Alexander Isak 'unseen' Newcastle United injury concern revealed after Arsenal

Isak opened the scoring with his 15th goal of the season for Newcastle before playing a role in the second with his parried effort turned in by Anthony Gordon. It was Isak’s 14th goal in his last 15 appearances for Newcastle and one that helped Eddie Howe’s side cap off an impressive week on the road.

The Magpies have won away at Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal in consecutive matches with Isak scoring in all three. But the striker lasted just 65 minutes at the Emirates Stadium before being substituted.

After the match, head coach Eddie Howe revealed the striker was suffering with his hamstring amid a ‘difficult’ half-time team talk.

“I think when you look at the fixture list and you see what is ahead you think ‘that’s going to be a real challenge for us’ in real quick succession,” Howe said. “The players definitely played fatigued today and we knew they would be from the Tottenham game, that was a big physical game so we knew coming here it was going to be a tough ask mentally and physically.

“We also had a difficult half-time, there were a few players at half-time feeling different things so that was a tough 15 minutes because we knew the importance of the second half and the game sort of, we lost our strength in the game and you could see that in the second half. It was a case of just managing the game.

“Alex was just feeling his hamstring and Sven was feeling a groin. We had a couple of players struggling so we had to manage them.

“[Isak] played very well in the first-half today, he looked really good physically, his pace and movements were giving them a problem. He looked free and I was delighted with how he performed, he took his goal really well.

“But then we knew in the second half we needed to manage him, he is so important, we can’t lose him or risk losing him. Hopefully, he’s okay.”

Botman played 90 minutes for the second time in four days away from home after spending almost 10 months on the sidelines recovering from an ACL injury and surgery.

“He was just feeling his groin,” Howe told The Gazette. “He felt he was able to continue. With him and the medical team he felt he was strong enough to come out in the second half and you wouldn't have known any issue with him but he's naturally fatigued.

“For him to play in the way he has over the last two games after so long out in such tight turnarounds, hugely impressive and it shows where Sven is mentally.

“He was a warrior for us in our Champions League season and we've really, really missed him. I'm delighted with how he's done and he deserves all the plaudits.”

Howe is now expected to rotate his squad significantly for Newcastle’s next match at home to League Two side Bromley in the FA Cup third round on Sunday (3pm kick-off). The side return to Premier League action at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers next Wednesday (7:30pm kick-off).