Arsenal were well beaten by Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final, but upon seeing the two teams’ starting XI, Alan Shearer thought things would be the other way around.
Mikel Arteta is getting a lot of backlash after the Carabao Cup final, and rightly so, as the Arsenal manager did not select his best XI when long-overdue silverware was on the line.
The decision to start Kepa Arrizabalaga was a disaster, but Arsenal’s failures at Wembley did not begin and end with the goalkeeper situation.
In attack, the Gunners offered next to nothing, which was completely unacceptable as before kick-off, Arteta was aware that Pep Guardiola’s back four was an area for Arsenal to target.
It wasn’t only Arteta who would’ve been aware of this, as Alan Shearer thought the same.
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Alan Shearer thought Arsenal would expose Manchester City’s defence in the Carabao Cup final
Speaking after the game on The Rest Is Football podcast, Shearer admitted that he fancied Arsenal to win after seeing Man City’s starting defence.
“I must admit, I thought when I saw that back four of Man City, I thought Arsenal have got a chance here,” the pundit said.
With Ruben Dias out and Marc Guehi ineligible to play, Guardiola selected a back four of Matheus Nunes, Abdukodir Khusanov, Nathan Ake and Nico O’Reilly.
The eyes of Arsenal’s attackers should have lit up, but instead, it was Man City’s makeshift backline that got excited.
Shearer added that after his initial doubts about Man City’s defence, they ‘didn’t give them [Arsenal] many chances’, which was correct.
Arsenal had a disaster in attack against Man City
In a cup final for the first time since 2020, against their biggest rivals, Arsenal failed to get motivated going forward.
Ending the game having recorded and missed three big chances on goal, the Gunners’ attack did the opposite of what Shearer thought they would.
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It wasn’t only in front of goal that Arsenal failed to impose themselves, as their build-up play was horrendous.
On X, journalist James Benge noted that it took Arsenal 26 minutes of the second half to complete a single progressive pass, emphasising how stale Arteta’s attacking tactics were.
Not taking chances was one error, but failing to create many more was the final nail in the coffin, as when Man City tried and tried again, Arsenal were stuck in one dimension.
It was a terrible attacking display from Arsenal, perhaps the worst of the season so far, which was doubly alarming given that it was a cup final.
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