‘It’s clear’ - Mikel Arteta snubs Alexander Isak after Arsenal’s defeat to Newcastle United

Mikel Arteta refused to be drawn on talking about Alexander Isak after the Newcastle United striker again terrorised his Arsenal defence.

The Magpies beat the Gunners 4-0 on aggregate to advance into the final of the Carabao Cup for the second time in three seasons.

Isak opened the scoring in United’s 2-0 first-leg win at the Emirates and found again in last night’s 2-0 second-leg victory at St James’ Park, although was denied by the offside flag following a VAR check.

The Sweden international has so often been linked with Arsenal, with a number of pundits talking up the prospect of him one day moving to North London. Arteta, however, refused to bite when given the opportunity to praise the 25-year-old.

“I’m not here to evaluate an opposition player,” Arteta said. “It is clear he had two actions to finish and you know what happened.”

Mikel Arteta’s verdict on Arsenal’s defeat to Newcastle United

Meanwhile, reflecting on his side’s defeat, Arteta said: “We had so many expectations obviously to believe that we could turn around and generate momentum, especially in the first half.

“The game started in the first action almost with them scoring and then the goal being denied. Then we had the moment, two big moments with Martin, we didn't capitalise the next action, they scored the goal and obviously, the game shifted.

“And then you need to stay cool, to score a goal as early as possible. We didn't manage to do that in the first half even though we had another big chance. And in the second half then we started to struggle as the game went by and we didn't generate enough situations to establish ourselves, the game started to get away from us.”

Arteta added: “Yeah, when you want to win cup finals, you want to win trophies, at the end those are really effective in the box in the last two games that we played against them and we haven't.

“Overall that was the main difference, it's true that today we've been a bit more unsettled, especially when the game became more chaotic or when they were very direct with their play.

“Normally we are much more composed, today we lacked a bit of that and the game went away from us.”