Jamie Carragher has expressed his disapproval of Mikel Arteta’s choice to stick with Kepa Arrizabalaga for the Carabao Cup final, following a significant blunder by Arsenal’s backup goalkeeper in their loss against Manchester City.
During the match at Wembley, Kepa failed to secure a cross from Rayan Cherki, leading to Nico O’Reilly scoring for Manchester City at the 60-minute mark.
Merely four minutes later, O’Reilly struck again with a header, solidifying Manchester City’s 2-0 victory and claiming the season’s first piece of domestic silverware under Pep Guardiola’s guidance.
Arteta had decided to continue with the 30-year-old Kepa, who had been pivotal throughout Arsenal’s journey to the final.
On Sky Sports, former Liverpool stalwart Jamie Carragher criticized Arteta’s decision, suggesting that choosing Raya instead could have ended Arsenal’s nearly six-year wait for a trophy.
Jamie Carragher has criticised Mikel Arteta’s decision to keep faith with Kepa Arrizabalaga for the Carabao Cup final following his costly error for Man City’s opener at Wembley
“I have strong opinions about using the second-choice goalkeeper. I’m not a fan, although I can see the reasoning in certain scenarios,” Carragher commented.
‘But Mikel Arteta does not owe Kepa anything, he owes Arsenal supporters the best possible chance of winning the first trophy in six years – they’ve won one trophy in nine years.
‘The goalkeeper comes to the club because he knows he’s second choice. He can play through the rounds, but once you get to the final, it has to change for me because they haven’t won enough trophies and they need to get over the line.
‘He owes it to the supporters more than Kepa.’
Kepa was not the only second choice goalkeeper to start at Wembley, with Pep Guardiola keeping faith with James Trafford in the competition.
Trafford, who started ahead of Gianluigi Donnarumma, made a fine triple save to deny Arsenal in the early stages of the match.
Carragher insisted there was a difference between the selections of Kepa and Trafford, with the pundit declaring that Guardiola ‘owed’ the latter a start in the final.
‘People might say to me about Man City, but he [Guardiola] does owe Trafford,’ Carragher continued.
Carragher stressed Pep Guardiola’s decision to select James Trafford was different due to the Man City boss ‘owing’ his second choice goalkeeper
‘He bought him in at the start of the season to be the No 1, didn’t think he was good enough and then bought Donnarumma in. Also, they’ve won four of them, the pressure on Man City to win another Carabao Cup is not the same.
‘Maybe there is another flip and people might say Kelleher at Liverpool. The reason he got so many opportunities to play in finals is because Liverpool were desperate to keep him, they did not want to lose him.
‘That is not the point with Kepa, he was signed as a No 2 and he’s not good enough at the top level – we’ve seen that at Chelsea.
‘David Raya is not just the first choice goalkeeper, we’re arguably talking about Arsenal’s best player this season, so it’s not just changing No 1 for No 2, it’s changing one of your best players when you haven’t got a history of winning with this team.’
Arteta had insisted that he had not promised Kepa that he would start in cup competitions.
The Arsenal boss said the Spaniard had earned his place for his performances leading up to the final.
‘I believe it was the right thing to do and that’s it,’ Arteta said post-match. ‘Errors are part of football and today it unfortunately happened in a crucial moment.’
‘I have to do what I feel is right, which is honest and which is fair. We have an understanding with Kepa. He’s played all the competition so far, and it would have been very, very unfair for him and for the team to do something different.
‘I can never promise a player to play certain competitions because at the end they have to earn it. We are guided by what we’ve seen and what he’s done, and what he has done in this competition is to help us to go all the way through (to the final).
‘I believe it was the right thing to do and that’s it. Errors are part of football and today it unfortunately happened in a crucial moment.’
