**While Newcastle United were not involved in the FA Cup fixtures this weekend, they did have some interest in the outcome of at least one game.**
Arsenal were at St Mary’s on Saturday to take on Championship side Southampton for a place in the semi-finals.
The semi-final fixtures are set to take place on the weekend of 25th April, which is when the Magpies were due to face the Gunners.
Therefore, had [Mikel Arteta](https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2025/05/18/mikel-arteta-on-newcastle-and-remarkable-eddie-howe-ahead-of-arsenal-clasho/)‘s side progressed in the competition, that fixture would have been moved to accommodate, which would have ruined Newcastle’s run-in without a midweek fixture.
After playing a game every three or four days for the majority of the season, we were looking forward to seeing how this side would fare playing one game a week with actual time to train and work on strategy through the week.
Thankfully, Arsenal did what Arsenal do and bottled the job when getting within touching distance, falling to a 2-1 defeat to Southampton.
It was a big day in the FA Cup, with Liverpool now reportedly considering Arne Slot’s future after falling to a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester City. A game in which Mo Salah may have announced to the world that he’s simply given up.
Elsewhere, Port Vale’s run came to an abrupt end thanks to a 7-0 battering from Chelsea.
Relegation battlers West Ham and Leeds face each other today to fill the last semi-final slot. We’re not sure which, if a Wembley trip is what either side really needs when Premier League points should be their real focus right now, but it could be an interesting game anyway.
Thanks to Southampton, Newcastle’s run-in remains one game a week, which is great news.
Seeing how vulnerable Liverpool and Arsenal are also gives us a bit of hope that anything could happen. We’re obviously not going to catch Arsenal, but that seven-point gap to Liverpool doesn’t look so insurmountable right now after that performance yesterday.
Are we grasping at straws here? Absolutely. But we’ve been starved of meaningful football and still have another week to wait. Let us have this.