It wasn’t meant to be for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal on Sunday as Manchester City ran out victors in the Carabao Cup final with Pep Guardiola’s men picking up the first trophy on offer in the 2025/26 season.
For the Gunners, the focus is now shifted onto winning at least one of the three competitions – the Premier League, the Champions League and the FA Cup – that they are still in.
Losing at Wembley will have crushed their confidence, of course, but Arteta’s men have no time to wilt.
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A trip to Southampton in the FA Cup is next on the agenda for the north Londoners before they travel to Portugal to face Sporting CP in the Champions League – but it’s likely that one player, labelled ‘not good enough’ by Jamie Carragher, will not be featuring any time soon.
How the Carabao Cup final unfolded
In fairness, there were very few Arsenal players who showered themselves in glory on Sunday afternoon. Piero Hincapie, Leandro Trossard and Martin Zubimendi were among those who struggled.
Nico O’Reilly opened the scoring on the hour mark, latching onto a ball dropped by Kepa Arrizabalaga before the 21-year-old doubled his side’s lead just four minutes later.
The Gunners were unable to unlock a rather inexperience yet stubborn City defence – and Guardiola’s men enjoyed the lion’s share of possession (63%) in the second half as they controlled the tempo with ease.
Jamie Carragher labels Arsenal star ‘not good enough’ after cup final defeat
The likes of Hincapie, Trossard and Zubimendi aside, Carragher feels like starting Kepa over David Raya was a grave error. “The goalkeeper has had an absolute shocker as he has done in another couple of cup finals,” he said, per The Metro.
“When we first saw the goal I said, ‘I feel sorry for the lad’, because everyone knows what he’s been through in the previous finals with Chelsea.
“But I do have strong views on the goalkeeper situation and I don’t like it even though I can understand it in some situations.
“The goalkeeper comes to the club because he knows he’s second-choice. Yes he can play through the rounds but when it comes to the final that has to change, for me, because they haven’t won enough trophies and this team need to get over the line.
“Mikel Arteta owes it to the supporters more than he owes it to Kepa. The difference with Man City is Pep Guardiola does owe James Trafford.
| Arsenal appearances | 10 |
| Minutes | 897 |
| Goals conceded | 9 |
| Clean sheets | 4 |
| Yellow cards | 3 |
“He brought Trafford in last summer to be the No. 1, didn’t think he was good enough and then signed Donnarumma which wasn’t easy for the lad. Also they’ve won four of these cups so the pressure on Man City today was not the same as Arsenal.
“People might mention [Caoimhin] Kelleher at Liverpool as well but the reason he got so many opportunities and started finals was Liverpool were desperate to keep him, they didn’t want to lose him.
“That’s not the case with Kepa, he signed knowing he would be second-choice and he’s not good enough for the top level, we saw that at Chelsea.”
Arteta has ‘no regrets’ over his team selection
Although the ten other players were not on hand to bail the Spanish shot stopper out, it’s clear to see they were put on the back foot by virtue of his error. Arteta, though, stood by his decision to start him over Raya.
“I would do it again,” he said in his post-match press conference. “Kepa deserved to play this game and has been phenomenal for us. Errors are part of football and anyone can make them.
“It’s painful when you get to a final and you have that will to win the first trophy of a season after eight months working on it, it is always tough.”
Whether Raya will regain his spot in between the sticks when they face Southampton on away soil. Interestingly, Kepa started in Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Mansfield Town and Arteta may feel inclined to stick ot his guns once again.
