Jamie Carragher says Newcastle United face a fight of their lives to stay up this season.
The Magpies suffered a 3-0 defeat to Arsenal on Monday as they struggled to threaten against a Gunners side that were able to ease to victory with three second-half goals despite Steve Bruce naming a more attacking side.
Whilst Newcastle remain 15th, seven points clear of danger, nine games without a win has left many nervously looking over their shoulder.
Speaking on Sky Sports, Carragher said he is confident that Newcastle will stay up this season and that they are largely meeting expectations so far - but he warned that it will always be a fight to stay out of relegation danger whilst Mike Ashley owns the club.
He said: "I’d rather see Newcastle lose like that, I know Newcastle fans just want results, but they never looked like scoring tonight. At times, they did have players in the box.
"Jonjo Shelvey was making runs and getting in the box, so it was obviously something they worked on. It was like watching a different team with a completely different manager, compared to what we’ve seen from Newcastle in terms of the setup.
"This was almost like a team, if a new manager was coming in, we’d say he was being a bit naive, his team was too open, it looked like a 4-2-4.
"That’s the big thing for Steve Bruce, it’s just getting that balance. I said before that it’s not a great group of players, it’s certainly not the worst three - this group of players shouldn’t go down when I look at what else is in the Premier League, but you’d expect them to be where they are.
"You could argue slightly higher if everything was working perfectly as well, but I don’t expect them to go down, but like most seasons under Mike Ashley, they will have the fight of their lives."
