Jamie Carragher Mikel Arteta’s decision to play Kepa Arrizabalaga ahead of David Raya in Arsenal’s Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City.
Arrizabalaga has featured for Arsenal in their domestic cup competitions this season and Arteta continued to put his faith in the former Chelsea goalkeeper for Sunday’s final at Wembley.
But the decision backfired on Arteta, who watched on as Arrizabalaga made a terrible error to gift Nico O’Reilly an opening goal on the hour mark.
Arsenal were marginally the better side in the first half and almost went ahead through Kai Havertz who was denied by Man City back-up goalkeeper James Trafford.
But Pep Guardiola’s side took control in the second half and O’Reilly scored two goals in four minutes to leave the Premier League leaders stunned.
Carragher described Arrizabalaga’s mistake as an ‘absolute shocker’ and criticised Arteta’s decision not to play first-choice goalkeeper Raya in the final.
“The goalkeeper has had an absolute shocker as he has done in another couple of cup finals,” Liverpool legend and ex-England defender Carragher told Sky Sports (via 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.
“But Mikel Arteta does not owe Kepa anything, he owes Arsenal fans the best possible chance of winning a 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. 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.
“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.”
