Kepa Arrizabalaga’s selection wasn’t the only Carabao Cup final call that Mikel Arteta got wrong, as Micah Richards saw an error the Arsenal manager made with Piero Hincapie.
Arsenal fell at the first silverware hurdle of the season, losing 2-0 to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley.
Arsenal really struggled against Man City, giving Arteta a warning ahead of the blockbuster clash at the Etihad next month.
When the Premier League title is on the line, Arsenal simply must do better than they did at Wembley; that doesn’t just apply to those on the pitch, but also to the manager.
Kepa Arrizabalaga’s mistake will be the main talking point, but it was another decision that the Arsenal boss made in the game that stunned pundits.
Arsenal fans, what is the biggest mistake Mikel Arteta made in the Carabao Cup final?
Micah Richards says not taking off Piero Hincapie was a mistake by Mikel Arteta in the Carabao Cup final
On Sky Sports, Jamie Redknapp was shocked by how long it took Arteta to make changes, referencing the left side of the attack.
Later, on The Rest Is Football podcast, Micah Richards spoke about other changes that Arteta needed to make to the left, this time, focusing on Piero Hincapie.
Hincapie was run ragged by Antoine Semenyo, and the call for him to leave was made when the Ecuadorian was booked in only the 16th minute.
Once the left-back was shown a yellow card, Richards saw his game completely change.
“I’ve been in that position, when you have a yellow card as a defender, you take away all your attributes,” Richards explained.
“Hincapie, his attributes, he reads the game well, he’s aggressive, but he gets out to people quickly, and for the goal, I think, if he hadn’t been on a yellow card, he would have gone to the ball.”
AGREE or DISAGREE: Mikel Arteta was WRONG to start Piero Hincapie vs Man City?
In the pundits’ eyes, Man City’s opener could have been avoided had Arteta pulled the plug on Hincapie’s afternoon sooner.
“That’s where I think Arteta got it wrong in the game, when you’ve got left-backs on the bench, you have to use them.”
From the opening 20 minutes, it was clearer than ever that Semenyo was having a field day against Hincapie, but the summer signing did not come off until after the hour mark.
It was one of many questionable decisions Arteta made during the cup final, but as Richards suggested, it was one of the easiest to resolve, as Riccardo Calafiori and Myles Lewis-Skelly were on the bench.
Arteta has done a remarkable job thus far this season, but it has to be said, in the Carabao Cup final, he got a lot wrong.
From how Arsenal set up in attack, to starting Kepa, to the timings and selections of his substitutions, it was an outing that the Spaniard needs to learn from quickly.
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