Manchester City will face Arsenal in the League Cup final after ending Newcastle’s reign as holders with a first-half blitz in their 3-1 victory on Wednesday.

Pep Guardiola’s side were already in pole position after winning the semi-final first leg on Tyneside in January and they finished the job in ruthless fashion at the Etihad Stadium.

Omar Marmoush struck twice in the first half of the second leg before Tijjani Reijnders put the result beyond doubt.

Anthony Elanga reduced the deficit after the interval, but City’s 5-1 aggregate win sent them back to the League Cup showpiece for the first time since 2021.

City’s final date with Arsenal is set for March 22 at Wembley after the Premier League leaders knocked out Chelsea on Tuesday.

Reaching the final was a welcome tonic for Guardiola following the frustration of blowing a two-goal lead in a 2-2 draw at Tottenham on Sunday that delivered a major blow to their title challenge.

With a crucial trip to Liverpool looming this weekend, City trail Arsenal by six points in the Premier League title race.

The League Cup was the first silverware of Guardiola’s City reign when they beat Arsenal in the 2018 final, with current Gunners boss Mikel Arteta then working as the Spaniard’s assistant.

City went on to win the competition for the following three years, but haven’t lifted the League Cup since 2021.

“We will travel to London again, they will wait for us there. They never travel to the north (for finals) but I am really happy to be back. Five (League Cup) finals in 10 years is a big milestone,” Guardiola said.

“It will be good. You have to live this experience. The first title we won here was in the League Cup.

“When you win something, it helps to win more. It’s a pleasure to play against Arsenal, the best team right now in Europe and maybe the world.”

Newcastle boss Eddie Howe added: “Really annoyed with the first half display. We pride ourselves on being really organised and tactically we want to be able to handle any problem the opposition gives us.

“That first half we weren’t good enough individually and our duels were off and it gave us huge problems.”

Guardiola used sarcasm and statistics this week to defend City against claims the club’s success has been due to the financial muscle of their Abu Dhabi-based owners.

The City manager pointed out six English clubs have spent more than his side over the past five years, but he knows he will never win over the critics.

Slick City

Guardiola’s only way to silence the outside noise — and mounting suggestions that City are a team in decline — is with silverware.

And after finishing last season without a trophy for the first time in eight years, Guardiola would love to end City’s barren spell at Arsenal’s expense.

Marmoush put City ahead with a stroke of luck in the seventh minute.

He raced into the Newcastle penalty area and when Dan Burn made a last-ditch tackle, the ball bounced off the Egypt forward and looped into the net.

James Trafford preserved City’s lead, saving from Joe Willock and Anthony Gordon in quick succession.

Marmoush struck for the second time in the 29th minute, heading home from virtually on the goal-line after Kieran Trippier made a hash of clearing Antoine Semenyo’s cross.

That was the culmination of an incisive City counter-attack and they pulled Newcastle apart again with another rapid raid in the 32nd minute.

Reijnders led the break, picking out Semenyo and racing into the area to finish the Ghanaian’s return pass with a clinical low drive from 12 yards.

City barely got out of first gear in the second half and Elanga got one back in the 62nd minute, curling into the far corner after slaloming through the defence.

Penn State forward Gavin McKenna, the consensus first overall pick in this June’s NHL draft, has been charged with felony aggravated assault and other counts, according to Pennsylvania Magisterial District Court documents.

McKenna, an 18-year-old native of Canada, was charged with first-degree felony aggravated assault, which is defined as “attempts to cause serious bodily injury or causes injury with extreme indifference”; misdemeanor simple assault; and two summary counts of disorderly conduct for harassment and engaging in a fight.

The maximum penalty for first-degree felony aggravated assault in Pennsylvania is 20 years in prison and/or a $25,000 fine.

According to the State College Police Department, McKenna’s charges are the result of an altercation that occurred in State College at about 8:45 p.m. on Jan. 31. Police said McKenna allegedly struck a 21-year-old male in the face, resulting in facial injuries that required surgery.

McKenna was arraigned on the charges and released on $20,000 bail. A preliminary hearing for the case is scheduled for Feb. 11 at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.

The alleged incidents happened on the same day that an NCAA outdoor hockey game at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium drew 74,575 fans. The Nittany Lions lost to Michigan State 5-4 in overtime. McKenna had a goal and two assists. He has 32 points (11 goals, 21 assists) in 24 games with Penn State this season.

NHL Central Scouting ranks McKenna first among all North American skaters. The NHL told ESPN it is aware of the charges against McKenna but offered no comment, as he’s not currently a player in the league.

Penn State issued a statement saying it was aware of the charges.

“We are aware that charges have been filed; however, as this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not have any further comment,” the statement said.

McKenna stunned the hockey world last year by opting to leave Canadian junior hockey for Penn State’s men’s hockey program. In 2024, the NCAA ruled that Canadian junior players were now eligible to play on Division I teams, ending a decades-old policy that made young athletes choose between the Canadian Hockey League and college hockey.

McKenna was one of the first Canadian junior players to make the jump to the NCAA. His NIL money for attending Penn State is “in the ballpark” of $700,000, a source told ESPN at the time.

The Maryland Freedom Caucus, a group of GOP delegates in the Maryland state legislature, made a post on social media showing a sign that appeared to have been hung by Democrat colleagues, dismissing concerns over trans athletes in women’s sports. 

The post claimed the sign was hung Wednesday, which was National Girls & Women in Sports Day. 

The sign, which has a signature from the Maryland Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus, was hung on the offices of Democrat state delegates Eric Ebersole and Nick Allen.

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Ebersole and Allen provided a joint statement to Fox News Digital addressing the sign. 

“As proud allies, we support the LGBTQ+ Caucus and its work to fight discrimination and counter the rampant misinformation targeting the transgender community. Our office is next door to that of our friend, colleague, and Chair of the LGBTQ+ Caucus, and it will always be a safe space. At a time when adults, especially those in positions of power, feel compelled to publicly bully trans kids, we choose to stand with the LGBTQ+ community today and always,” the statement read. 

The sign makes the claim that “trans women have no competitive advantage” in women’s sports. 

In 2021, the British Journal of Sports Medicine published a study that said transgender women maintain an advantage over biological women even after a year of hormone therapy treatment.

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The sign also went on to state, “anti-dignity policies put transgender youth at risk,” “banning transgender youth is illegal” and “invasive enforcement creates fear.” 

This all happened a day before the Maryland state legislature is scheduled to vote on the Fairness in Girls’ Sports Act.

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The bill would require “certain interscholastic and intramural junior varsity and varsity athletic teams or sports sponsored by certain schools and certain locker rooms to be expressly designated based on biological sex; prohibiting certain entities from taking certain adverse actions against a school for maintaining separate interscholastic and intramural junior varsity and varsity athletic teams or sports or locker rooms for students of the female sex.” 

So far, 27 states in the U.S. have similar laws in effect that enforce bans on trans athletes in girls sports. 

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