Newcastle United twisted the knife in Mikel Arteta after Wednesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final victory against Arsenal by mocking the Spaniard’s previous comments about the ball. Jacob Murphy and Anthony Gordon scored the goals at St. James’ Park to seal a definitive 4-0 aggregate win over the Gunners following a 2-0 triumph in north London.

Following Arsenal’s first-leg defeat at the Emirates Stadium, which all but ended the tie ahead of the trip to Tyneside, Arteta suggested his side’s wastefulness in front of goal was due to the ball.

He said: “It’s just different, very different to a Premier League ball. And you have to adapt to that because it flies differently. When you touch it, the grip is very different as well, so you adapt to that.”

After Gordon profited on David Raya’s mistake to make it 2-0 on the night, the joyous Newcastle fans poked fun at Arteta’s eye-catching comments.

“It must be the ball, it must be the ball, Mikel Arteta, it must be the ball,” the home supporters sang as they neared a second Carabao Cup final in three years.

There were also chants of “he’s going to cry in a minute” aimed at Arteta, whose team were second best across the cup tie.

The Arsenal boss also didn’t avoid mockery on social media, with Newcastle’s X account causing a stir by posting a photo of the match ball captioned: “The culprit.”

At the time of writing, the post has accumulated 3.6 million views, 111,000 likes and 17,000 reposts to rub salt in Arsenal’s wounds.

After full-time, Gordon played up to the jest by landing a cheeky jab on Newcastle’s fallen opponents, noting that the Magpies would “stay humble.”

The England winger told Sky Sports: “It feels amazing. A proper team performance and we got the win.

“Our fans are never in question; they make it so difficult for the opposition, and we did it the right way.

“We had a game plan we thought would work. Everyone knows we press. It is important for us to stay humble now. It will be a big occasion, but it’s so far away.”

It’s a popular buzzword among Arsenal fans amid their ongoing rivalry with Manchester City, following Erling Haaland’s “stay humble” dig at Arteta earlier this season.

The Gunners revelled in ‘humble’ jokes after thrashing City 5-1 in the Premier League on Sunday.

But they returned to the capital licking their wounds on Wednesday, having already been knocked out of the FA Cup by Manchester United last month.

Newcastle will face Liverpool or Tottenham in the Carabao Cup final, with Spurs travelling to Anfield with a 1-0 aggregate lead.