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Lots of Newcastle fans are fuming at Steve Bruce for what they deem to be a bad excuse for Sunday’s defeat to Arsenal.

If truth be told, Sunday afternoon could have gone a lot worse for the Magpies. It wasn’t too long ago that they had no new signings and no manager, but for the large part they went toe-to-toe with a side expected to be in the running for the top four.

Bruce’s side made a couple of half-chances in the 1-0 defeat, most notably Joelinton’s flicked header in the first half, which skipped just past the far post.

But the Northumberland-born boss’ first substitution as manager of the club backfired, as he brought left-back Jetro Willems on for central midfielder Jonjo Shelvey with the game still goalless.

His side sacrificed all control over the match after that, and there seemed to be some confusion as to where Willems was actually supposed to be playing, before he eventually gave the ball away leading to the Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s goal.

Bruce has explained why the defender was his only option to bring on in the situation, as reported by Sky Sports’ Keith Downie, citing injury troubles in his defensive ranks.

Needless to say, fans aren’t exactly buying it, as you can see from the Twitter reactions down below…

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