The 2025–26 Carabao Cup semi‑finals delivered another dramatic pair of first‑leg encounters, featuring high‑intensity performances, landmark achievements, and significant historical feats across both ties.

Manchester City maintained their formidable knockout pedigree with a commanding away victory at St. James’ Park, while Arsenal and Chelsea produced a goal‑laden classic at Stamford Bridge.

This stat pack brings together the standout numbers, milestones and historical context from both fixtures as the four remaining sides battle for a place at Wembley.

Historical & Competition Context

This marked the 33rd time the away side has won the first leg of a two‑legged Carabao Cup Semi‑Final.
- Teams winning away in the first leg have progressed 30 of the previous 32 times, including the last 19 consecutive such instances since 1986–87, when Spurs went out to Arsenal despite a 1–0 win at Highbury.

Manchester City

City have won the first leg in each of their last four two‑legged Carabao Cup semi-finals.
They have failed to reach the final only once in the six previous instances of winning a semi-final first leg—losing to Manchester United in 2009–10.
Pep Guardiola’s team extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 13 matches (W10 D3) and have won five of their last six away games (D1).
Antoine Semenyo is the first City player to score in his first two appearances since Emmanuel Adebayor in 2009.
Rayan Cherki is only the third Manchester City player to score in each of his first three Carabao Cup appearances in the Premier League era, after Yaya Touré and Kevin De Bruyne.
Nico O’Reilly made his 50th appearance for the club at 20 years and 298 days, the fourth‑youngest player to reach that total under Guardiola in top‑flight management.

Newcastle United

Newcastle’s loss ended a nine‑game winning streak in the Carabao Cup and their 13‑match unbeaten run at St. James’ Park, dating back to September.
Under Eddie Howe, Newcastle have been beaten by Manchester City eight times in 12 meetings (W2 D2), their joint-most defeats versus any opponent in that period (also eight vs Liverpool).

Arsenal

Arsenal won only their second semi-final under Mikel Arteta, ending a run of eight without victory (D2 L6).
This match was the first Carabao Cup semi-final in which both sides scored twice or more since Bristol City 2–3 Manchester City (2017–18) and the first first‑leg tie with that feat since Spurs 2–2 Arsenal (2006–07).
The Gunners have scored 18 goals from corners this season—more than any Premier League club, and seven in their last seven matches.
Arteta is the first manager in history to go eight straight away games unbeaten at Chelsea (W4 D4).
Viktor Gyökeres, now on eight goals, has scored in three competitions during his debut season (Premier League, Champions League, Carabao Cup)—the first Arsenal player to do so since Martinelli and Pépé in 2019–20.
Ben White scored his first goal since April 2024, also against Chelsea.
Bukayo Saka (24y 131d) became the seventh‑youngest player to reach 250 starts for a Premier League club, and the youngest since Raheem Sterling in 2019.

Chelsea

Liam Rosenior is the seventh consecutive Chelsea manager to fail to win his first home match (D5 L2).
The last to do so was Maurizio Sarri in 2018.
Alejandro Garnacho has scored five goals as a substitute—more than any other Premier League player this season.
He netted braces from the bench both in tonight’s semi-final and in the previous round vs Cardiff.
Garnacho is the first Premier League player to score a brace in both a Carabao Cup quarter-final and semi-final in the same campaign since Edin Džeko (2013–14).

Carabao Cup Semi-Final first leg post match stat pack

Carabao Cup Semi-Final first leg post match stat pack