ALAN PARDEW thinks most Premier League teams would have struggled to cope with Arsenal after Newcastle United left the Emirates nursing a 4-1 defeat.

Seven days after stopping leaders Chelsea in their tracks at St James’ Park, the Magpies struggled to cope with the Gunners and never looked like claiming anything from North London.

And Pardew was happy to admit that Arsene Wenger’s team were just too good for his Newcastle players on Saturday and that lessons were learned from the reversal.

“We missed Moussa Sissoko (suspended) and we didn’t get the balance right,” said Pardew. “But we didn’t play well. They kept coming out on top on physical challenges and they played well.

“I don’t think many teams could have coped with them today. We were a bit sloppy in our passing and a couple of goals were really poor on our part.

“We caught them on a very good day. The front three were rested for midweek and I think that showed. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was outstanding and he caused us a lot of problems in our midfield area.”

After Newcastle had fallen three goals behind in 58 minutes courtesy of a double from Olivier Giroud and a Santi Cazorla chip sandwiched in between, Ayoze Perez did pull one back with a lovely diving header in the 63rd minute.

But rather than suffer a repeat of the 4-4 draw of a few years ago – when Newcastle came from four down to nick a point – Arsenal added a fourth to secure the points when Cazorla converted a penalty two minutes before the end.

Pardew said: “You know with Arsenal that they always give you a chance. If we’d got another goal at 3-1 it would have brought back nasty memories for them but it wasn’t to be.”