Newcastle aim dig at Mikel Arteta after humbling Arsenal in Carabao Cup
Newcastle couldn’t resist taking a thinly veiled dig at Mikel Arteta after Arsenal were humbled at St James’ Park and slumped to a 2-0 defeat in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final.
The Gunners faced an uphill task to overturn a 2-0 deficit after their profligate finishing in the first game was punished by Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon.
Kai Havertz was the main culprit three weeks ago when the Germany international missed a succession of chances that envious Arsenal fans would have loved Arteta’s long-time transfer target Isak to have been on the end of.
Rather than attribute any blame to his only recognised centre forward, Arteta suggested that the Carabao Cup ball, manufactured by a different company to the one that is used in Premier League matches, played a part in a night to forget for Havertz.
The Arsenal boss was roundly mocked for that rationale and it his comments were clearly not forgotten by a Newcastle after they completed a 4-0 aggregate victory with Isak and Gordon to the fore again.
Posting a picture of the Puma ball nestled in the back of a net, the Newcastle X account pointedly added the caption ‘the culprit’.
After Arsenal’s raucous celebrations that followed Sunday’s 5-1 win over Manchester and the way in which their players and fans mocked Erling Haaland, the beaten Gunners could do nothing else but take defeat on the chin.
‘We had so many expectations to believe that we could turn it around. We didn’t generate momentum, especially in the first half, the game started in the first action almost with them scoring and then the goal being denied,’ said Arteta after the game.
‘Then we had the moment, two big moments, with Martin. We didn’t capitalise and in the next action, they scored the goal and obviously the game shifted and 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, had another big chance, and then in the second half, we started to struggle as the game went by.
‘We didn’t generate enough situations in the final third and the game started to get away from us.’
William Saliba endured a difficult night up against Alexander Isak
Last night’s game represented Arsenal’s 11th match in the space of 33 days and appeared to be one challenge too many for Arteta’s men.
The squad are now set to fly off to Dubai for a warm weather training camp with a gap in the schedule having emerged as a result of Arsenal’s FA Cup defeat against Manchester United.
‘We need to swallow this one, it’s a tough one and we had a lot of expectations,’ added Arteta.
‘We knew the difficulty of the task because of the result that we brought from London, but there’s nothing we can do right now. What we could do was on the pitch a few minutes ago.
‘Now we have to look forward, first of all I think this is going to be a painful one, and when we’re in Dubai, recharge and go again because we still have a lot to play for. ‘