By Reuters
Arsenal lacked their usual composure, according to manager Mikel Arteta, as his side bowed out of the League Cup semi-final with a 4-0 aggregate defeat by Newcastle United on Wednesday.
Arteta said his team arrived with high expectations that they could overcome a 2-0 deficit from the first leg, but after Martin Odegaard wasted a glorious early chance, they faded.
Less than two minutes after Odegaard’s miss, Jacob Murphy left Arsenal with a mountain to climb by converting a rebound after Alexander Isak’s shot had cannoned off the post.
“To believe that we could turn it around, we needed to generate momentum, especially in the first half,” Arteta told reporters. “Then we had the moment, two big moments, with Martin, we didn’t capitalise the next action, they scored the goal and obviously, the game shifted.
“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 even though we had another big chance. In the second half then we started to struggle. The game started to get away from us.”
Arsenal were flustered from the start by Newcastle’s high-intensity pressing game with defenders Gabriel and William Saliba unusually panicky under pressure.
“It’s true that today we’ve been a bit more unsettled, especially when the game became more chaotic or when they were very direct with their play,” Arteta said.
“Normally we are much more composed, today we lacked a bit of that and the game went away from us.”
Arsenal are already out of the FA Cup so they will now use a rare blank weekend by travelling to Dubai for some warm-weather training which Arteta hopes will provide a tonic for the final months of the Premier League title race.
“First of all, I think this is going to be a painful one and while we are in Dubai, recharge and then go again because we have still a lot to play for,” Arteta said.
He will be keeping his fingers crossed that Gabriel Martinelli, who limped off with a hamstring injury in the first half, is not too seriously injured.
Arsenal are already without Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka and failed to land a forward in the transfer window.
“He felt something, I think it was his hamstring and he wasn’t comfortable to continue so we’ll have to do an MRI scan tomorrow to see the extent of the injury,” Arteta said.
