Newcastle’s Colback - Forget Arsenal, Focus on Spurs and Sunderland

Colback and his team-mates were beaten 4-1 at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.

Newcastle must quickly learn from their mistakes against Arsenal – and prepare for Wednesday night’s return to North London for a Capital One Cup quarter-final against Tottenham Hotspur.

The game at White Hart Lane is followed by Sunday’s Tyne-Wear derby at St James’s Park.

Killingworth-born Colback – who crossed the Tyne-Wear divide in the summer – scored in the fixture last season in the colours of Sunderland.

And the 25-year-old is facing up to the biggest week of his United career yet.

“We’ll analyse the performance, and then try to forget about it,” said Colback.

“We’ve got two massive games coming up.

“We’ve got to get back on the training ground and put it right.

“We’ve got to focus on Tottenham now, and then Sunderland in the league.”

Olivier Giroud and Santi Cazorla scored two goals each for Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, with Ayoze Perez netting for Newcastle, who had beaten Premier League leaders Chelsea a week earlier.

A candid Colback admitted: “They outplayed us and won the battles, which was disappointing.

“We weren’t at it first-half, and we tried to get bakc in it, but the second goal (from Cazorla) killed us.

“It was going to be a tough ask, but we managed to get a goal back – a nice little finish by Ayo – but we weren’t quite at it.

“Maybe we didn’t show Arsenal enough respect, and were a bit more open defensively.

“They’ve got some world-class players, and they punished us.”

United will be boosted by the return of Moussa Sissoko and Steven Taylor, with both having been suspended for the Arsenal game.

“Moussa’s a massive player for us,” said Colback. “He comes back, and it’ll be good to have him back.”