Dropping Kepa Arrizabalaga for the Carabao Cup final would have been an utterly ruthless piece of management. It would have been cold, hard-headed and brutally pragmatic.
Which is why it seems odd that Mikel Arteta didn’t do it.
In his six-plus years in charge at Arsenal, Arteta has earned a reputation for making difficult decisions, seemingly able to put sentiment to one side.
So the decision to start Kepa ahead of first-choice David Raya against Manchester City at Wembley Stadium on Sunday was unusually sentimental.
Arteta didn’t pick Kepa because he believed he was the best goalkeeper for the job. He picked him to reward his contributions in the five previous games of Arsenal’s Carabao Cup campaign, and because he felt it was the honourable move.
“I have to do what I feel is right, which is honest and which is fair,” Arteta explained at his post-match press conference. “I think we have an understanding with Kepa, he’s played all the competition, and I think it would have been very, very unfair for him and for the team to do something different.”
Had Arsenal come through against City to lift the first silverware of the season, this decision would doubtless be hailed as smart management — a sign of Arteta’s maturation and increasingly nuanced leadership. The 43-year-old has spoken about how his evolution as a manager has seen him improve his grasp on the emotional aspects of the job, rather than purely the tactical and technical.
But Arsenal did not come through. They were beaten 2-0, with Kepa’s failure to secure Rayan Cherki’s cross gifting them the vital opening goal.
Kepa lets the ball slip through his hands before the first City goal (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
It’s important to state that this defeat was not solely decided by Arteta’s choice of goalkeeper. There were 10 other Arsenal players on that pitch, many of whom performed well below the expected level. City manager Pep Guardiola left out his first-choice goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and played backup James Trafford with no obvious ill effects.
In the second half, Arsenal were comprehensively out-thought and outplayed. But having Raya between the posts would surely have helped.
Despite his selection, Kepa may be glad to see the back of this competition for another season.
His three appearances in Carabao Cup finals have all been painfully dramatic.
First, in 2019, he refused to be substituted ahead of a penalty shootout, which he and Chelsea ultimately lost to City. Four years ago, he blasted his spot kick over the crossbar in another defeat, this one by Liverpool. And yesterday, his mistake allowed Nico O’Reilly to steal in for the simplest of goals on the hour.
O’Reilly sealed the victory with a second header into the Arsenal net four minutes later.
It doesn’t help that Kepa’s error came in an area of the job where Raya frequently excels: claiming crosses.
But there were other aspects in which the Spaniard, who has been in outstanding form this season, was missed.
Kepa was booked after racing out of his goal, misjudging a bouncing ball and holding back Jeremy Doku. Then there was the matter of playing through the press. Raya’s patience and accuracy in possession are critical to Arsenal’s build-up. His ability on the ball might have helped Arteta’s side pick their way through a suffocating City press.
Arteta’s faith in Kepa represents something of a departure.
In the 2021-22 season, he dropped Bernd Leno, who had played the previous three rounds, for then No 1 Aaron Ramsdale at the semi-final stage of this competition.
Arteta said starting Kepa was the right thing to do after he’d played in all four previous rounds (Getty Images)
He has been similarly ruthless with outfield players. Christian Norgaard played the full match in each of the first three rounds of this Carabao Cup campaign. He then found himself unceremoniously dropped for the semi-final first leg against Chelsea, and didn’t play a minute beyond that point.
Arteta has come to believe, perhaps, that goalkeepers are different.
Certainly, Arsenal have an unusual degree of depth in the position. Kepa is a 13-time Spain international who became the world’s most expensive goalkeeper when he joined Chelsea from Spain’s Athletic Club in summer 2018, and more recently started 31 Premier League matches for Bournemouth last season on loan from the west Londoners.
For a backup goalkeeper, starts in the cup competitions are precious. Unlike outfielders, they are highly unlikely to be deployed as a substitute — although, in another move motivated by sentiment, Arsenal’s third-choice Tommy Setford was brought on briefly, replacing Kepa, during the FA Cup win against Wigan Athletic last month.
Goalkeepers share a unique dynamic, training together day after day at great intensity, all the time knowing that only one of them will play in the next game. Neither Kepa nor Setford have logged a minute of Premier League football this season. Arteta’s desire to reward that dedication is understandable.
Arteta denied that Kepa had received any assurances over a start in the final.
“I can never promise a player to play certain competitions, because at the end they have to earn it,” he explained. “We are guided by what we’ve seen and what he’s done, what he’s done in the competition, and he helped us to go all the way through here.
“I believe it’s the right thing to do, and that’s it. Errors are part of football and today it happened, unfortunately, in a crucial moment.”
Perhaps, in the long-term, Arteta’s decision will be vindicated. Perhaps it will win Kepa’s loyalty and ensure that Arsenal can maintain this degree of depth at goalkeeper moving forward. But on this day, it came at a considerable cost.
It’s easy enough to see how Arteta arrived at the decision to reward his No 2 goalkeeper. But after this experience, he may be loath to do so again.
Kepa has also started all three of Arsenal’s FA Cup ties this season, helping them into next month’s quarter-finals.
If Arteta makes it to another Wembley final in May, it will be interesting to see if this new sentimental streak holds up.
