Source: Eurosport
Toon are in a dogfight - Hughton
Caretaker boss Chris Hughton admitted Newcastle are in deep trouble after seeing them slip to a 3-1 home defeat by Arsenal on Saturday.The Magpies had earlier dropped into the bottom three as a result of wins for Portsmouth and Stoke, and after battling well for an hour against the Gunners, eventually succumbed.They sit in 18th place, two points adrift of safety and in severe danger of dropping out of the top flight for the first time since returning in 1993.Hughton said: "I accept it is going to be a dogfight now through to the end of the season."We are well aware of the position. We have eight games left, we need to get enough results to stay in this division and we need to get results quickly."Newcastle should have taken the lead when referee Mark Halsey pointed to the spot after goalkeeper Manuel Almunia had bundled Ryan Taylor to the ground.But with Michael Owen sitting on the bench, Almunia atoned for his error by diving low to his left to keep out Obafemi Martins' penalty.The Gunners took full advantage with 57 minutes gone when Nicklas Bendtner headed them in front, and although Martins cancelled out his strike within seconds, the respite was short-lived.Abou Diaby waltzed through a static home defence to restore the lead with 64 minutes gone and when Samir Nasri thumped home a third three minutes later, the game was over.Indeed, had it not been for the resilience of Steve Harper, who made a string of fine saves - and the post denying Diaby at the death - the winning margin could have been even bigger.Hughton, who denied that owner Mike Ashley had spoken to the players in the dressing room after the game, also confirmed he does not expect another manager to be drafted in as the club awaits Joe Kinnear's return from heart surgery next month.He said: "I have had no indication that anything will change."Joe will be back at the time when he will be back, but apart from that, I am not aware of anything else."Gunners boss Arsene Wenger was delighted at seeing his side take the opportunity to close the gap on the three teams above them, although they remain 10 points adrift of Manchester United despite their 2-0 defeat at Fulham.He said: "It was a good opportunity for us to take advantage of that and get closer to the top."You never know, even a chance out of a billion, we want to fight to come back as close as we can to the team which is top."We feel we are in a very good run and we are improving from game to game."Wenger acknowledged that Almunia's penalty save was a turning point and attributed the keeper's success to his heroics in the Champions League shoot-out against Roma earlier this month.He said: "That was certainly a very important moment in the game."It was a very good football game. Newcastle played well as well because they had a very good first half and put us under pressure."In the first half there were chances on both sides and maybe they could have been in front because they had the penalty and two or three chances."But in the second half we kept the tempo very high and slowly took over and finally managed to win the game in a very convincing way."[LNB]
