Prior to Newcastle vs. Arsenal, Eddie Howe downplays the Mikel Arteta controversy

Eddie Howe has downplayed allegations. Newcastle United’s and Arsenal’s titanic match on Sunday will be even more heated as a result of a heated altercation with Mikel Arteta during the previous match.

Newcastle was the first team to defeat the then-leaders in the Premier League at home in the beginning of January, when a 0-0 draw put an end to their five-game winning streak.

The game was won by Arsenal, who had 67% of the possession and attempted 17 shots compared to Newcastle’s eight, just one of which was successful.

When Granit Xhaka crossed the ball from the byline into the box and it struck Jacob Murphy’s arm at close range in the closing minutes of the game, the Arsenal players and manager believed it should have been a penalty.

However, Howe maintains that is “water under the bridge” now and praised Arteta for the job he has done in transforming Arsenal into legitimate championship challengers. At the time, Howe was not pleased with the protestations and argued with Arteta on the sidelines.

Howe responded in his pre-game press conference: “Fine” when asked how his current interactions with Arteta and the Arsenal coaching staff are going. I have a lot of admiration for Mikel.

‘I think he’s done an incredible job when you consider the team that he picked up and the position they were in to the team that he has now and the way that they’re playing.

‘That’s a brilliant coaching job, you have to admire everything that he’s done, whether that’s recruitment, coaching, everything.

‘So a lot of respect from me to him.

‘Within a game you’ll always have moments where you come up against opponents and there’s a bit of confrontation – I think that’s natural, that’s part of the job – but there’s certainly no issues my side.’

Even though Newcastle is now in third position and has a six-point lead over Liverpool in fifth place despite having played one more game, Howe maintains his team is not taking anything for granted in the fight for Champions League football.

He explained: ‘Nothing’s done, and I didn’t expect it to be done. We’re competing against elite teams who will fight until the end and we have to do the same.

‘So our five games we need to give our best preparation and focus to, because the fight that we’re in could go right down to the end of the season.’

Specifically on the threat of Liverpool, who have won five games on the bounce, Howe added: ‘I don’t lose any sleep over it, but I’m aware that Liverpool are a top team. We’re not focusing on that. We haven’t done that all season. We haven’t focused on where we are, who’s around us, the form of teams. We’ve just focused on ourselves.’