Arsenal were the narrow favourites going into the 2025/26 League Cup final against Manchester City, however Arsenal were without key players, with the Gunners missing Jurriën Timber, Mikel Merino, Eberechi Eze, and Martin Ødegaard. However, Manchester City were also missing players, especially in defence, yet defeated Arsenal 2-0 to lift the trophy. What went wrong for Arsenal and what impact could it have on the remainder of their season?
Costly Goalkeeping Call
It is never nice to place the blame for a defeat on the shoulders of one player but there is no doubt the error made by Arsenal goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga, was significant. Arsenal were coming under a lot of pressure from Manchester City early in the second half and the Gunners needed calm and controlled heads at the back. Unfortunately, Kepa made an error when dealing with what should have been an easy cross and allowed Manchester City to take the lead.
Kepa played in every match of the League Cup for Arsenal this season and Mikel Arteta said it would have been “very unfair” to drop the Spanish international for the final. However, Kepa has history in the League Cup final having missed a penalty in 2022 and refused to be substituted in 2019, both while playing for Chelsea. Each of the two games ended in defeat for Kepa meaning he has lost all three of his League Cup final appearances.
Regular first choice goalkeeper, David Raya, has 15 clean sheets in the Premier League this season. Raya has also made some big saves throughout the campaign and is unlikely to have made the same error in the League Cup final. Anyone using free bets to back Arsenal to win the Premier League will be happy to see Raya return to the starting XI for their next match.
Too Slow to Respond
Manchester City started to dominate towards the end of the first half and that continued into the second period. Arteta failed to react and allowed Manchester City to pile on the pressure in the first 15 minutes of the second half, and they conceded the opening goal in the 60th minute. Arteta then started to look towards his bench, but it was too late and Arsenal conceded a second goal before he could make any changes. If the Spaniard had adjusted at half-time or after the first few minutes of the second half, when it was clear Manchester City were continuing to dominate, the outcome of the match could have been different.
Lack of Belief
Having conceded the second goal, there seemed like no real belief from Arsenal that they could get back into the match. Arsenal had an expected goals of just 0.17 in the second half and that is not good enough, especially when chasing the game. Arsenal fans will be hoping their team can recover from this setback considering the huge games on the horizon.
Arsenal cannot afford to give Manchester City any encouragement in the title race and must put the League Cup final down as a one-off game that does not reflect their overall play this season. If they can bounce back with a convincing victory in the Premier League, Arsenal can achieve great things and go on to win the title.