Carabao Cup: Fatigue key factor in Arsenal’s 2-0 loss to Newcastle – Arteta

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has attributed his team’s 2-0 defeat to Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup second leg on Wednesday night to fatigue.

Goals from Jacob Murphy and Anthony Gordon secured the win for Newcastle, completing a 4-0 aggregate victory.

The Gunners had hoped to replicate their strong performance against Manchester City over the weekend, but they were outplayed throughout the match.

“Physically we were tired and you know we played so many games, we played so many games every three days, and we knew that this was going to be a really high-intensity one,” Arteta said in his post-match analysis.

“I think emotionally as well, it was a very different game that we needed to get there to believe right until the end that we could do it, and before that the game got away from us.“

The Spaniard admitted that his side lost the tie in the first leg and it is an opportunity missed not getting to the final

“We certainly made it really difficult for ourselves,” he said.”If you are in a semi-final and you don’t get to a final, very much [so].”

Arsenal will now turn their focus to the Premier League and UEFA Champions League as they aim to secure silverware this season.

The team currently sits in second place in the Premier League and has reached the Champions League round of 16.