The Gunners were beaten 2-0 at St James’ Park on Wednesday as goals from Jacob Murphy and Anthony Gordon secured Eddie Howe’s side a 4-0 win on aggregate and a Wembley final against either Liverpool or Tottenham on March 16.
Mikel Arteta’s side succumbed to a 4-0 aggregate defeat at St James’ Park after losing 2-0 on Wednesday night.
“We need to swallow this one, it is a tough one,” Mikel Arteta said. “We had a lot of expectations. We knew the difficulty of the task because of the result we brought from London. but there is nothing we can do right now.
While Newcastle can focus on securing a first major trophy in 56 years, Arsenal have 10 days until their next game and will fly to Dubai on Thursday after a gruelling schedule of 12 games in 41 days.
Since winning the FA Cup in 2020, Arsenal have not won a trophy or reached a final, losing three semi-finals – two in the EFL Cup and one in the Europa League.
Their attention will now turn back to the Premier League, where they currently sit second to leaders Liverpool.
Newcastle United reached a second League Cup final in three seasons as they overwhelmed Arsenal 2-0 at a feverish St James’ Park on Wednesday to complete a crushing 4-0 aggregate win.
Moments after Arsenal’s Martin Ødegaard wasted a chance to halve the deficit, Jacob Murphy tucked away a rebound in the 19th minute after Alexander Isak’s shot hit the woodwork.
Arsenal, surprisingly beaten 2-0 at home in the first leg, suffered another off-night and their fate was sealed when Anthony Gordon punished a defensive error in the 52nd minute to put the hosts in cruise control.
Newcastle, who have not won a major trophy since 1955, will play either Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur in the Wembley final next month when they hope to go one better than 2023 when they lost in the final to Manchester United.
Tottenham hold a 1-0 lead ahead of Thursday’s second leg at Anfield.
Of the 32 previous occasions that a team has lost the first leg of a League Cup semifinal by two goals or more, only once has a team recovered the deficit to reach the final.
Anthony Gordon celebrated with a scarf thrown from the crowd after scoring Newcastle’s second goal.
Had Arsenal skipper Ødegaard taken a golden opportunity instead of slicing a shot hurriedly against the outside of the post, Newcastle might have been consumed by anxiety, especially as they had already had an Isak effort ruled out by VAR for the tightest of offside decisions.
A minute after Ødegaard’s miss, the marauding Isak went through on goal again and his curling shot ricocheted off the post to Murphy who stayed ice cool to steer the rebound home from a tight angle.
Arsenal suffered another blow when Gabriel Martinelli left the pitch with a hamstring injury before halftime and their evening was to get even worse early in the second half.
The visitors’ defence was unusually nervous and William Saliba was lucky that Gordon failed to score from distance after dispossessing him and catching keeper David Raya off his line.
But Arsenal failed to heed the warning and minutes later Raya’s casual pass out was nicked by Gordon who then dispatched a first-time shot past the Spanish keeper and inside the post.
With the pre-match tension lifted, Newcastle were able to cruise through the rest of the game against an Arsenal side who will now have to dust themselves down and focus on trying to chase down Liverpool in the Premier League title race.
