What Ian Wright was 'screaming' about Gabriel Martinelli during Arsenal Carabao Cup loss

Ian Wright was furiously demanding Mikel Arteta to make an Arsenal change during the Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City

Micah Richards has revealed that Ian Wright was screaming for Gabriel Martinelli to come on after Manchester City's quickfire double in the Carabao Cup final. Arsenal conceded two Nico O'Reilly goals in four minutes with Wright animated for Mikel Arteta to make a particular decision, as revealed by Richards.

He said on Sky Sports: "I think it all fell down for Arsenal in the first half, I thought in the first 20 minutes they knew exactly what they needed to do in terms of their press. In that second half they did what Arsenal have been doing in recent weeks and going really low.

"Then, you allow Man City to get on the ball and be confident and they just couldn't get out. Wrighty was screaming up there, saying 'where's Martinelli? Get him on, they need an out'. Gyokeres, good running power in that first half but in that second half they just couldn't get out."

Wright himself analysed the display of his former club with a clear verdict delivered on Kepa Arrizabalaga after the mistake that led to City's first goal.

He said: "Man City went into a 4-2-4, they pressed us high, we knocked it long, we couldn't hold it.We didn't have any midfielders - [Martin] Zubimendi's numbers will be interesting to see, I don't think he held onto the ball. We couldn't get on it [the ball] to get our team playing, we couldn't get out. It all just fell in ourselves.

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"The goalkeeper's mistake handed it to them a bit. It's a very disappointing one. We've got to front up and say 'OK, we'll go again', but it was a poor performance for me."

Wright also added: "Everyone's been knocking City this season, they've not been quite the same, but what they've shown again in a final is what they're capable of doing.

"They win big games. They controlled it, but we made it too easy for them to control it. Too many people had bad games for us. The fact is it's a final and a mistake from the second goalkeeper has cost us.

"They scored soon after that, and we lost our way in the game before we could get the subs on."

On the lack of mentality shown, he admitted: "For them to come out and play this poorly in a game of this magnitude for Arsenal, people will ask questions. But Arsenal's project is about trying to win that league, so this might be the catalyst to make them understand, 'we can do this'.

"We won't be playing with Kepa in goal, we'll probably have [Eberechi] Eze back, we might have [Martin] Odegaard back, so it's a different team that's going to be out there.

"But the mentality has to be much better than it was today - we can't play for 15 minutes then clock off because we can't break them down."