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Arsenal lost the Carabao Cup final after Pep Guardiola outsmarted Mikel Arteta who failed to come up with the answer
If you want to never feel like this again, then for each of the remaining matches this season Arsenal need to be much, much better. The performance will no doubt spark anger, frustration and concern for what remains, and rightly so.
But this team has, of course, shown great responses already after difficult results. Putting that aside however, for now, let’s dig in to what cost the Gunners a first League Cup trophy in 33 years.
Naturally, the eye is drawn to the big mistake from Kepa Arrizabalaga. The Spaniard made a third League Cup final appearance, in which he has provoked headlines.
Firstly, for refusing to come off in 2019 and then losing on penalties for Chelsea, before in 2022 he blasted his own penalty over the crossbar, the Blues losing to Liverpool. This time, after a cross from Antoine Semenyo was hung up, Kepa let the ball slip between his hands, and worse, slowed its trajectory for Nico O’Reilly to head City in front.
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Should Kepa have started this game? Well, with the benefit of hindsight, it would be easy to say, No!’
However, I would suggest that I did pick David Raya for my desired line-up pre-match. Yet, in all honesty, this doesn’t really matter in the broader context because with or without the mistake from Kepa, I believe Arsenal lose this game.
Pep Guardiola also selected his number two, and won the match. Granted, James Trafford is a £27million goalkeeper and of a higher level, but even then the mistake, I would argue, is not the story of this final.
After a first half in which Arsenal were, for me, the better side, creating the big chances and limiting Man City to very little, it was in the second half is where the game swung. By the time Kepa was watching the ball slip through his fingers, City had already asserted themselves and were peppering the Gunners’ box with chances – the goal was coming.
Some have criticised Mikel Arteta for not making changes, but as the second goal went in after some poor defending from Piero Hincapie and Bukayo Saka, both losing their men, Noni Madueke and Riccardo Calafiori were on the sidelines waiting to come on.
Guardiola beat this Arsenal team with a really simple tactic that any alert coach will look at and think, ‘We could do that!’ Both Rayan Cherki and Erling Haaland were pushing high up the field and onto Martin Zubimendi.
Kepa, William Saliba and Gabriel were looking around often for options that didn’t emerge. Timber was greatly missed as was a creative presence like Martin Odegaard or Eberechi Eze, a player who would drop in.
Declan Rice sadly didn’t and struck an isolated figure trying to turn over possession more than he received it in the second half. Perhaps this was best represented by the stat, which detailed that Arsenal didn’t play a progressive pass that advanced the ball more than ten yards from beyond the 40-yard line in the Gunners’ half until the 71st minute.
By this point, they were two goals down and effectively out of the game. Post-match, Arteta appeared to indicate that Eberechi Eze’s issue was worse than first feared and would undergo a scan in “six or seven days”; this is usually the case when there is too much swelling in an area to determine the severity, but the calf issue that he has suffered is still unknown in its severity.
Ultimately, Man City’s experience and press is what won them this game. Arsenal now need to lick their wounds and I for one am glad there is an FA Cup game and a Champions League match before the next league game at home to Bournemouth.
The international break is typically unwanted, especially after a defeat, but with Eze injured, players like Odegaard and Timber fighting to return, this break looks more forgiving than it would otherwise be.
The worry is the mental blow that could fester negatively within both the players and, of course, the fans. This fortnight will be far from fun, but it is one which hopefully can add some perspective to what we hope can still become an extremely successful season.
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