Arsenal boosted by suspensions for two Newcastle stars for Carabao Cup semi final

Newcastle will be without key players Bruno Guimaraes and Fabian Schar for the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi final against Arsenal.

The Magpies reached the last four of the competition following a convincing win over Brentford on Wednesday.

Newcastle’s reward for that 3-1 victory is a two-legged tie against the Gunners with the first match set to be played at the Emirates Stadium in the first week of January.

Howe will, however, be forced to cope without his Brazilian midfield linchpin and key centre-half for the visit to north London.

Both players received bookings against the Bees and competition rules state that any player that receives two yellow cards before the semi-finals must serve a one-game ban.

With the second leg on home soil, Newcastle will no doubt fancy their chances of making a second final in three seasons given they have beaten Arsenal on their own patch twice in succession.

Mikel Arteta’s side did, however, look more like their old selves in the second half of their quarter final win over Crystal Palace during which Gabriel Jesus scored a superb quickfire hat-trick.

Heading into Wednesday’s last-eight fixture, Jesus had scored just once this season – in the previous round against Preston – and only twice in 2024.

But the former Manchester City star rolled back the years to score a 27-minute treble as Arsenal staged a fightback.

It marked the first time Jesus has managed to score more than one goal in a game in 20 months, and it was also his maiden hat-trick in an Arsenal shirt following his move from City in the summer of 2022.

Arteta claimed afterwards that Jesus is now ‘back to his best’ and hopes it is a turning point in his career – a week after the Brazilian spurned a number of good chances in Arsenal’s Champions League win against Monaco.

‘I had pressure on my shoulders to score,” said Jesus following the 3-2 victory over Palace.

‘Against Monaco I missed two clear chances. Obviously, I was disappointed that I didn’t score in that game.

‘I just had to keep my mind clear and strong, work like I work with (attacking coach, Hussein) Isa every day and he told me: ‘Look Gabby, you’re quality, you need to be calm and then you’ll score.’

‘That’s what I did, and I’m happy to come back to score goals, because I have the number nine and the pressure will always be there to score. That’s the challenge.’