Jamie Redknapp called out the coaching staff after a defensive mix-up allowed to take the lead.

The Magpies produced a professional display at the Emirates - making them heavy favourites to make the final ahead of the second-leg at St James' Park in several weeks time.

Both teams are in need of silverware but Newcastle put themselves in pole position as Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon scored in either half. Isak has been in electric form and opened the scoring when a free-kick into the box bounced his way, leaving him with an easy finish.

Redknapp though was stunned by the defensive set-up as Martin Odegaard, the playmaker, was left to mark Isak in the box, but lost his man as the Swede took advantage.

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He said on Sky Sports: “What I will say is the set-piece coach gets a lot of credit. He obviously doesn't do the defensive ones because how can you have Odegaard marking him… he’s the best centre-forward in the country right now! You’ve got to detail somebody to say ‘where is he? Let’s mark him’.

“Odegaard has no interest in marking him and he gets into a really good position. Isak is the wrong side of Odegaard, it’s just a mismatch! Somebody has to responsibility. I know Newcastle are a big side, with [Sven] Botman, [Dan] Burn and , but Arsenal are a big side too. You cannot have the best forward in the country having that much space – it’s nonsensical to me.”

Isak's shot then rebounded to Gordon in the second-half, which allowed him to slot into an empty net in front of the travelling faithful. Arteta knew the visitors would look to take advantage of set pieces - which they did. “I have seen the goal and it is something they do,” he said. “They create the chaos, and it gets to the wrong player and Isak puts it away.”

Arteta also address the ball used in the semi-final, which is a slightly different design to the one used in the , and seemed to claim it had an impact as Arsenal continued to fire in shots, but regularly miss the target.

"We 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," he said. "But at the end that's gone - there's no way back, it's about the next game and that's our , the reality is our world.

"It's just half-time. When I see the team play, and how we deal with a lot of situations and play against a very good team, I must say I have full belief that we can go out there and do it."

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