Unimaginative Mikel Arteta has left Arsenal looking like a team without a Plan B

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta faces a battle to bounce back after getting his Carabao Cup team selection and tactics badly wrong and being easily out-thought by Pep Guardiola

The best pundits are the ones who call out a mistake before it happens, the ones who can clearly identify trouble ahead. And there were not many criticising Mikel Arteta ahead of the Carabao Cup final kicking off.

In fact, not many were criticising him before the Wembley clock ticked towards the hour mark and Kepa dropped his clanger. That both managers fielded their second-choice goalkeepers made it less of a pre-match talking point than if only one had done so.

James Trafford had an excellent game for Manchester City, Kepa had a shocker. Identical decisions, different outcomes. Only the decisions were not quite identical. And that is why the criticism of Arteta for choosing Kepa is justified, even if it is based mainly on hindsight.

Trafford was, essentially, bought - at a figure in excess of £30miliion - as a possible first-choice keeper at City. Kepa was bought strictly as relatively cheap back-up. A £5million number two.

To some extent, Guardiola must have felt compelled to show faith in Trafford. Arteta really had no sort of obligation to play Kepa.

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And it turned out to be a mistake not just because the Spaniard made a bad error, but also because Kepa had no meaningful connection to the outfield players. For the tactics chosen by Arteta at Wembley, he needed a keeper capable of imaginative, confident distribution.

And he should have known Kepa does not have that. The age he took rolling his foot over the ball early in the second half was a sign of the trouble to come.

Wrong selection, wrong tactics. Never mind how the Arsenal players react to the Carabao Cup final defeat, how will Arteta react? He now has the best part of a fortnight to reflect on being quite easily out-thought by Guardiola.

Basically, City had a bank of four attackers that did not press, making it difficult for Arsenal to move the ball from the back to the midfield. Pretty simple stuff. And Arteta was unable to react, unable to change his system when it was clear City were not going to get sucked in.

It was a bad day at the office for Kepa, it was a bad day at the office for most Arsenal players, but it was a worse one for Arteta. And make no mistake, the elite teams Arsenal face between now and the end of the season will use Pep’s blueprint.

Five of Arsenal’s remaining seven Premier League games are against teams in the bottom half of the table. They will still have enough to get over the line.

But potential FA Cup and Champions League opponents - not to mention those already scheduled - will have watched City’s approach with interest. Of course, Arteta cannot legislate for a good number of players not performing to anywhere near the levels they have reached this season.

They were laboured. They looked tired. But when City stood off - waiting to be gifted possession - Arsenal looked like a team that did not have a Plan B.

That is on the manager and his staff. That is on Arteta. And while it will be interesting to see how the players respond, the man who will need to bounce back most significantly is the manager himself.