Arsenal star Gabriel Martinelli fires Newcastle semi-final warning after Man City demolition | OneFootball

Confident Gunners out to score “three, four or five” to overturn first-leg deficit and book spot in Carabao Cup showpiece

Gabriel Martinelli says Arsenal are heading into their Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Newcastle with “full confidence” they can turn the tie around.

Mikel Arteta’s side will now turn their attentions back to the Carabao Cup when they travel to St James’ Park on Wednesday.

The Gunners have a mountain to climb after losing 2-0 at home in the first leg last month, but Martinelli insists the squad are full of belief after their convincing win over City.

“It is hard to play there [at St James’ Park],” he said. “They are a really good side, but we have full confidence in our squad and we trust ourselves.

“It is going to be another battle there. We know how difficult it is to play there. But, as I said, we have an amazing team and we trust ourselves. We are going to go there to win the game.

“We know our qualities. It is not because we lost 2-0 here in the last game, we are going to go there just to play now.

“We are going to go there to win the game and to score three, four, five. Let’s see, the game is going to be really hard, for sure. But we are going to try our best to win the game.”

Arsenal demolished City at the Emirates Stadium thanks to a second-half blitz, which saw them score four goals in just 37 minutes. Before that, the game had been finely balanced after Erling Haaland had cancelled out Martin Odegaard’s opener.

Arsenal responded in emphatic fashion to Haaland’s equaliser early in the second half, however, with Thomas Partey, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Kai Havertz and Ethan Nwaneri all getting in on the act.

“I mean we did brilliant, not just in the second half,” said Martinelli. “I think we had an amazing first half as well. I think we deserved the win and we did really well.

“We are really happy with the performance as well. We still have a long journey to go, many games to go, so we are going to try to do our best to win the league.

“We know our qualities, the team that we have. Even though we have some players injured, we know the quality we have in the team and we are trying our best for the club, for the players that are injured as well and for the fans.”

Sunday’s game was the latest instalment in the brewing rivalry between Arsenal and City, with the match full of needle.

Lewis-Skelly’s celebration summed up the back and forth between the two sides, with the 18-year-old mimicking Haaland’s signature meditation pose after scoring to make it 3-1.

“I don’t know [if it was planned], you have to ask him,” said Martinelli. “But, for sure, he respects Erling a lot.

“We are really happy with him, he scored an amazing goal. He has been brilliant recently and we are happy for him.

“That (Arsenal and City’s rivalry) is two teams that want to win the championship, so that’s a fight. We tried our best, they tried their best as well.

“We have to win duels to win these games and that’s why the game becomes hard work. We did well today, we are really happy with the result.”