MIKEL Arteta said Arsenal's Carabao Cup defeat at Newcastle hinged on two key first half moments - but felt the true damage was done in the first leg loss at the Emirates.

Newcastle booked their Wembley place with a repeat of their 2-0 first leg success, secured thanks to goals from Jacob Murphy and Anthony Gordon either side of half-time at St James' Park on Wednesday night.

Murphy's opener came just a minute after Martin Ødegaard has missed a glorious chance to give Arsenal the lead and half the deficit in the tie.

And Arteta said: "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.

"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. In the second half then we started to struggle as the game went by and we didn't generate enough situations, establish ourselves in the final third enough. The game started to get away from us."

Asked about the challenge of facing Newcastle, Arteta then said: "Yes, he's a tough opponent, yes."

And quizzed on whether Eddie Howe's shift to a back three for the first time this season was a replied, Arteta bluntly replied: "No."

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Arsenal were again troubled by Alexander Isak, who had an early goal disallowed before playing a major part in the opener when his initial shot which cannoned back off the post was turned home by Murphy.

Arteta said: "I’m not here to evaluate opposition players but it's clear that he had two actions to finish and you know what happened."

Arsenal's boss added: "When you want to be in the cup finals, you want to win trophies, at the end those are hard. They've been really effective in the box in the last two games that we've 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."