Sky Sports journalist Lewis Jones has condemned Newcastle United midfielder Bruno Guimaraes for a "naughty" challenge.

What's the latest on Arsenal and Newcastle United?

Looking to give their Champions League ambitions a big boost, the Magpies played host to Arsenal at St James' Park on Sunday afternoon.

Eddie Howe and co came into the game 13 points behind the Gunners – who are fighting for a Premier League title – but only two points ahead of top-four rivals Manchester United.

With that in mind, plenty was on the line for both teams and the game reflected that as Newcastle nearly got off to the perfect start as Jacob Murphy hit the post before VAR correctly overturned a penalty for a handball against Jakub Kiwior when the ball actually hit his thigh.

It was Arsenal, however, who then took the lead when Martin Odegaard fired into the back of the net from over 25 yards as his effort arrowed past Nick Pope into the bottom corner.

Shortly before the break, though, the Gunners were breaking forward on a quick counter but as Bukayo Saka raced up the field, he was caught by Guimaraes.

As noted on the Sky Sports coverage of the game, Jones slammed the challenge and suggested that it may have been deliberate.

Indeed, he remarked: "You can feel the needle factor growing by the second. This is one is going to kick off at some point. That was a tad naughty from Bruno on Saka."

What did Guimaraes do against Arsenal?

Of course, there is no sure way of knowing if it was deliberate or not and referee Chris Kavanagh didn't even award a foul.

Indeed, he seemed to ignore or miss the challenge, even though Saka's boot flew off after £120k-p/w midfielder Guimaraes raked his studs down the Englishman's Achilles.

It was a heated end to the first half so this sort of incident just outlined how up for it all the players were on the day as duels were flying in all over the place both on and off the ball.

The Brazilian international certainly isn't shy of a yellow card, but doesn't have the worst record in the world with only four to his name in the league this term.

Perhaps the referee took this into consideration when letting this "naughty incident" pass without punishment.