Arsenal’s attempts to rescue a place in the final of the Carabao Cup fell flat at St James’ Park as Newcastle bullied their way to a 2-0 victory in front of fervent home support.
The Gunners arrived in the North East hoping to overturn a two-goal deficit from the first leg but didn’t look up to the job at any point. The visitors were handed an early reprieve when VAR ruled out an early Alexander Isak strike but after Martin Odegaard squandered a glorious chance to put his side ahead, Jacob Murphy killed the tie converting on the rebound after Isak hit the post.
Mikel Arteta’s side had plenty of the ball but a lack of quality in the final third coupled with uncharacteristic nervousness at the back made for a bad combination. Gordon had already come within a whisker of extending Newcastle’s lead after poor play by Saliba but didn’t let the Gunners off the hook a second time after a poor pass by Raya was intercepted on the edge of the box by Schar.
In his post-game press conference, Arteta reflected: “We had so many expectations, obviously. To believe we could turn it around, we needed to generate momentum, especially in the first half. The game started in the first action almost with them scoring and then the goal being denied.
“Then we had the moment, two big moments with Martin. We didn’t capitalise. The next action, they scored the goal and obviously the game shifted. Then you need to stay cool, to score a goal as early as possible. We didn’t manage to do that in the first half even though we had another big chance.
“In the second half we started to struggle as the game went by. We didn’t generate enough situations and establish ourselves in the final third enough and the game started to get away from us.”
On Odegaard’s missed early chance, he added: “When you want to be in cup finals, want to win trophies those are [the fine margins]. They’ve been really effective in the box in the last two games that we’ve played against them and we haven’t. Overall that was the main difference.
“It’s true that today we’ve been a bit more unsettled, especially when the game became more chaotic and when they were very direct with their play. Normally we are much more composed. Today we lacked a bit of that and the game went away from us.”
A first-half injury to Gabriel Martinelli, who limped off holding his hamstring, will be a further concern to Mikel Arteta given the club’s already threadbare forward options.
“He felt something,” confirmed Arteta. “I think it was his hamstring and he wasn’t comfortable to continue so we’ll have to do an MRI scan tomorrow to see the extent of the injury.”
After 11 games in 36 days, Arsenal now have a 10 day break before taking on Leicester at the King Power. The plan is to fly to Dubai tomorrow morning for a warm-weather training camp.
“Now we have to look forward,” said Arteta. “First of all, I think this is going to be a painful one. While we are in Dubai, recharge and go again because we still have a lot to play.”
Atrocious!!
Are YOU KIDDING ME? YOU DID NOTHING IN THE TRANSFER WINDOW?..YOU WASTED ANOTHER YEAR?????SOME ONE TELL STAN SELL THE TEAM ALREADY, WE DESPERATELY NEEDED THE RIGHT PIECES Last year and you managed to do NOTHING?????. ABSOLUTELY SICK TO STOMACH ABSOLUTELY SICK OF THE BLINDNESS FROM THE PEOPLE AT THE WHEEL. Seel the team to someone who wants to win🏆 .