Newcastle v Arsenal: Carabao Cup semi-final, second leg – live | Carabao Cup

25 min Arsenal have a couple of corners on the right, both taken by Odegaard. The second drops dangerously in the six-yard box before being booted clear by Trippier.

23 min Arsenal haven’t given this up. Havertz gets to the byline and screws a good ball towards Trossard, whose snap shot is really well saved by the diving Dubravka. He didn’t have much reaction time but got down to his right to keep it out.

21 min In a sense that was a two-goal swing because Odegaard was inches away from making it 2-1 on aggregate. From the resulting goalkick, Murphy made it 3-0.

GOAL! Newcastle 1-0 Arsenal (agg: 3-0, Murphy 20)

19 min: Great chance for Odegaard! Moments after having a shot well blocked by Botman, Odegaard slices a shot against the outside of the post from 12 yards. The referee played an excellent advantage when Martinelli was fouled in the D but Odegaard missed the chance.

16 min Dubravka dawdles on the ball and is very close to being robbed, I think by Trossard. In the end he did well to dig out a clearance with the ball almost behind him.

15 min Murphy plays a give-and-go on the right but overhits his deep cross towards Hall, who can only volley it into the side netting from a prohibitive angle. Murphy’s cross might have gone out of play anyway.

12 min Newcastle are all over Arsenal at the moment. I’ll tell you how bad it is: even Myles Lewis-Skelly looked flustered in possession a moment ago.

11 min Arsenal need two goals but for now – a bit like Anfield in 1989 – their main focus is to keep it tight defensively and take the sting out of the atmosphere. “If we concede an early goal we’re fecked*,” is how Perry Groves recalled George Graham’s teamtalk that night. “What I want to do is go in at half-time at 0-0, then I’ll be happy.”

* No, obviously he didn’t say ‘fecked’

9 min It took a few minutes to confirm the offside so it must have been Spandex-tight. What the disallowed goal has done is heighten an already fevered atmosphere. The Newcastle fans, understandably, are shouting for everything.

NO GOAL! Newcastle 0-0 Arsenal (agg: 2-0)

Alexander Isak has put Newcastle ahead on the night with a majestic finish. Raya’s long goalkick was knocked back towards the centre circle, where Gordon collected and slid an angled through ball to Isak in the inside-right channel. He moved elegantly into the area, composed himself and hammered the ball into the far top corner. It was an awesome finish – but he might be offside. There’s a VAR check.

GOAL! Newcastle 1-0 Arsenal (agg: 3-0; Isak 4)

4 min “I’m unfortunately old enough to remember the days when Arsenal was always referred to as THE Arsenal, I think the only football team to be honoured with such a definite article, as though it were a country,” says Nigel Moore. “Such titles have long since fallen into the colloquial wayside but that’s another story. Looking forward to penalties tonight.”

Don Howe was particularly fond of The Arsenal, wasn’t he? I think George Graham used it quite a lot too, particularly when talking about standards.

3 min The free-kick is headed away.

2 min Rice takes the corner short to Martinelli, who farts around and is dispossessed by Murphy. He runs 70 yards down the left before being fouled by Martinelli, who is a bit fortunate to escape a yellow card.

2 min Rice’s free-kick is headed behind for the first corner. Newcastle have started with a back five, so – surprise, surprise – the warm-up was all for show.

1 min Gordon fouls Havertz off the ball after 15 seconds. The free-kick is about 30 yards from goal on the right…

1 min Peep peep! Arsenal kick off from left to right as we watch.

“Good evening Rob,” begins Krish. “When I read the arricle that claimed Arteta was disappointed at the lack of activity in the transfer window I was reminded of this from the inimitable PG Wodehouse:

Freddie experienced the sort of abysmal soul-sadness which afflicts one of Tolstoy’s Russian peasants when, after putting in a heavy day’s work strangling his father, beating his wife, and dropping the baby into the city’s reservoir, he turns to the cupboards, only to find the vodka bottle empty.

Are you trying to get Wodehouse cancelled? Hang on, are you trying to get me cancelled?

There’s an almighty roar as the players emerge from the tunnel. We can say one thing without fear of contradiction: it’s going to be emotional.

“Arsenal fans of a pessimistic turn of mind will worry that after hubris comes nemesis, and all the good vibes around Myles Lewis-Skelly might be undone with a duff game,” begins Arsenal hobbyist Charles Antaki. “Perhaps this one is a good choice if it does go wrong, since, at 2-0 down already, failure here wouldn’t be unexpected, and one can always tell oneself that it’s only the Carabao/Milk/Rumbelows Cup, and that next week it’s the Dubai sunshine cure. Still, the optimist in us all hopes that the boy continues to do good, and help set the universe a bit more right than it is at the moment.

A remidner of the teams

Newcastle (possible 4-3-3) Dubravka; Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn; Guimaraes, Tonali, Hall; Murphy, Isak, Gordon.
Substitutes: Pope, Wilson, Targett, Krafth, Osula, Livramento, Willock, Longstaff, Miley.

Arsenal (possible 4-3-3) Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly; Odegaard, Partey, Rice; Martinelli, Havertz, Trossard.
Substitutes: Setford, Calafiori, Zinchenko, Tierney, Kiwior, Jorginho, Merino, Sterling, Nwaneri.

Referee Simon Hooper.

“Are there any signature Newcastle celebrations that Arsenal could mock tonight?” wonders Matt Dony. “(With apologies for making generalisations…) Arsenal fans have enjoyed siegementalitying themselves more than anyone else over the last few years; in order to make the social media anger worth it, the team may as well go looking for as many beefs as possible. (Beefs? Beeves?) I’m sure we’d all be happy to have some bitter North/South rivalry developing here, and some things-that-no-one-likes-to-see happening on the pitch.”

I don’t think this Arsenal team have too many distinctive celebrations do they? But there’s been plenty of needle between these teams in recent years so there’s every chance of some organic beef.

“G’day Rob,” says Chris Paraskevas. “Over the last month we’ve managed our usual party trick of playing ourselves completely out of form ahead of a ‘big’ ‘cup’ match. That must explain why Eddie Howe has broken out my old favourite, the WM formation, to follow the 5-5-0 from the first leg.

“All I know is that anything even vaguely resembling our 8-0 pre/post-season humiliation against the A-League All Stars will send me into Full Troll Mode, and the NUFC Instagram page will be flooded with my comments (again).

“I’ve been very well behaved lately – I’ve even started having full discussions with the neighbouring Amazonian parrot – but a loss here could send me over the edge.”

The Collins Dictionary defines a hobby as “an activity pursued in spare time for pleasure or relaxation”. Supporting a football team needs to be reclassified, possibly as an addiction.

Newcastle are warming up with a back four and Lewis Hall in midfield. It might be a bluff; might not. This is their possible line-up.

Newcastle (possible 4-3-3) Dubravka; Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn; Guimaraes, Tonali, Hall; Murphy, Isak, Gordon.

Mikel Arteta speaks

There’s a lot of things to manage for both teams. If we score the first goal it will play on their minds. It could be a very long match.

We were very disappointed with the result in the first leg because we created so many chances. In recent weeks we’ve been very efficient; tonight, for sure, we’ll need that to go through.

‘A central tenet of yoga being mugging off the oppo’

On this day in 2011…

Newcastle’s last major trophy was either 56 or 70 years ago, depending on your level of respect for the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. They won that in 1969 and the FA Cup in 1955. I’d certainly count the Fairs Cup as a major trophy, though not everybody does.

“Looks like a decent match tonight, both teams up and down, needing something from their season, given that the title is seemingly destined elsewhere…(to be confirmed),” says Jeremy Boyce. “In other news, there is a tasty match up in the Championship tonight, with Frank’s resurgent play-off contenders Coventry City at home to leaders Leeds66%possessionUnited, both on unbeaten runs and wishing to continue that way. Not many matches, but plenty to anticipate.”

Eddie Howe talks to Sky Sports

[Do you go at them even with a 2-0 lead?] I think we have to. We don’t know any other way. We can’t change now; I don’t think that would be right. In saying that, we can tweak our way of doing it and we might have to be adaptable today. We need to find a way to win.

I think the players need to play the game with emotion but not too much emotion. We need to get the crowd in the game. If we don’t, we’re not utilising a major asset. It needs to be a strong start.

[Are you playing three centre-backs?] It’s an adaptable system! If you look at us play we’re constantly changing position. The formation is important but irrelevant – the attitude has to be right. We’ve got to be brave and we’ve got to be ourselves.

Team news

“It is going to be another battle and we know how difficult it is to play there. But we have an amazing team and we trust ourselves. We have full confidence in our squad.”

The small print

Preamble