Arsenal's Mikel Arteta holds his tongue to avoid Newcastle United suspension

The Gunners will be keen to put a disappointing 3-0 North London derby defeat to Tottenham Hotspur behind them as they look to beat their rivals to a top four spot and a place in next season’s Champions League.

Thursday’s match saw Rob Holding sent off and therefore suspended for the Newcastle match. Defender Gabriel was also forced off with a hamstring issue as Arteta now faces a defensive selection crisis for the trip to Tyneside.

The Arsenal boss was pressed on what he thought of Holding’s red card, which was awarded following a second yellow card for a challenge on Heung-Min Son.

But his focus switched straight to Monday night’s match against Eddie Howe’s side.

“I cannot do it,” Arteta said. “I just want to say that I am really proud of my players but obviously we didn’t get the result that we wanted.

“I can’t wait to play on Monday. I want to be on the touchline on Monday night.

“No [I can’t talk], because I will be suspended. You can ask the referee if he wants to come and give an assessment of the match.

“I can [talk] but I have two options, I can lie to you, which I don’t do, or if not I will be suspended and I really want to be on the touchline against Newcastle.”

He added: “[The Spurs] game is now history. We have to play on Monday and we have to start to win the game now.

"We have to manage the frustration and I know how they were feeling about a few things. I didn’t want that frustration to take over us, because then we were going to lose more players.”

With two games remaining in the Premier League, Arsenal sit just a point ahead of Spurs in the final Champions League spot. After Newcastle, Arteta faces his relegation-threatened former club Everton on the final day at the Emirates Stadium.

But with Spurs playing Burnley on Sunday, Arsenal could find themselves out of the top four come kick-off on Monday evening.

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