The pain of it all!

After trouncing English Premier League titleholders Manchester City 51 on Sunday Arsenal were brought back down to Earth in a humbling 02 loss to Newcastle in the second leg of the English Football League EFL CupThe North London club were already up against it before the match had even begun trailing by 2 goals after the first leg However Newcastle ensured there would be no spectacular comeback delivering a sublime performance in front of their raucous home crowd at St Jamesrsquo Park on WednesdayJacob Murphyrsquos first half opener and Anthony Gordonrsquos strike after the interval sealed a 40 aggregate success that sent Newcastle to their second League Cup final in the last three seasonsAlso Read Manchester United confirm Martinezrsquos cruciate ligament injuryMikel Arteta appears frustrated on the sidelines of the Arsenal v Newcastle match on WednesdayOrganised superbly by their astute manager Eddie Howe they outplayed Mikel Artetarsquos side thanks to superb performances from Sweden striker Alexander Isak and England winger GordonHowe acknowledged he had tweaked his defensive system switching to a back five to nullify Arsenalrsquos setpiece threat Arteta had no answers to Howersquos tactical masterclass as Newcastle beat the Gunners for the third time this seasonArteta rued the fact that his side couldnrsquot make early inroads despite their spell of dominanceldquoWe had momentum in the first half and didnrsquot capitalise They scored immediately after and the momentum shiftsrdquo Arsenal boss Arteta saidldquoWe needed a goal early in the second half and we didnrsquot get that and the opportunity passes They have been more efficient than us in the boxes and that is the difference in the tie You need to be very efficient That is what takes you close to winning trophies and today we werenrsquotldquoToday is painful but tomorrow is a different dayrdquo the Spaniard addedMeanwhile Newcastle boss Howe was ecstatic with the result making sure to point out how welldeserved his teamrsquos progress to the final wasldquoIt was a great night for us It was a tough game but tactically we were good The intention was to be aggressive and sometimes when you do that it doesnrsquot always work Today it didldquoWe are there on merit Our run has not been easy this year so wersquove done the hard yards Hopefully we can learn from the last experience We have come a long way since then I would love to think we can go to Wembley for the final and perform betterrdquo he saidNewcastle will face the winner of the Tottenham v Liverpool tie with the final to be played on March 16Meanwhile Arsenal who have already been dumped out of the FA Cup face Leicester City in their next EPL match on February 15Their last shot at silverware is still the English Premier League title however they are currently in second place six points behind leagueleaders Liverpool who have a game in handThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever