Newcastle United brutally trolled Mikel Arteta last night as Arsenal's dreams of lifting the Carabao Cup ended.

The Gunners were thrashed 4-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals, with the Magpies comfortably winning both legs 2-0. Yet Mikel Arteta raised eyebrows after last month's clash at Emirates by bizarrely blaming the different Puma match BALL used in the competition, groaning: "We also kicked a lot of balls over the bar, and it's tricky that these balls fly a lot so there’s details that we can do better. It’s very different to a Premier League ball, and you have to adapt to that because it flies different, when you touch it the grip is very different as well so you adapt to that."

Arteta was widely mocked for his comments and his complaints were kicked out by the EFL, who were forced to put out a statement defending the ball - which is used in some of the world's top leagues, inclduing Serie A and La Liga. And Newcastle fans seized on the chance to taunt the ex-Rangers star on Wednesday night, chanting: "Mikel Arteta, it must be the ball".

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The club's social media admin even poked fun at the Spaniard, posting a picture of the Puma ball at full-time, captioned: "The culprit". The post on X, formerly known as Twitter, has been viewed almost four million times and has been reposted by 17,000 people. One follower wrote: "This level of banter is crazy." Another replied: "HaHaHaHa. Taking a dig at Mikel!" While a third laughed: "NO WAY FROM THE OFFICIAL."

Newcastle will now play either Tottenham or Liverpool in the showpiece Wembley final on Sunday March 16. Spurs take a 1-0 aggregate lead to Anfield for their second leg showdown on Thursday night.