Speaking as a proud Northerner, and on behalf of my SBOTOP mate James, it’s hard for me not to big up the EFL Cup performance of Newcastle United against Arsenal on Tuesday; and I rather expected a similar story when Liverpool visited Tottenham on Wednesday.
On Tuesday night Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United stunned Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal with a 2-0 win at the Emirates and that puts the Magpies firmly in charge of that tie. And then, on Wednesday a late goal from Tottenham’s 18 year old midfielder Lucas Bergvall gave Spurs the edge when they head up to Anfield. They are probably pleased to be still in the tie but Ange Postecoglou’s team have done so much more than that.
The second legs will be played in one month time, on 5th an 6th February, but, for now, its advantage Tottenham and Newcastle.
Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs are a dangerous team, despite a chaotic sequence in the Premier League, their EFL Cup 2025 results have been impressive, but drawing with Manchester United at the weekend Liverpool were hoping to re-assert their authority against the Londoners. But, after the Reds won 6-3 on their last visit to Tottenham just before Christmas there was little goalmouth action in the first half, with Spurs initially more ambitious while Liverpool probed but without their usual cutting edge.
New arrival Antonin Kinsky signed for Spurs on Sunday and he started in goal against the best team in England on Wednesday and he had a relatively comfortable first half, confident on the ball and showing real enterprise with his distribution, finding Heung-Min Son with a brilliant long pass. And when he was called on the make a save, he kept out Cody Gakpo’s long range skidder.
Neither of these teams had kept a clean sheet in the competition so far and Liverpool were mightily lucky to keep remain unscathed on 55 minutes when Alisson made a terrible mess of a clearance. The Liverpool keeper dallied on the ball and it fell to Pedro Porro who had his first shot blocked and clipped his second narrowly wide. At the other end of the pitch Kinsky’s impressive debut continued as he kept out two efforts from Darwin Nunez, but he needed help from Radu Dragusin to keep out a low pile driver from Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Spurs thought they’d scored when Dominic Solanke broke the offside trap and finished brilliantly… and the ground erupted. Then the fans remembered VAR had been introduced for the semi-finals and Solanke was adjudged, after a couple of painful minutes, to have strayed a toenail offside. But Spurs’ despair turned to joy when 18 year old Bergvall finished expertly with a first time shot from a Solanke tee-up.
Liverpool’s unbeaten run of 24 is over and Tottenham can celebrate… for now.
Isak is a Geordie Phenomenon
Newcastle’s victory over Arsenal made it seven wins in all competitions for Howe’s men, and in that run the Magpies have scored 20 goals, spearheaded by Swedish goal machine Alexander Isak. The 25 year old bagged his 14th in his last 15 games when he opened the scoring against Arsenal and he has now reached 50 goals for Newcastle, in a much quicker time than Geordie legend Alan Shearer did back in the 1990s. In the Premier League only Erling Haaland and Mo Salah have scored more since Isak’s arrival on Tyneside in August 2022 and, after a mixed reception in his early months, he has now become embraced by fans as the new Local Hero.
The pre-match EFL Cup 2025 betting odds made Arsenal the second favourites, behind Liverpool, to win the tournament but they have a mountain to climb now as the Geordies took home a commanding lead after a near perfect away performance in front of their hoards of travelling fans. This was the first time Newcastle had ever beaten Arsenal in the League Cup but they were in command from the moment Isak hammered his shot high into the net on 37 minutes. And the lethal Swede had a big hand in Newcastle’s second which came just after the half time break. He did a one-two with Jacob Murphy before firing in a cross shot which David Raya spilled into the path of Anthony Gordon who hammered the ball home.
Arsenal had ample opportunity to score with Jurrien Timber and Kai Havertz missing glorious chances while Gabriel Martinelli hit a post, and manager Arteta even suggested his players had difficulty shooting the new Puma ball on target. Now the Gunners have the daunting task of overturning a two goal deficit at St James’ Park, one of the toughest places to go in England.
Newcastle were in North London last weekend on a visit to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium where they won 2-1 and, after such a successful night just up the road at the Emirates, the 550 mile round trip won’t seem so bad after all!
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