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00:00Well, it's Advantage Newcastle United in this two-legged Carabao Cup semi-final against
00:06Arsenal. They've won 2-0 here at the Emirates tonight, owning the club's second ever win
00:12here, their first since 2010, so that in itself shows what a massive result and massive effort
00:19it took for Newcastle to walk away from here tonight with a win. Look at 1-11, 1-15 including
00:31the subs, that was an outstanding display, incredible in that second half. I'll go for
00:37the first half first, Alexander Isak absolutely terrorised Arsenal defence in the first half,
00:43created two very good chances for Joe Linton was one, Lewis Hall was the other before opening
00:50the score in himself, a long punt into the box by Martin Dabravka, nice flick on by Sven
00:56Bottman, assist from Jacob Murphy, well a knock on by Jacob Murphy, I'm not sure I knew too much
01:01about it, and then Alexander Isak with a cool finish in front of goal that finished the ball
01:07when in off the underside of the ball and I thought Newcastle fully deserved their lead,
01:13Arsenal had some decent chances themselves, dangerous from set pieces as they always are,
01:18Gabriel Martinelli hit the post in that first half but I think Newcastle deserved their lead
01:23half-time and then the second half they got that goal early through Anthony Gordon, Isak again
01:27involved, his low shot saved by David Rea and Anthony Gordon reacted quickly to the back post,
01:32tap home the ball and then yeah by 51 minutes he castrated our lead 2-0 and Eddie Howe took the
01:38opportunity on the hour mark to take players off, Alexander Isak among those players to come off,
01:44Jacob Murphy too, Lloyd Kelly came on, Newcastle, Sean Longstaff as well, Newcastle become
01:55sort of very resolute in that second half and needed to be sat in because at one point when
02:00Anthony Gordon moved into the centre of the strike-off role when Isak went off, Gordon then
02:06comes off for Miguel Arnold and Newcastle I think I recognised, that was a formation of 5-5-0 so
02:13Newcastle sat in, soaked up the pressure and although Arsenal had plenty of ball, I wouldn't
02:20say had too many goal scoring opportunities and every ball that came in the box, the centre
02:26of the strike-off role, Sadiq Witherwood, Sven Bottman, Obeidi got done for pace by Gavin
02:30Martinelli a few times in that second half, a unit at the back, Dan Byrne again, quite literally a
02:37man mountain for Newcastle and has been for a lot of this season, just another terrific display by
02:42him, team Liberomental coming up trumps at the end with some big defensive contributions, special
02:48word again for Lewis Hall who I thought was absolutely outstanding, again further evidence
02:54tonight when you come to grounds like this that Lewis Hall is indeed on current form the best left
02:58back in the Premier League, there's no doubt about that and yeah I thought the midfield were good too,
03:05Sandro Tonali, pinging passes, should have scored early on but covered loads of ground,
03:11very very good recovery runs, an endless engine if that's even a thing but never tyres and then
03:18yeah Joe Linton battled really well despite getting a yellow card early on so
03:24in the attack line, Alexander, he's like I said a bit of magic, just a bit of quality
03:29in the first half as he ran Arsenal defence ragged so that was an outstanding performance and
03:36that's a big lead heading into St James' Park now, that second leg, I don't think many people
03:41predicted Newcastle taking a 2-0 lead in that second leg, I think many would have taken a 1-0
03:47defeat here tonight and then made it 2-0 win so that just shows that that was massive and
03:52yeah it's very much advantage, Newcastle now they've got an opportunity to see out the game
03:59at St James' Park and then we'll wait and see if Martin Dabravka is in goal for
04:05that second leg, a big update on his future at the end there and it looked like he was
04:10seeing up by the way end there, 6,000 travelling juries here today, Dan Byrne pushed Martin Dabravka
04:16to the front and yeah looked like he had a tear in his eye, beating his chest, applauding the
04:22supporters, Eddie Howe was asked afterwards about Martin Dabravka's future, he said he couldn't
04:28give an update, he planned to speak to Paul Mitchell, it's Eddie Howe's wish that Martin
04:33Dabravka gets offered a new deal so it sounds like obviously Eddie Howe wants that but it could be
04:39taken out of his hands, Dabravka's got six months left on his contract, it's a good offer on the
04:44table from Saudi Pro League side Al-Shabaab so if Newcastle have a chance of keeping Dabravka
04:49I suspect they'll have to offer a new contract and where that happens remains to be seen but
04:54if that is to be Martin Dabravka's farewell appearance then what a way to sign off, seven
04:59straight wins as well, five of those have been clean sheets so he's been a big player for this
05:06football club Martin Dabravka and I think his legacy was a bit slightly tarnished when he went
05:11to Manchester United on loan and was behind Nick Poole but and even last season as well when
05:16Newcastle were conceding a lot of goals Martin Dabravka came under criticism and there was a
05:19desperation to see Nick Poole back but in these last seven games Martin Dabravka has got the
05:25send-off if it is to be that he deserves, just excellent, distributing fantastic and he has a
05:32massive serving for this football club, helped keep them in the Premier League several times and
05:36so he may have got them, he may have got one foot in the Cardinal Cup final so that's all from the
05:42Emirates tonight, a big win for Newcastle, lots of football to be played before that second leg
05:47which is on Wednesday February 5th but a very positive night and we'll sign off there.