Alan Shearer has been speaking on the latest edition of Match of the Day 2 about Sunday’s Premier League games and one match which he spent some time on was Newcastle United’s 2-0 defeat to Arsenal.
The Toon were unbeaten in four before the match, but they barely laid a glove on Arsenal and ended the match with just five shots.
There were many poor performances, but Shearer was particularly annoyed with Jonjo Shelvey and Sean Longstaff.
He said: (41:48) “They never really got going.
“Look what happens in the midfield; he [Gabriel] waltzes past Longstaff and Shelvey, then it comes back into him again [Gabriel] and then Shelvey doesn’t put in a tackle, and that sort of summed up the performance for Newcastle, they were slow, no energy and they never really got going.
“Just look at Shelvey there and Elneny, he has a look at him once, he then has a look at him again, he should track him; he doesn’t.
“Have a look at Longstaff and Ceballos; he should track him; he doesn’t, and when the ball eventually comes into the box and look who’s on the end of it, Elneny; he gets away from Shelvey. He’s got to be closer. He’s got to track him.”
Do you think Shelvey and Longstaff were poor?
Yes, they were awful
No, they weren't that bad
TIF Thoughts on Longstaff and Shelvey…
Shelvey has been accused of being lazy recently by a Toon fan, and when you see how poorly he marked Elneny, you can see why that accusation has been levelled at him.
The Egyptian was allowed to stroll past the former Liverpool man, and when the ball arrived at his feet, he had all the time in the world to have a strike, so you can see why Shearer was angry with this passage of play in particular.
However, both Longstaff and Shelvey weren’t great, and they will have to step it up against Leicester City on Friday.
In other news: ‘Embarrassing’, ‘Utter insanity’ – Many Newcastle fans left fuming as ‘shocking’ clip emerges