A ragged Arsenal lost 2-0 to Newcastle at St James’ Park, who sealed a 4-0 aggregate win to advance to the Carabao Cup final.
On a night when the Gunners needed a near-perfect performance, they were nowhere near the level required and spent most of the second half chasing shadows after Jacob Murphy and Anthony Gordon had put the tie beyond doubt.
Here’s what the managers, players, pundits and stattos made of the action…
Mikel Arteta on a painful defeat…
We need to swallow this one. It’s a tough one. We had a lot of expectations. We knew the difficulty of the task because of the result we brought from London but there’s nothing we can do right now. What we could do is, it was on the pitch a few minutes ago. Now we have to look forward.
Source: Post-game press conference
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Eddie Howe on an aggressive performance by his side…
It was a tough game. I thought tactically we were good. I think the intention was to be aggressive. And sometimes when you have that intention, for whatever reason, it doesn’t work. But today, I thought we put pressure on them early in the game, which helped solidify our plan. We had to retreat at times, but I thought we were always in the game. The Champions League experience really helped us because that got us working with two-day turnarounds and really quick game plans. We do mould and tweak things depending on the opposition, and you can see today there was a lot of change in our performance, but we felt we needed more height in the team. We felt we wanted real solidity at the back, so we felt we had to change in order to win the game. Yeah, and it came off today.
Source: Sky Sports
5 – This is the fifth time Arsenal have lost to Eddie Howe’s Newcastle in all competitions under Mikel Arteta; only Pep Guardiola (9) and Jürgen Klopp (6) have beaten the Spaniard more in his time in charge of the Gunners. Thorn.
— OptaJoe (@optajoe.com) February 5, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Martin Odegaard on Arsenal not deserving to progress…
It’s a tough one to take, it’s frustrating. We had a big goal to go to the final and we believed it was possible to make it happen today but I think the way we played throughout the game and throughout the two legs we didn’t deserve it. We have to look at ourselves, improve and learn from it.
Source: Arsenal.com
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Bruno Guimaraes on recycling a formation used at Old Trafford…
We did more [preparation] by video. We did the same shape against Manchester United away from home, the 5-4-1. So we already knew it before. When the gaffer explained to us how he wanted us to play, I think everyone was happy. Of course, the two goals we scored in their stadium was very, very important for today. So we just relaxed. And I think the first goal was unbelievable for us. It gave us another [level of] confidence. It could have gone the other way, though.
Source: Sky Sports
Arsenal have failed to score in six of their last eight matches against Newcastle in all competitions. Whether this is the players or Arteta’s tactics, something isn’t working.
#NEWARS
— Orbinho (@orbinho.bsky.social) February 5, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Anthony Gordon on Newcastle’s game plan and pressing…
I think we had a game plan, which we thought would work. They play a lot for a lot of second balls, we thought if we could beat them in that area, we could catch them out in behind, which we did a couple of times. And our game plan worked well, we got the win, so I’m happy. We always press, we try to make it difficult, but I think special mention goes out to Dan Burn, Fabian Schar and Sven Bottman, our three centre-backs, because you don’t find centre-backs who go and press at the opposition’s 18-yard line, so all credit to them, and thankfully I got the goal from it.
Source: Sky Sports
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Arteta on Arsenal being unsettled at the back…
Yeah, we were very [unsettled] in 50-50 balls, on clearances, we have to take touches, we give them another chance as well from one regain in our last line as well. So yeah, that’s things to improve and today in that aspect we weren’t our best.
Source: Sky Sports
Arteta on Martinelli’s injury…
He felt something, I think it was his hamstring and he wasn’t comfortable to continue. So we will have to have an MRI scan tomorrow to see the extent of the injury.
Source: Post-game press conference
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Jamie Redknapp on Isak terrorising Arsenal’s centre-backs…
I have never seen Gabriel and Saliba so uncomfortable and that is because of the quality of Alexander Isak. They normally bully teams but they couldn’t handle Newcastle’s front three.
Source: Sky Sports
Gary Neville on Arsenal’s attack…
It has shone a massive spotlight on the toothlessness of Arsenal’s front players compared to Newcastle’s.
Source: Sky Sports
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Chris Waddle on his old side…
Player for player Newcastle have been stronger all over the park. You always say win your own battles and they have done so easily tonight.
Source: BBC Radio 5 Live
If you play a two legged tie and in both games you miss straightforward chances and gift the opponent straightforward chances it’s only going to go one way. Some really bone headed stuff.
— Tim Stillman (@tim-stillman.bsky.social) February 5, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Matthew Upson on a flat showing by Arsenal…
Arsenal were not at their best. Whether the occasion against Man City at the weekend played into it or whatever it was, the team looked a little flat and a couple of players were out of sorts.
Source: BBC Radio 5 Live
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Shay Given on luck being on Newcastle’s side…
I said it in the first half when Odegaard hit the post, sometimes to win a trophy you need a bit of luck as well. That might have been the luck in this competition. Now they’re at Wembley, they are in the final, can they go that one step closer? They’ve gone 70 years, seven decades, since they picked up a trophy, is this the year that Newcastle get to handle some silverware?
Source: Sky Sports
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Odegaard on the trip to Dubai…
It will be good, it’s been a busy schedule, a lot of games and very intense, so it will definitely be good to go away and get the energy high again, come back stronger and push for the big things until the end of the season. Last year I think we came back so strongly afterwards. I think it’s good in the middle of the season with so much going on, so we have to go there and make sure we get a good amount of rest, work hard as well.
Source: Arsenal.com
Don’t excuse this as fatigue or injuries again, we always do this when we lose games in tough stadiums under the lights. We sometimes just don’t have the mentality to stand up to it. Look at Gabi and Saliba, they were all over tonight, they just couldn’t handle the occasion.
I doubt now seasoned World Cup & Champions League regulars couldn’t handle the “occasion” of a Milk Cup semi-final.
Sometimes, the other team has a world class player that’s really fucking good, and Newcastle did in Isak.
Agreed. They have what maybe the best striker in the world right now. and we have a serviceable but exhausted Kai Havertz.
That has been the difference in all three games, we can’t score and they get one or two chances and put them away.
Then why were they so shook? There were unforced errors all over the place. Isak is really good but he didn’t exactly have to do much, we gifted them the goals.
Just like the Bayern tie last season, no?
Mikel Arteta has already won an FA Cup and while it was a great day out I’ll remember forever, it will not define his tenure or this team to fans, pundits or history.
This team and manager will be defined by winning the Premier League or Champions League, and only those two competitions.
Not going to lose sleep over this personally, also not going to buy this media narrative that going five years without a trophy is a disaster when Newcastle have gone 70 and Spurs near 20