Bruno Guimaraes reveals two Arsenal players were targetted in their victory in the Carabao Cup semi final

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Arsenal were dominated by Newcastle from start to finish as Eddie Howe’s side won 2-0 at St James’s Park to progress to the Carabao Cup final 4-0 on aggregate.

Alexander Isak had an early goal disallowed and was a constant threat to Arsenal duo William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes, it was the Swedish striker’s effort off the post that led trickled to Jacob Murphy to open the scoring.

Arsenal fans bemoaned Martin Odegaard’s miss just moment before Newcastle opened the scoring as the tie changed in momentum in a matter of seconds.

A poor pass from David Raya into Declan Rice was smothered by the Magpies and the ball squirmed to Antony Gordon to put the tie beyond any doubt at the start of the second half.

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Bruno Guimaraes reveals how Newcastle targetted Thomas Partey and Declan Rice

Speaking to Sky sports post-match coverage of Newcastle v Arsenal in the Carabao Cup semi final, midfielder Bruno Guimares shared the blueprint to his side’s success over the Gunners.

Guimares stated: “For me, I was man-for-man on Partey. Wherever Partey was going, I had to follow him everywhere. So we try to stay man-for-man in the midfield, with Fabian jumping on Rice and we score like that, recover the ball like that. This is credit for the gaffer.”

Rice was pounced upon quickly in the centre of the park for Newcastle’s second goal and all night long, the Gunners were not allowed to build any momentum in the game.

Mikel Arteta blames poor performance on fatigue for his Arsenal players

Speaking at his post-match press conference, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has put his side’s poor performance against Newcastle down to fatigue.

Arteta stated: “Physically, we were tired, we have played so many games. Emotionally as well it was a very different game to believe right there in the end that we could do it.”

The Arsenal squad now head off to Dubai for a mid-season break where they will hope to regain some energy to go full tilt at both the Premier League and Champions League upon return.

It was a frustrating evening for the Gunners but there is still so much to play for this season, they need to dust themselves off and get ready to bounce back.