Ollie Watkins has heaped praise on Declan Rice following Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Newcastle United.

The 26-year-old midfielder fired the Gunners to victory at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon with another great strike from range.

Rice has featured 34 times for Arsenal in the Premier League this season, scoring four goals and providing seven assists. Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t end the north Londoners’ 21-year wait for the English top-flight title.

By winning three points at the weekend, Arsenal secured qualification to the UEFA Champions League and cemented a third successive second-place finish. After the game, Rice marked the victory with a celebratory post on Instagram, which eclipsed 150,000 likes overnight.

The England international uploaded a picture of himself blowing kisses to the crowd. Ian Wright responded by posting 10 kissing emojis in the comment section, while Watkins said: “On fire bro [fire emoji].”

Morgan Rogers also acknowledged Rice for his impressive performance. By Newcastle dropping points, Aston Villa have been given fresh hope in the race for Champions League qualification.

Only goal difference separates the Magpies in third from Chelsea and Aston Villa in fourth and fifth, respectively. Meanwhile, Manchester City, who have two games in hand, and Nottingham Forest trail by a point in sixth and seventh.

Ollie Watkins and Rogers will be hoping they can capitalise on Rice’s favour when they face Manchester United on the final day of the season. If Aston Villa fail to qualify for the Champions League then the Emirates Stadium will suddenly become an attractive destination for the duo in the summer.

Watkins was heavily linked with a move to Arsenal at the start of the year, but a switch failed to materialise. football.london understands that the Gunners submitted a £40 million bid for the 29-year-old striker towards the end of the January transfer window.

Unsurprisingly, Aston Villa rejected the offer, demanding £60m for his signature. It’s understood that Watkins was keen on the idea of a move to north London and, had the two Premier League clubs agreed on a fee, he would’ve swapped Villa Park for the Emirates Stadium.

Unfortunately for Arteta, who was desperate to strengthen his attacking options, Arsenal fell short. Earlier this month, he suggested that the club may have break the bank to finally sign a top striker.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the Gunners’ clash against Newcastle, Arteta said: “The thing is that the budget is like when you have your wedding, you plan your wedding with your wife and you give her a budget and never less, and it’s always more.

“When you build a house it’s always more. Normally this happens. And you prepare for different scenarios. Then unfortunate things happen. Sometimes we want a player and suddenly we have an injury or that player gets injured.

“There are so many variables that can happen but there is a budget. There is always an idea of what we can do, what we can improve, what the priorities are going to be and then let’s see if we can do it.”

Arsenal could sign either one of Viktor Gyokeres or Benjamin Sesko in the summer transfer window as decision offered to supporters.

Arsenal want to sign a striker during the summer transfer window, football.london understands. It is the club’s main priority, despite of course moves for other roles such as midfield where a move for Martin Zubimendi is already at the advanced stages.

However, while it might have seemed obvious after a move for RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko appeared to be delayed last summer when he opted to spend at least one more season with the German side that Arsenal would return for the Slovenian, the arrival of Andrea Berta as new sporting director has changed things. Mikel Arteta admitted the Italian would be expected to tweak and improve plans which include a move for a striker.

The most prominent name at present is Viktor Gyokeres. The Sporting CP striker has scored 95 goals in 100 games for Sporting in the past two seasons across all competitions making him one of the world’s most prolific centre-forwards.

However, the pair have left a split between supporters, some who lean more toward the younger option in Sesko whereas others see greater guarantees with the record of Gyokeres. Sesko, after two seasons with Leipzig, has 39 goals in 86 games.

Yes, the gap in output is very different but then there are contexts. Gyokeres plays in, with respect, a less competitive league for the most dominant club who are on track to win back-to-back Liga Portugal titles.

Sesko plays in the more competitive Bundesliga for the seventh place RB Leipzig who rank well inside the bottom half of the table when it comes to chance creation. Then there is the elephant in the room, the number of penalties scored.

Of Sesko’s 39 goals, four have been penalties. Whereas of the 78 goals Gyokeres has scored in the league and Europe, 21 goals have been from the spot.

It would be fair to say Gyokeres has been responsible for winning some of those penalties but suddenly the gap from open play is much smaller between the pair, and the age of the two is not.

Gyokeres turns 27 in June whereas Sesko turns just 22 at the end of May. A five-year gap is quite the difference especially if Gyokeres’ first season is a tough one. Where Sesko has much more room to grow, the Swede perhaps does not, especially in regards to retaining value.

Either player would be a risk. But we want your thoughts – who are you choosing? Vote in our poll below and if neither takes your fancy, let us know in the comment section who your unnamed preferred choice would be.

Leicester City are ‘thought to be most at threat’, according to reports.

The Premier League will issue disciplinary charges against any clubs who have broken financial rules for the 2021-2024 reporting period – and three teams are said to be ‘fearing points deductions’ as they await their fate.

On Tuesday, the Premier League will issue disciplinary charges against clubs found to have broken its profit and sustainability regulations (PSR).

Clubs that have recorded losses for the first two years of the reporting cycle were required to submit their accounts for the financial year ending June 2024 to the Premier League in December last year.

Any clubs that are served with a complaint on Tuesday will have 14 days to respond.

In the past, Everton, Nottingham Forest and Leicester City have breached regulations.

In January last year, both Everton and Nottingham Forest were charged for a breach of PSR regulations, with the latter docked four points after an independent commission found their losses to 2022-23 breached the threshold of £61 million by £34.5 million.

Leicester City, meanwhile, won their appeal against a charge in September that they had breached the PSR threshold by £24.4 million for the three-year cycle ending in 2022-23.

Now, three top flight clubs are ‘fearing points deductions’, according to a report from The Sun, with Leicester thought to be ‘most at threat’ after cumulative losses of £124 million for the final three seasons before they were relegated.

There has been speculation Leicester could be charged by the league, but neither the club nor the league have made a comment on the matter.

The above report goes on to suggest that two other clubs ‘may be close to the cut line’.

According to RTE News, Chelsea’s ownership are ‘extremely confident’ that they are compliant with PSR rules, despite spending a hefty amount on transfers since a consortium led by Todd Boehly completed its takeover in 2022.

The report also suggests Everton and Nottingham Forest are positive about their situation.

As mentioned above, any clubs served with a complaint by the Premier League on Tuesday will have 14 days to respond.

The Arsenal boss did a strange thing while watching his side at the Emirates on Tuesday.

Mikel Arteta was spotted doing an odd thing by cameras during his side’s 2-0 Carabao Cup semi-final defeat against Newcastle at the Emirates on Tuesday evening.

Arsenal failed to convert any of their 23 shots on goal during the game, while Newcastle went ahead on 37 minutes through the in-form Alexander Isak before Anthony Gordon doubled the away side’s lead on 51 minutes to hand the Magpies the advantage going into next month’s second leg at St James’ Park.

Arteta, 42, even explained how the ball may have had something to do with why his side misfired in front of goal.

“We kicked a lot of balls over the bar, and it’s tricky that these balls fly a lot so there’s details that we can do better,” said Arteta in his post-match press conference.

“It’s just different,” he added when asked to elaborate on his comments regarding the ball.

“It’s very different to a Premier League ball, and you have to adapt to that because it flies different.”

Now, footage emerged appearing to show the Arsenal boss checking his watch while the Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka took his time on goal kicks.

https://x.com/CF_Compss/status/1876756588746223932?t=nHqDdYEI2_llHPDUfB_LMA&s=19

And fans were quick to give their thoughts on social media.

One fan said: “Arteta timing Dubravka’s goal kicks when his team has 9 yellow cards for time wasting this season.”

Another added: “Lost the plot as all the pressure mounting with each game further away from a trophy.”

A third slammed: “He was fighting back the tears in the sky post match interview yesterday because he knew there were no excuses he could use. To then go to the official post match presser and complain about the ball is just hilarious. The man is a 2nd rate coach.”

While a fourth commented: “Bro is in his time keeping phase.”

A fifth explained: “What goes around comes around.”

Next up, Arsenal face Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United in the FA Cup third round at the Emirates on Sunday, with Arteta no doubt hoping they can return to winning ways.

The Gunners are now two games without a victory having drawn to Brighton last Saturday before Tuesday’s defeat against Newcastle.

Mikel Arteta knocked back the suggestion that Arsenal’s players could be struggling with fatigue after the side’s 2-0 defeat to Newcastle, saying he ‘didn’t even want to talk about that’ as a potential excuse.

Alexander Isak got Newcastle off to a perfect start in the 37th minute of tonight’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg, hammering the ball into the roof of the net after Martin Dubravka’s looping free-kick wreaked havoc inside the Arsenal box.

Just six minutes into the second half, the visitors doubled their advantage, with Anthony Gordon slotting home on the rebound after Isak’s initial effort was parried away by David Raya.

The Magpies held firm to take a two-goal lead to St James’ Park in a month’s time, giving the Gunners a mountain to climb in reaching this year’s final against either Liverpool or Tottenham.

The result represented Newcastle’s seventh straight win in all competitions – and Eddie Howe’s first ever victory as a manager at the Emirates – but Arteta felt the outcome did not ‘reflect the story of the game’.

‘If you look at what both teams produced and the domination of the game, obviously it is not the result that reflects the story of the game,’ the Arsenal head coach said at his post-match press conference.

‘But the reality is that they were super efficient with the chances that they had and we weren’t.

‘At this level and in these kind of scenarios you need that to impose yourself and win the game.’

The Spaniard added: ‘It’s just half-time.

‘They way I see the team playing and the way we deal with a lot of situations and playing against a very good team, I must say, I have full belief that we can go out there and do it.’

Asked whether his players’ energy levels were down due to the sheer number of games over the winter period, Arteta replied: ‘If we lose the game or draw the game, it’s going to be down to that.

‘If we win it and we scored three that we should have scored, three easy goals, the story would have been different, “They’re incredible, they’re tireless, how they try in every single action…”.

‘But I don’t even want to talk about that. We have so many games coming up, big ones, and the team really wants it.’

Arteta believes both of Newcastle’s goals were ‘preventable’ and Arsenal were capable of doing far better from defensive point of view.

‘The two goals that we gave away after one or two deflections with the first one, it’s preventable but they generate chaos and are good at that,’ he continued.

‘The second one as well, in particular the first, second reception in the box and then the ball can only get there to score the goal, but it gets there so we can do better.’

According to Arteta, Arsenal – who host Manchester United in the FA Cup this weekend – are in a ‘better position’ now than they were at this stage last season.

‘We were knocked out of the Carabao Cup so we are in a better position, considering everything that happened,’ he went on.

‘I don’t want to really use that [injuries] as an excuse because the team still performs and competes with the best teams, one of the most in-form teams right now, and we produce much better things so no time to talk about that.

‘Hopefully we will have more players back [for the second leg] and have more options to do that and the freshness that we’re going to need in that period when we play so many important games. So I hope so!’

Arsenal’s season looks to be on the brink after the Gunners shipped two goals to Newcastle at home in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final clash.

It’s only early January and yet the Gunners are flagging in the Premier League title race and they now face a mountain in the Carabao Cup. It had been a bright start for Mikel Arteta’s side, but after Alexander Isak powered home it was one-way traffic.

Anthony Gordon grabbed the second and the Gunners are now 90 minutes away from elimination. And Daily Star Sport has a look at what Arteta got wrong on a freezing evening in north London…

This one does feel a bit harsh, there’s not a defender on the planet who can handle Alexander Isak at the moment.

The big Swede was up to his old tricks again at the Emirates Stadium as he fired the Magpies into the lead midway through the first half. William Saliba and Gabriel have been two of the Premier League’s best centre-back’s in recent seasons, but even they couldn’t stop Isak from powering home.

If you can’t beat ’em join ’em, and that could be true for Arteta with reports suggesting he’s lining up a move for Isak.

Dominating the midfield in the early stages.

Up until the moment Alexander Isak smashed the ball past a stranded David Raya, the Gunners had done everything right.

Declan Rice, Thomas Partey and Martin Odegaard is the strongest midfield that Arteta can muster – and they showed exactly why in one golden moment in the first-half that resulted in Gabriel Martinelli bearing down on goal.

Some lovely one-touch football, a la Arsene Wenger, saw Martinelli released one-on-one – and he was only denied handing the Gunners the opening goal by the woodwork.

Slow start to the second half

Arsenal really needed the second goal of the game. When the Gunners came out for the second half they were one goal down on home turf – letting Newcastle score the next goal would leave Arteta’s side with a mountain to climb.

And that’s exactly what happened.

Isak, again, was quickest to the ball and his snapshot was pushed into the direction of Anthony Gordon who turned home. Adding insult to injury, Gordon then posed in the corner as Thierry Henry had once done when the Gunners called Highbury home.

Waiting too long to make changes

The bottom line is changes had to have been made at half-time.

The game was slipping away from Arsenal – and Arteta didn’t look to his bench. The game needed something new, after a bright start the Gunners had watched the game slip towards Newcastle and that only continued after the second goal.

“Arteta is lost tactically right now. Nothing to offer. Scared to change the shape of his struggling team. Awful,” one fan fumed. While a second said: “Yeah tonight was my last straw. I’ve backed it for ages, but until Arteta makes some changes, serious changes I can’t watch this anymore.

The Arsenal centre-back was adjudged to have fouled Brighton’s Joao Pedro.

New footage of the incident that saw Brighton awarded a penalty against Arsenal in the 1-1 draw at the Amex has emerged – and it has changed everything.

The Seagulls were trailing 1-0, following Ethan Nwaneri’s 16th-minute strike, when William Saliba conceded a penalty after he fouled Joao Pedro. The ensuing spot kick was converted by the Brazilian on 61 minutes.

However, the foul has divided fans’ opinions.

At first glance, Saliba, 23, appeared to head butt the Brighton forward, and referee Anthony Taylor shared the same opinion and pointed to the spot.

Soon after, the Premier League released a statement.

“The referee’s call of penalty for a foul by Saliba on João Pedro was checked and confirmed by VAR, who deemed there was sufficient contact for a penalty,” read the statement.

However, a reverse angle has now emerged on social media, which appears to show that Saliba made contact with the ball before the clash of heads.

https://x.com/themagic_tophat/status/1875623968000110919?t=asucGnD8fuIvwZednf2SWg&s=19

And fans were quick to offer their opinions on X.

One said: “The ball literally hits Saliba’s head before Saliba’s head makes contact with Pedro. They contest a header, both players make contact with the ball and each other.”

Another disagreed and added: “So it’s a dangerous follow through then. They are given all the time. The problem is you very rarely see these where the attacker wins the ball first. Normally the defender wins the ball, attacker makes contact and a free kick is given.”

A third suggested: “Imagine if Arsenal got this penalty. It would feel like a gift. We never get anything like this. There’s definitely biased refereeing going on.”

While a fourth commented: “All this video shows is Pedro wins the ball before Saliba. Like a tackle where the attacker wins the ball and the defender takes him out. Standard foul. Stop moaning all the time. Focus on your shortcomings instead. You didn’t even have a shot on target in the 2nd half.”

A fifth slammed: “He was late to the ball and it was a penalty. Probably should have lost this 3-1 if Brighton could hit their easy chances. ABYSMAL performance from Arsenal. Trying to sit on a 1 goal lead wasting time. This is not a title contending team.”

William Saliba fouled Joao Pedro to concede a bizarre penalty.

The Premier League have issued a statement following a bizarre foul during Brighton vs. Arsenal.

Joao Pedro cancelled out Ethan Nwaneri’s first-half opener with a penalty just after the hour mark.

He was adjudged to have been fouled by William Saliba, who accidentally headbutted the Brighton forward inside the box.

William Saliba headbutted Joao Pedro to concede a penalty. Image: Premier League

Match referee Anthony Taylor wasted no time in pointing to the spot as he awarded Brighton a penalty, which was converted by Pedro.

Shortly after the incident, the Premier League released a statement, revealing the foul had been checked and confirmed by VAR.

The statement read: “The referee’s call of penalty for a foul by Saliba on João Pedro was checked and confirmed by VAR, who deemed there was sufficient contact for a penalty.”

Fans on social media were left divided over Saliba’s foul on Pedro.

One X user wrote: “Just like any other tackle that really. Ball is there to be won, Pedro wins it first and Saliba is late. Correct decision.”

A second tweeted: “I’m sorry that’s an incredibly soft penalty. Saliba is attempting to head the ball, and there is the lightest graze of Joao Pedro’s head.”

A third argued: “Not sure why there’s complaints about that penalty decision. Saliba heads Joao Pedro and completely misses the ball… Blatant penalty…”

A fourth said: “I called that as a penalty when I saw it. Saliba mistimed and headbutt him. But you don’t really see those given.”

A fifth commented: “Balls in the air to be won. More of a clash of heads if Saliba went down holding his head as well, wouldn’t have been given.”

The penalty proved crucial as Brighton grabbed a point against Arsenal, with the fixture ending 1-1.

The Gunners close the gap on league leaders Liverpool – but by just one point.

As for the Seagulls, they climb into the top half of the table in 10th place.