[HELP] Removing old links that lead to 404 from google search results

Basically the title but here's some context.

Managing the SEO part of a site I found out that there are a lot of old links, of the old sitemap probably, that just lead to 404, even though it's been months since the sitemap has changed and has been sent to google, those old links still show up in search results.

What I need to do is to make sure no old links that lead to 404 show up in google search results and that the only links that show are the new ones.

Bonus: this would be a grey hat maneuver but I don't know if it's even possible: is there a way to make it so that if people click on old links they get redirected to home instead of the 404, but leaving the 404 still working the same. Just an idea to exploit the efficiency of the old links, but probably not possible.

Thanks in advance for any help on this matter

submitted by /u/IB8E
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