Newcastle United defender Lewis Hall cleverly won the free-kick that put the Magpies on the road to first leg glory at the Emirates Stadium.

After carefully drawing the foul, it allowed Martin Dubravka to boot the ball high up the field for Sven Botman to flick into the danger zone before Jacob Murphy supplied Alexander Isak with an assist to put Newcastle 1-0 up. Hall, just 20, put in a performance way above his fledgling years and had fans singing his name again.

The winning and taking of the free-kick was conducted by Newcastle's set-piece specialist Jason Tindall who watched on the edge of the dugout as Dubravka's missile was fired forward. At the end of the game Tindall shook his fists knowing that the Magpies had followed the play book by the page when executing and defending free-kicks - in total 20 aerial challenges were won by Newcastle!

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Chelsea can only rue allowing him to leave what now looks like a bargain £28million fee. Right now, he is one of the best left-backs in Europe let alone the Premier League.

And Arsenal knew what was happening to them before the free-kick won by Hall had even been taken. Speaking on Arsenal TV, pundit and ex-Gunner David Hillier said: "He's thrown himself on the floor. I'm not sure how much of a foul it was, I won't complain as Granit Xhaka do it for so long.

"It's a clever move when you know you are in trouble and you know you will get the free-kick."

The truth is Arsenal did not know what had hit them last night. The feeling before the game from the home end was that it was just about the Gunners taking care of business.

Hillier said at the start of the game: "I do feel if Arsenal can cope with the pressure in the first five minutes once they get settled they have more than enough to take Newcastle!

"Isak must be playing under a little bit of pressure, interest from Arsenal we know. And every top club will be looking at him if he's available. He certainly has great qualities, it's quality that would not go amiss from the Arsenal side, I tell you that."

There were screams of discontent as Arsenal left the field and Mikel Arteta headed for the tunnel with his head bowed. After the game Jurrien Timber expressed his disappointment after being undone by Newcastle.

Timber, speaking to arsenal.com, warned: “It’s all to play for in that game, it’s still a semi-final, it’s still not done,” he said. “But at the same time, we have a lot of games coming up, but we have to look back at this game and learn from it, definitely.

“I don’t like losing the first match, but now that this is the case, I think it’s a good thing that we have a second chance in the second leg."

It's a second chance for Arsenal but one that could go up in smoke early at St James' Park if the Magpies grab an early goal. At 3-0 this time would effectively be over but Eddie Howe refused to count his chickens.

He said after it: "We played with real confidence and belief but in terms of the tie it's still very much alive and finely balanced and we have a really tough home leg to come."