Newcastle United vs Arsenal: Murphy extends hosts’ lead on aggregate – latest

The last step awaits Newcastle United, without a domestic trophy since 1955, although the two wins that have preceded the final next month have been spectacular for Eddie Howe’s players – both times the men for the big occasion. The League Cup did not even exist when Newcastle raised that last English trophy in their history, the FA Cup, and as the pages have turned over the intervening years so the wait has become ever more extraordinary. It will be just 38 days when they awake on Thursday morning until the second trip to Wembley under Howe in three years, and the prospect of a landmark afternoon in the long history of a club who just want to win something. But for the time being they can savour a brilliant victory over two  semi-final legs against an Arsenal team who could not live with them on either night.

There can scarcely be a better attacking combination in Europe currently than the quicksilver pace and rapid exchanges of Anthony Gordon and Alexander Isak. The Englishman scored in this game, as he had in the first leg at the Emirates, and the dashing Swedish striker proved himself unplayable again for this usually composed Arsenal defence. Howe’s team do not have the weight of possession, nor the endless corners of Arsenal, and yet the smaller quantities of attacking moments that Newcastle did enjoy were used to much greater effect.

First Isak’s shot in the first half lashed against a post and rolled in by Jacob Murphy, then Howe’s shrewd press in the second half, which saw Fabian Schar sneak up from centre-back and pinch the ball from Declan Rice. Gordon finished the rest, and he was the game’s outstanding player by an inch on his team-mate Isak. Deep in conversation before the kick-off and then later during breaks in play, the pair do make it look easy at times. At the end of the first half, Gordon seemed exhausted but then in the second half he and Newcastle were renewed again.

St James' Park is ROCKING! 🎵🔥. Newcastle capitalise on some sloppy play from Arsenal at the back and Anthony Gordon extends the lead ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/eSHmxkmpha. For Arsenal it was a tie that just never felt in their control. Either at home or this time from Isak’s fourth-minute goal, that was disallowed for offside by what seemed like the stitching on his sleeve, to Murphy’s goal 15 minutes later. Mikel Arteta would say that his team struggled to cope in the parts of the game that “became more chaotic”. Although that seemed like all the parts when Arsenal did not have the ball and Newcastle were passing swiftly through their high line.

“It must be the ball” sang the home fans to Arteta in the second half, and there was much mockery at the expense of the Arsenal manager and his remarks about the Carabao Cup Puma ball after the first leg. Howe has won four to Arteta’s three in the last eight games between Newcastle and Arsenal – and it felt like he got it right again this time. A five-man back line that sapped the energy of the Arsenal attack, and then the forays of the spare centre-half to try to steal possession higher up the pitch. Howe confirmed that Newcastle had trained in that shape all week.

For his part, Arteta refused to blame the burden of 11 games in the last 36 days for his team. As for their set-piece mastery, they won 13 corners to Newcastle’s one and yet never created the chances to win the game. Martin Odegaard hit a post just before Murphy scored the first. They look like a team in need of a striker of the confidence of Isak, whom they tried to sign in January with none of the conviction that suggested they might be successful.

Howe’s team were not exactly in formidable form, with two defeats in their last two home league games. They had waited almost a month since the first leg at the Emirates and it had, Howe said, given him much time to change his mind about what he wanted to do. In the end he said it was height that concerned him the most and, with Joelinton unavailable, he decided he wanted Schar, Sven Botman and Dan Burn in the team. Yet it never felt like a defensive side. From the likes of Lewis Hall and Murphy there were excellent performances.

Had this game been on the minds of his players during their defeat by Fulham at the weekend? Howe did not disagree and it certainly felt like a side rising to the occasion. Within four minutes, Isak had scored a fabulous goal that was ruled out on a narrow offside call from VAR. His finish off his right foot was glorious – an upward soaring drive on the run past David Raya. What turned into the first goal after 19 minutes started with an exchange between Isak and Gordon just inside Arsenal’s half and then Isak wrapped his left around the shot. It clipped the inside of a post and was tidied up nicely by Murphy. Odegaard’s miss had been just before that. Gabriel Martinelli went off not long after to be replaced by Ethan Nwaneri, who had a good duel with Hall.