find their rhythm with an injury-riddled squad.
They sit eighth in the league table and are a near-insurmountable 15 points off the top four as things stand.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
