The Newcastle United player who got the biggest cheer from Arsenal fans – it’s not Alexander Isak

Add as preferred source on Google

It’s no surprise that Arsenal fans were excited to see Alexander Isak at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday.

Newcastle can go into the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final with their heads held high after scoring twice at the Emirates.

Alexander Isak opened the scoring after 37 minutes, his 50th goal for Newcastle and 15th of the season. Anthony Gordon doubled the Magpies lead six minutes into the second half.

Eddie Howe will be delighted with his team’s performance, he chose not to sit back and weathered a difficult spell in the first half to give them a huge advantage going into the next leg at St James’ Park.

The Magpies were also without Bruno Guimaraes and Fabian Schar, but in the end, it didn’t matter as Sven Botman looked like he hadn’t missed a beat upon his return to Newcastle’s first team squad and Joe Willock’s calm performance helped in midfield.

Goalkeeper Martin Dubravka seemingly waved goodbye to Newcastle fans at full-time. Dubravka is set to join Al-Shabab in the coming days.

However, it was something that Arsenal fans did before the game that grabbed people’s attention.

Arsenal fans give Joe Willock a warm welcome

Willock joined Newcastle from Arsenal in 2021 following a successful loan spell at the Magpies the season before. Despite his injuries, he has become a consistent appearance-maker under Howe.

A video captured by Craig Hope showed the Newcastle players arriving at the Emirates ahead of the game. Isak was given applause from a few fans, with one saying “Welcome home” to the Swede.

When Willock walked through he received a much bigger ovation from the fans of his former club – once again, one fan welcomed him “home”.

Willock played 65 minutes in the win, he had a quiet game with just 21 touches. Despite that, he still completed eight passes, three recoveries, an interception and a block.

Howe breaks unwanted Arsenal record

There will be more delight for Howe who before Tuesday’s game, had never won a game at the Emirates, for Newcastle or Bournemouth.

His previous best result was a 0-0 draw back in 2022.

It’s also Newcastle’s first win away at Arsenal since November 2010 – snapping a run of 13 games without a win.

Howe must now regroup and focus on the third round of the FA Cup – they welcome League Two side Bromley to St James’ Park on Sunday.