The feeling after a football match can be a strange thing. For eighty minutes, the air at St. James’ Park was filled with noise and hope. Newcastle United, playing with grit and determination, were holding a narrow lead against one of the league’s best teams.
Then, in a devastating final ten minutes, everything changed. Two late goals from Arsenal turned what looked like a famous victory into a crushing defeat.
For the players, the walk from the pitch to the dressing room must have felt incredibly long, the roar of the celebrating away fans a painful soundtrack to their disappointment.
Sandro Tonali, the midfielder who provided a beautiful cross for Nick Woltemade’s opening goal, has offered a small window into what that environment was like immediately after the final whistle.
In his comments after the game, he didn’t hide from the emotion of the moment. “We are sad now for the result and for the last ten minutes,” Tonali admitted.
This kind of honesty is refreshing. It confirms what every fan already knew: this loss hurt, and it hurt deeply because of how close the team was to a massive three points.
What’s interesting is how Tonali’s mind immediately went to analysis. Even in his disappointment, he was already thinking about the bigger picture.
He expressed a desire to “watch all the game [back], all the 90 minutes.” This isn’t about punishing himself; it’s about understanding. He firmly believes that for the vast majority of the match, his team “played a good game.”
This is a crucial perspective. It would be easy to let the collapse in the final moments paint the entire performance as a failure, but Tonali is resisting that simple narrative.
He sees the eighty minutes of solid, competitive football as something to build on, even as he acknowledges the painful way it ended.
Perhaps the most telling part of his reflection was the comparison he drew. He said the nature of the loss felt “similar to the Liverpool game,” another match where Newcastle conceded very late to leave empty-handed.
This is more than just noting a coincidence. It points to a pattern that the players themselves are acutely aware of. It suggests that in the dressing room, there is a shared understanding of a specific problem: closing out big games.
The challenge isn’t just about playing well; it’s about maintaining that focus, intensity, and discipline for the entire match, especially when the pressure is at its highest in the final moments.
This kind of repeated experience can be damaging to a team’s confidence if it’s not addressed. But Tonali’s comments also reveal the one thing that can help a squad move past it: a busy schedule.
There is no time to dwell for too long. “We need to change very quickly because we play Champions League in three days and we need to be ready,” he stated.
This is the reality of modern football. The pain of a last-minute loss has to be packed away, because another huge challenge is always just around the corner.
This immediate shift in focus is probably the best medicine. The players don’t have a week to feel sorry for themselves.
They have to get back on the training ground, review the mistakes, and mentally prepare for a different kind of battle in a different competition.
The dressing room after the Arsenal game would have been a quiet place, full of frustrated conversations and tired bodies.
But the message from the leaders in the team, like Tonali, would have been clear. We feel this, we learn from it, and we move forward together.
For the fans, knowing that the players are feeling the same sting is important. It creates a shared sense of purpose.
The disappointment is not something they are experiencing alone. The key now is what the team does with that feeling. Do they let it create doubt in future tight games? Or do they use it as fuel, as a lesson learned the hard way?
The upcoming Champions League match is the perfect opportunity to provide an answer. It’s a chance to show that the heartbreak against Arsenal was not a defining moment, but a stepping stone toward developing the resilience every great team needs. The true character of this Newcastle squad will be revealed not by how they lost, but by how they respond.
