· December 23 2024, 18:00
Newcastle United were drawn against Arsenal in the two-legged Carabao Cup semi-final after brushing aside Brentford last week.
The draw will see the Magpies travel to the Emirates on 7th January for the first leg with the return leg scheduled for February.
Newcastle will be without Fabian Schar and Bruno Guimaraes for the first leg as both will serve one-match suspensions for picking up two yellow cards in the competition.
However, Arsenal have their own issues with a couple of big stars already ruled out of the first-leg match through injury.
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Did anyone else forget that Raheem Sterling was even at Arsenal?
Bukayo Saka will miss the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg
Mikel Arteta has today confirmed via his pre-match press conference, that Bukayo Saka is likely to be out until after the first leg match after picking up a hamstring injury in the demolition of Crystal Palace at the weekend.
However, it's not just Saka who will be missing with Raheem Sterling also expected to be unavailable.
“It’s not looking good [for Saka]. Obviously, he’s a big player for us. You just have to see the impact that he has on the team, but it’s going to be a really good exercise for all of us to think about ways to overcome another challenge, because we’ve already had a lot in the season.”
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Sterling looks unlikely to be fit to face Newcastle
Arteta then added this about Raheem Sterling:
“He needs some further testing tomorrow to understand the extent of the injury. It’s his knee and we have to wait another 24 hours, but unfortunately, he’s going to be out for a while.”
A 'while' could mean anything but with the fixture only a couple of weeks away we'd be surprised to see Sterling feature.