2 Newcastle players suspended for Arsenal semi-final | OneFootball

Arsenal have drawn Newcastle United in the League Cup semi-final, but two of Eddie Howe’s starters will be suspended for the first leg at the Emirates Stadium.

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Following Tottenham Hotspur’s win over Manchester United on Thursday night, the League Cup semi-final draw pitted Arsenal against Newcastle United and Spurs against Liverpool.

With Arsenal coming out first in the draw, they’ll play the home leg of the semi-final first. Newcastle will visit the Emirates Stadium in the week of January 6th, though the exact day of the week is still to be confirmed.

The second leg will take place almost a month later in the week of February 3rd, and again, the exact date is yet to be finalised. But with Arsenal playing Manchester City the previous Sunday, you’d hope the match will be on the Wednesday, February 5th.

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There’s no doubt Arsenal are in for a tough semi-final, particularly given their recent hit-and-miss record against Newcastle. But the Gunners have been given a bit of a boost with the news that two of Eddie Howe’s starters are suspended for the first leg.

Bruno Guimaraes and Fabian Schar both picked up their second yellow cards of the tournament on Wednesday, earning one-game bans to be served in the semi-final first leg.

Unlike red-card suspensions, bans for accummulations of yellow cards are specific to the competition they were received in. Guimaraes and Schar will be available for Newcastle in the meantime, before serving their ban against Arsenal. They’ll then return in the second leg at St. James’ Park.

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Fortunately, Arsenal don’t have anyone in the same situation. Riccardo Calafiori and Myles Lewis-Skelly picked up one yellow card each across the three games, but nobody received a second.

The yellow card tally is now wiped ahead of the semi-final, so a further yellow for either player wouldn’t see them missing the second leg.

In fact, even a red card wouldn’t rule them out of the second leg, because the red-card ban would be served in the FA Cup and the Premier League in the month in between the games.

Should Arsenal defeat Newcastle, they’ll face either Tottenham Hotspur or Liverpool in the final.

There will be no yellow-card suspensions for that game on March 16th, even if a player is booked in both legs of the semi-final. A red-card ban would only potentially apply if an Arsenal player picked one up in the games in other domestic competitions leading up to the final.