St James’ Park awaits – Newcastle v Arsenal preview | OneFootball

Welcome to the Newcastle v Arsenal preview (United leading 2-0 from the first leg).

League Cup semi-final second leg

Wednesday 5th February – 8pm

This is it, the big one!

Newcastle United carry a two goal lead into the second leg of the cup semi-final which gives us a huge chance to book a cup final place at Wembley for just a second time in the last twenty six years.

Newcastle will be desperate to stop a run of two home defeats in succession after damaging results against both Bournemouth and Fulham, whilst Arsenal will be hoping to take the momentum gained from thrashing Man City into this one and overturn the two goal deficit.

Newcastle have played six cup games so far this season, they reached this stage of the League Cup by beating Nottingham Forest on penalties, Wimbledon 1-0, Chelsea 2-0, Brentford 3-1 and also won the first leg of this tie against Arsenal 2-0. In the FA Cup, we survived an early scare to beat Bromley 3-1. In addition, we’ve won four of our past six league games.

Arsenal reached this stage of the League Cup by beating Bolton 5-1, Preston 3-0 and Crystal Palace 3-2. They did however face defeat in the FA Cup when losing on penalties to Man United after a 1-1 draw. They’ve won four and drawn two of their past six league games.

Newcastle hosted Fulham at the weekend and were good value for a 1-0 half-time lead courtesy of a Jacob Murphy strike at the Gallowgate End. Unfortunately, a desperately poor second half saw the Toon go down to a deserved 2-1 defeat. Efforts off the bar from Tonali and Isak could have changed the game had they gone in but this was a deeply frustrating afternoon, that saw the Toon struggle to find any rhythm and ultimately got what they deserved.

Arsenal achieved the result of their season on Sunday by absolutely hammering champions Manchester City, 1-0 up after just two minutes, the citizens equalised soon after half-time before Arsenal took control and netted four more goals to take the three points in a 5-1 win.

Newcastle have never lost a League Cup semi-final. We beat Spurs 3-2 in 1976 and Southampton 3-1 in 2023 (both over two legs).

Newcastle have won both League Cup semi-final second legs they’ve taken part in, beating Spurs 3-1 in 1976 and Southampton 2-1 in 2023.

NUFC have won three of their last four home matches with Arsenal, scoring four goals and keeping three clean sheets in the process.

Arsenal have shed more tears during their most recent three defeats against NUFC than any other team in our entire history.

Memorable match

The last time Newcastle United were in a League Cup semi-final, we beat Southampton 1-0 away from home in the first leg, but the tie was very much still in the balance as the two sides met at St James’ Park. Thankfully, Toon nerves were settled by an early Sean Longstaff brace that took the tie completely out of Southampton’s reach. The Saints did pull one back and Bruno was given his marching orders late on, but nothing could spoil a superb occasion, as Newcastle United celebrated reaching their first cup final for twenty four years. Final score Newcastle 2-1 Southampton (Newcastle won 3-1 on aggregate).

Malcolm Macdonald – Some of our older readers may well have fond memories of this legendary number nine. ‘Supermac’, as he was affectionately known by fans, got a hat-trick in his first home match, against Liverpool. What was to follow has gone down in Toon Army folklore! Scoring one hundred and twenty one goals in just two hundred and twenty seven appearances, has him up there with the best of the best in NUFC history.

Perhaps his finest hour came in the 1974 FA Cup semi-final when he scored two second half goals to defeat Burnley 2-0 at Hillsborough and send United to their first FA Cup final for nineteen years. Unfortunately, he couldn’t repeat this feat at Wembley, as a tame performance was punished by a 3-0 defeat to a Kevin Keegan-inspired Liverpool.

There was uproar when he was sold to Arsenal for a third of a million pounds in 1976. He went on to score forty two goals in eighty four league games for the Gunners.

Isaac Hayden began his career at Arsenal and played two league cup games for them before being loaned to Hull City. He signed for Rafa Benitez’ Newcastle United in 2016. Memorable moments include scoring a cracker away to Cardiff in our promotion season and netting an injury time winner against Chelsea under Steve Bruce.

Mathieu Debuchy signed for the Toon along with four other French players in January 2013, as Mike Ashley splashed the cash in a bid to avoid relegation, just a few months after finishing fifth in the Premier League. His one goal for NUFC was a wildly celebrated but oft-forgotten equaliser away at Sunderland in a 2-1 defeat. Had that strike come in a draw or win over our deadliest rivals, he’d have achieved cult status. He signed for Arsenal in 2014 and spent four seasons in North London.

Issue 276 – 9 February 2013

Managers

Eddie Howe after a 2-1 home defeat to Fulham:

“I thought that there was similarities between the Bournemouth game. Unfortunately for us, and that’s painful for us. I don’t think we were great athletically again, which is really surprising because we had a really good training week and I really like the look of us going into the game. So I had a really good feeling about how we would perform, but it didn’t materialise into the game. I thought on the ball, we were wasteful today. I don’t think it was anywhere near our best technical level. You put that together, you know, that’s not the recipe for a great performance. It certainly wasn’t from us. Yeah, we probably deserved to lose the game.”

Mikel Arteta after a 5-1 win at home to Manchester City:

“It’s a great day for us especially that we had to win the game to sustain the pressure up there and the manner that we’ve done it I’m really, really pleased. We needed a bit of luck and we had it. There are moments in the game and you can have those once. Sometimes we are a bit lucky but overall we scored some beautiful goals in different manners and the team showed a competitive manner.”

Charity

Newcastle United fans food bank will once again be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end and gratefully receiving food, money and toiletries for those in need. Of particular interest are non-perishable food and drink items (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned food, soup, cereal, cordial, long life milk etc) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products. Please give whatever you can, any donation is very much appreciated.

For further info and/or to donate online go HERE.

This promises to be an incredibly nervy occasion – Newcastle have a two goal cushion but conceding first would really put the cat amongst the pigeons.

Thankfully, my gut feeling is that the hard part was done in North London last month and Eddie’s Mags will be celebrating come full time.

Fingers crossed for a truly triumphant night. Newcastle 1-1 Arsenal (Toon win 3-1 on Aggregate)