\n<\/p>\n
Sky Sports’ Paul Merson believes Arsenal will still win the Premier League this season despite their Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City – but it’s the only trophy the Gunners will lift this season.<\/p>\n
Two goals from Nico O’Reilly gave City a 2-0 win at Wembley, which ended Arsenal’s pursuit of an unprecedented quadruple.<\/p>\n
Mikel Arteta’s side are still in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and FA Cup this season – while they hold a nine-point lead over second-placed City, with a Premier League meeting between the two to come on April 19.<\/p>\n
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n
\n \n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n Highlights from the Carabao Cup final match between Arsenal and Manchester City.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nRead below for the Magic Man’s thoughts on Arsenal’s Carabao Cup final loss…<\/p>\n‘Man City absolutely destroyed Arsenal’<\/h3>\nMan City turned up in the second half of the Carabao Cup final and absolutely gave Arsenal a footballing lesson at the highest level.<\/p>\nFor 25 minutes of the second half, no one at Arsenal wanted the ball. They were booting the ball away, just kicking it back to City.<\/p>\nAnd City destroyed them, absolutely destroyed them.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPlease use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n \n \n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n Relive the story of the day as Manchester City beat Arsenal 2-0 in the 2026 Carabao Cup final at Wembley.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nIt’s a sore one for Arsenal. It’s a confidence-sapping defeat because you come in the dressing room after that and think: oh my God, we just got destroyed in the second half.<\/p>\nWill it impact the Premier League? Arsenal are too good for the other teams they have to play against in the run-in, so they will beat those teams.<\/p>\nBut watching that game and that second half, I don’t see Arsenal winning anything else but the Premier League.<\/p>\nMan City are still in the FA Cup. Watching that game, you’d be shocked if Arsenal went back to Wembley and beat them.<\/p>\nAnd then in the Champions League, I look at Barcelona – who Arsenal are on course to play in the semi-finals – and Arsenal haven’t got the pace to trouble Barcelona’s high line.<\/p>\nThe forward players aren’t electric – they’re not like Anthony Elanga or Anthony Gordon who caused Barcelona problems in the last 16.<\/p>\nI’d dread to think what Barcelona could do to Arsenal.<\/p>\n‘Arsenal players not wanting the ball is pretty worrying’<\/h3>\nIt’s a bad mistake from Kepa, a shocker of a mistake. But he wasn’t on the pitch when eight of Arsenal’s outfield players were getting ripped to shreds.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPlease use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n \n \n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n Nico O’Reilly gives Manchester City the opener in their Carabao Cup final clash with Arsenal.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nOnly two Arsenal players could walk off the pitch with their head held high and they are William Saliba and Gabriel. They were outstanding, and they couldn’t do any more.<\/p>\nFor the other eight players, Kepa’s done them a favour because everyone’s now talking about him and the mistake – but no-one will talk about the other players not deserving more than a five out of 10.<\/p>\nI was at Wembley and what I was watching was: who on Arsenal’s team wanted the ball when they were getting beat and it was going horribly wrong? And no-one wanted the ball. Nobody.<\/p>\nIf any of those players want to sit down and watch a video of me and go: I was looking for it here and there, I would say: ‘I’m afraid you weren’t’. It was pretty worrying.<\/p>\nThe positive for Arsenal is that they are still in three tournaments. You can’t lose sight of that. The main thing for them is to win the Premier League.<\/p>\nIf you were to give up any trophy, it would have been the Carabao Cup. But it’s another trophy gone missing, another lost final – and they’re going to get some flak this week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sky Sports’ Paul Merson believes Arsenal will still win the Premier League this season despite their Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City – but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/span><\/p>\n
\n <\/div>\n Highlights from the Carabao Cup final match between Arsenal and Manchester City.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nRead below for the Magic Man’s thoughts on Arsenal’s Carabao Cup final loss…<\/p>\n‘Man City absolutely destroyed Arsenal’<\/h3>\nMan City turned up in the second half of the Carabao Cup final and absolutely gave Arsenal a footballing lesson at the highest level.<\/p>\nFor 25 minutes of the second half, no one at Arsenal wanted the ball. They were booting the ball away, just kicking it back to City.<\/p>\nAnd City destroyed them, absolutely destroyed them.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPlease use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n \n \n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n Relive the story of the day as Manchester City beat Arsenal 2-0 in the 2026 Carabao Cup final at Wembley.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nIt’s a sore one for Arsenal. It’s a confidence-sapping defeat because you come in the dressing room after that and think: oh my God, we just got destroyed in the second half.<\/p>\nWill it impact the Premier League? Arsenal are too good for the other teams they have to play against in the run-in, so they will beat those teams.<\/p>\nBut watching that game and that second half, I don’t see Arsenal winning anything else but the Premier League.<\/p>\nMan City are still in the FA Cup. Watching that game, you’d be shocked if Arsenal went back to Wembley and beat them.<\/p>\nAnd then in the Champions League, I look at Barcelona – who Arsenal are on course to play in the semi-finals – and Arsenal haven’t got the pace to trouble Barcelona’s high line.<\/p>\nThe forward players aren’t electric – they’re not like Anthony Elanga or Anthony Gordon who caused Barcelona problems in the last 16.<\/p>\nI’d dread to think what Barcelona could do to Arsenal.<\/p>\n‘Arsenal players not wanting the ball is pretty worrying’<\/h3>\nIt’s a bad mistake from Kepa, a shocker of a mistake. But he wasn’t on the pitch when eight of Arsenal’s outfield players were getting ripped to shreds.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPlease use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n \n \n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n Nico O’Reilly gives Manchester City the opener in their Carabao Cup final clash with Arsenal.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nOnly two Arsenal players could walk off the pitch with their head held high and they are William Saliba and Gabriel. They were outstanding, and they couldn’t do any more.<\/p>\nFor the other eight players, Kepa’s done them a favour because everyone’s now talking about him and the mistake – but no-one will talk about the other players not deserving more than a five out of 10.<\/p>\nI was at Wembley and what I was watching was: who on Arsenal’s team wanted the ball when they were getting beat and it was going horribly wrong? And no-one wanted the ball. Nobody.<\/p>\nIf any of those players want to sit down and watch a video of me and go: I was looking for it here and there, I would say: ‘I’m afraid you weren’t’. It was pretty worrying.<\/p>\nThe positive for Arsenal is that they are still in three tournaments. You can’t lose sight of that. The main thing for them is to win the Premier League.<\/p>\nIf you were to give up any trophy, it would have been the Carabao Cup. But it’s another trophy gone missing, another lost final – and they’re going to get some flak this week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sky Sports’ Paul Merson believes Arsenal will still win the Premier League this season despite their Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City – but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Highlights from the Carabao Cup final match between Arsenal and Manchester City.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nRead below for the Magic Man’s thoughts on Arsenal’s Carabao Cup final loss…<\/p>\n‘Man City absolutely destroyed Arsenal’<\/h3>\nMan City turned up in the second half of the Carabao Cup final and absolutely gave Arsenal a footballing lesson at the highest level.<\/p>\nFor 25 minutes of the second half, no one at Arsenal wanted the ball. They were booting the ball away, just kicking it back to City.<\/p>\nAnd City destroyed them, absolutely destroyed them.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPlease use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n \n \n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n Relive the story of the day as Manchester City beat Arsenal 2-0 in the 2026 Carabao Cup final at Wembley.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nIt’s a sore one for Arsenal. It’s a confidence-sapping defeat because you come in the dressing room after that and think: oh my God, we just got destroyed in the second half.<\/p>\nWill it impact the Premier League? Arsenal are too good for the other teams they have to play against in the run-in, so they will beat those teams.<\/p>\nBut watching that game and that second half, I don’t see Arsenal winning anything else but the Premier League.<\/p>\nMan City are still in the FA Cup. Watching that game, you’d be shocked if Arsenal went back to Wembley and beat them.<\/p>\nAnd then in the Champions League, I look at Barcelona – who Arsenal are on course to play in the semi-finals – and Arsenal haven’t got the pace to trouble Barcelona’s high line.<\/p>\nThe forward players aren’t electric – they’re not like Anthony Elanga or Anthony Gordon who caused Barcelona problems in the last 16.<\/p>\nI’d dread to think what Barcelona could do to Arsenal.<\/p>\n‘Arsenal players not wanting the ball is pretty worrying’<\/h3>\nIt’s a bad mistake from Kepa, a shocker of a mistake. But he wasn’t on the pitch when eight of Arsenal’s outfield players were getting ripped to shreds.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPlease use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n \n \n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n Nico O’Reilly gives Manchester City the opener in their Carabao Cup final clash with Arsenal.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nOnly two Arsenal players could walk off the pitch with their head held high and they are William Saliba and Gabriel. They were outstanding, and they couldn’t do any more.<\/p>\nFor the other eight players, Kepa’s done them a favour because everyone’s now talking about him and the mistake – but no-one will talk about the other players not deserving more than a five out of 10.<\/p>\nI was at Wembley and what I was watching was: who on Arsenal’s team wanted the ball when they were getting beat and it was going horribly wrong? And no-one wanted the ball. Nobody.<\/p>\nIf any of those players want to sit down and watch a video of me and go: I was looking for it here and there, I would say: ‘I’m afraid you weren’t’. It was pretty worrying.<\/p>\nThe positive for Arsenal is that they are still in three tournaments. You can’t lose sight of that. The main thing for them is to win the Premier League.<\/p>\nIf you were to give up any trophy, it would have been the Carabao Cup. But it’s another trophy gone missing, another lost final – and they’re going to get some flak this week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sky Sports’ Paul Merson believes Arsenal will still win the Premier League this season despite their Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City – but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Read below for the Magic Man’s thoughts on Arsenal’s Carabao Cup final loss…<\/p>\n
Man City turned up in the second half of the Carabao Cup final and absolutely gave Arsenal a footballing lesson at the highest level.<\/p>\n
For 25 minutes of the second half, no one at Arsenal wanted the ball. They were booting the ball away, just kicking it back to City.<\/p>\n
And City destroyed them, absolutely destroyed them.<\/p>\n
\n \n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n Relive the story of the day as Manchester City beat Arsenal 2-0 in the 2026 Carabao Cup final at Wembley.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nIt’s a sore one for Arsenal. It’s a confidence-sapping defeat because you come in the dressing room after that and think: oh my God, we just got destroyed in the second half.<\/p>\nWill it impact the Premier League? Arsenal are too good for the other teams they have to play against in the run-in, so they will beat those teams.<\/p>\nBut watching that game and that second half, I don’t see Arsenal winning anything else but the Premier League.<\/p>\nMan City are still in the FA Cup. Watching that game, you’d be shocked if Arsenal went back to Wembley and beat them.<\/p>\nAnd then in the Champions League, I look at Barcelona – who Arsenal are on course to play in the semi-finals – and Arsenal haven’t got the pace to trouble Barcelona’s high line.<\/p>\nThe forward players aren’t electric – they’re not like Anthony Elanga or Anthony Gordon who caused Barcelona problems in the last 16.<\/p>\nI’d dread to think what Barcelona could do to Arsenal.<\/p>\n‘Arsenal players not wanting the ball is pretty worrying’<\/h3>\nIt’s a bad mistake from Kepa, a shocker of a mistake. But he wasn’t on the pitch when eight of Arsenal’s outfield players were getting ripped to shreds.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPlease use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n \n \n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n Nico O’Reilly gives Manchester City the opener in their Carabao Cup final clash with Arsenal.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nOnly two Arsenal players could walk off the pitch with their head held high and they are William Saliba and Gabriel. They were outstanding, and they couldn’t do any more.<\/p>\nFor the other eight players, Kepa’s done them a favour because everyone’s now talking about him and the mistake – but no-one will talk about the other players not deserving more than a five out of 10.<\/p>\nI was at Wembley and what I was watching was: who on Arsenal’s team wanted the ball when they were getting beat and it was going horribly wrong? And no-one wanted the ball. Nobody.<\/p>\nIf any of those players want to sit down and watch a video of me and go: I was looking for it here and there, I would say: ‘I’m afraid you weren’t’. It was pretty worrying.<\/p>\nThe positive for Arsenal is that they are still in three tournaments. You can’t lose sight of that. The main thing for them is to win the Premier League.<\/p>\nIf you were to give up any trophy, it would have been the Carabao Cup. But it’s another trophy gone missing, another lost final – and they’re going to get some flak this week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sky Sports’ Paul Merson believes Arsenal will still win the Premier League this season despite their Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City – but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n <\/div>\n Relive the story of the day as Manchester City beat Arsenal 2-0 in the 2026 Carabao Cup final at Wembley.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nIt’s a sore one for Arsenal. It’s a confidence-sapping defeat because you come in the dressing room after that and think: oh my God, we just got destroyed in the second half.<\/p>\nWill it impact the Premier League? Arsenal are too good for the other teams they have to play against in the run-in, so they will beat those teams.<\/p>\nBut watching that game and that second half, I don’t see Arsenal winning anything else but the Premier League.<\/p>\nMan City are still in the FA Cup. Watching that game, you’d be shocked if Arsenal went back to Wembley and beat them.<\/p>\nAnd then in the Champions League, I look at Barcelona – who Arsenal are on course to play in the semi-finals – and Arsenal haven’t got the pace to trouble Barcelona’s high line.<\/p>\nThe forward players aren’t electric – they’re not like Anthony Elanga or Anthony Gordon who caused Barcelona problems in the last 16.<\/p>\nI’d dread to think what Barcelona could do to Arsenal.<\/p>\n‘Arsenal players not wanting the ball is pretty worrying’<\/h3>\nIt’s a bad mistake from Kepa, a shocker of a mistake. But he wasn’t on the pitch when eight of Arsenal’s outfield players were getting ripped to shreds.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPlease use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n \n \n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n Nico O’Reilly gives Manchester City the opener in their Carabao Cup final clash with Arsenal.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nOnly two Arsenal players could walk off the pitch with their head held high and they are William Saliba and Gabriel. They were outstanding, and they couldn’t do any more.<\/p>\nFor the other eight players, Kepa’s done them a favour because everyone’s now talking about him and the mistake – but no-one will talk about the other players not deserving more than a five out of 10.<\/p>\nI was at Wembley and what I was watching was: who on Arsenal’s team wanted the ball when they were getting beat and it was going horribly wrong? And no-one wanted the ball. Nobody.<\/p>\nIf any of those players want to sit down and watch a video of me and go: I was looking for it here and there, I would say: ‘I’m afraid you weren’t’. It was pretty worrying.<\/p>\nThe positive for Arsenal is that they are still in three tournaments. You can’t lose sight of that. The main thing for them is to win the Premier League.<\/p>\nIf you were to give up any trophy, it would have been the Carabao Cup. But it’s another trophy gone missing, another lost final – and they’re going to get some flak this week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sky Sports’ Paul Merson believes Arsenal will still win the Premier League this season despite their Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City – but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Relive the story of the day as Manchester City beat Arsenal 2-0 in the 2026 Carabao Cup final at Wembley.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nIt’s a sore one for Arsenal. It’s a confidence-sapping defeat because you come in the dressing room after that and think: oh my God, we just got destroyed in the second half.<\/p>\nWill it impact the Premier League? Arsenal are too good for the other teams they have to play against in the run-in, so they will beat those teams.<\/p>\nBut watching that game and that second half, I don’t see Arsenal winning anything else but the Premier League.<\/p>\nMan City are still in the FA Cup. Watching that game, you’d be shocked if Arsenal went back to Wembley and beat them.<\/p>\nAnd then in the Champions League, I look at Barcelona – who Arsenal are on course to play in the semi-finals – and Arsenal haven’t got the pace to trouble Barcelona’s high line.<\/p>\nThe forward players aren’t electric – they’re not like Anthony Elanga or Anthony Gordon who caused Barcelona problems in the last 16.<\/p>\nI’d dread to think what Barcelona could do to Arsenal.<\/p>\n‘Arsenal players not wanting the ball is pretty worrying’<\/h3>\nIt’s a bad mistake from Kepa, a shocker of a mistake. But he wasn’t on the pitch when eight of Arsenal’s outfield players were getting ripped to shreds.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPlease use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n \n \n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n Nico O’Reilly gives Manchester City the opener in their Carabao Cup final clash with Arsenal.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nOnly two Arsenal players could walk off the pitch with their head held high and they are William Saliba and Gabriel. They were outstanding, and they couldn’t do any more.<\/p>\nFor the other eight players, Kepa’s done them a favour because everyone’s now talking about him and the mistake – but no-one will talk about the other players not deserving more than a five out of 10.<\/p>\nI was at Wembley and what I was watching was: who on Arsenal’s team wanted the ball when they were getting beat and it was going horribly wrong? And no-one wanted the ball. Nobody.<\/p>\nIf any of those players want to sit down and watch a video of me and go: I was looking for it here and there, I would say: ‘I’m afraid you weren’t’. It was pretty worrying.<\/p>\nThe positive for Arsenal is that they are still in three tournaments. You can’t lose sight of that. The main thing for them is to win the Premier League.<\/p>\nIf you were to give up any trophy, it would have been the Carabao Cup. But it’s another trophy gone missing, another lost final – and they’re going to get some flak this week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sky Sports’ Paul Merson believes Arsenal will still win the Premier League this season despite their Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City – but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
It’s a sore one for Arsenal. It’s a confidence-sapping defeat because you come in the dressing room after that and think: oh my God, we just got destroyed in the second half.<\/p>\n
Will it impact the Premier League? Arsenal are too good for the other teams they have to play against in the run-in, so they will beat those teams.<\/p>\n
But watching that game and that second half, I don’t see Arsenal winning anything else but the Premier League.<\/p>\n
Man City are still in the FA Cup. Watching that game, you’d be shocked if Arsenal went back to Wembley and beat them.<\/p>\n
And then in the Champions League, I look at Barcelona – who Arsenal are on course to play in the semi-finals – and Arsenal haven’t got the pace to trouble Barcelona’s high line.<\/p>\n
The forward players aren’t electric – they’re not like Anthony Elanga or Anthony Gordon who caused Barcelona problems in the last 16.<\/p>\n
I’d dread to think what Barcelona could do to Arsenal.<\/p>\n
It’s a bad mistake from Kepa, a shocker of a mistake. But he wasn’t on the pitch when eight of Arsenal’s outfield players were getting ripped to shreds.<\/p>\n
\n \n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n Nico O’Reilly gives Manchester City the opener in their Carabao Cup final clash with Arsenal.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nOnly two Arsenal players could walk off the pitch with their head held high and they are William Saliba and Gabriel. They were outstanding, and they couldn’t do any more.<\/p>\nFor the other eight players, Kepa’s done them a favour because everyone’s now talking about him and the mistake – but no-one will talk about the other players not deserving more than a five out of 10.<\/p>\nI was at Wembley and what I was watching was: who on Arsenal’s team wanted the ball when they were getting beat and it was going horribly wrong? And no-one wanted the ball. Nobody.<\/p>\nIf any of those players want to sit down and watch a video of me and go: I was looking for it here and there, I would say: ‘I’m afraid you weren’t’. It was pretty worrying.<\/p>\nThe positive for Arsenal is that they are still in three tournaments. You can’t lose sight of that. The main thing for them is to win the Premier League.<\/p>\nIf you were to give up any trophy, it would have been the Carabao Cup. But it’s another trophy gone missing, another lost final – and they’re going to get some flak this week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sky Sports’ Paul Merson believes Arsenal will still win the Premier League this season despite their Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City – but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n <\/div>\n Nico O’Reilly gives Manchester City the opener in their Carabao Cup final clash with Arsenal.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nOnly two Arsenal players could walk off the pitch with their head held high and they are William Saliba and Gabriel. They were outstanding, and they couldn’t do any more.<\/p>\nFor the other eight players, Kepa’s done them a favour because everyone’s now talking about him and the mistake – but no-one will talk about the other players not deserving more than a five out of 10.<\/p>\nI was at Wembley and what I was watching was: who on Arsenal’s team wanted the ball when they were getting beat and it was going horribly wrong? And no-one wanted the ball. Nobody.<\/p>\nIf any of those players want to sit down and watch a video of me and go: I was looking for it here and there, I would say: ‘I’m afraid you weren’t’. It was pretty worrying.<\/p>\nThe positive for Arsenal is that they are still in three tournaments. You can’t lose sight of that. The main thing for them is to win the Premier League.<\/p>\nIf you were to give up any trophy, it would have been the Carabao Cup. But it’s another trophy gone missing, another lost final – and they’re going to get some flak this week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sky Sports’ Paul Merson believes Arsenal will still win the Premier League this season despite their Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City – but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Nico O’Reilly gives Manchester City the opener in their Carabao Cup final clash with Arsenal.<\/span>\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nOnly two Arsenal players could walk off the pitch with their head held high and they are William Saliba and Gabriel. They were outstanding, and they couldn’t do any more.<\/p>\nFor the other eight players, Kepa’s done them a favour because everyone’s now talking about him and the mistake – but no-one will talk about the other players not deserving more than a five out of 10.<\/p>\nI was at Wembley and what I was watching was: who on Arsenal’s team wanted the ball when they were getting beat and it was going horribly wrong? And no-one wanted the ball. Nobody.<\/p>\nIf any of those players want to sit down and watch a video of me and go: I was looking for it here and there, I would say: ‘I’m afraid you weren’t’. It was pretty worrying.<\/p>\nThe positive for Arsenal is that they are still in three tournaments. You can’t lose sight of that. The main thing for them is to win the Premier League.<\/p>\nIf you were to give up any trophy, it would have been the Carabao Cup. But it’s another trophy gone missing, another lost final – and they’re going to get some flak this week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sky Sports’ Paul Merson believes Arsenal will still win the Premier League this season despite their Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City – but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Only two Arsenal players could walk off the pitch with their head held high and they are William Saliba and Gabriel. They were outstanding, and they couldn’t do any more.<\/p>\n
For the other eight players, Kepa’s done them a favour because everyone’s now talking about him and the mistake – but no-one will talk about the other players not deserving more than a five out of 10.<\/p>\n
I was at Wembley and what I was watching was: who on Arsenal’s team wanted the ball when they were getting beat and it was going horribly wrong? And no-one wanted the ball. Nobody.<\/p>\n
If any of those players want to sit down and watch a video of me and go: I was looking for it here and there, I would say: ‘I’m afraid you weren’t’. It was pretty worrying.<\/p>\n
The positive for Arsenal is that they are still in three tournaments. You can’t lose sight of that. The main thing for them is to win the Premier League.<\/p>\n
If you were to give up any trophy, it would have been the Carabao Cup. But it’s another trophy gone missing, another lost final – and they’re going to get some flak this week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sky Sports’ Paul Merson believes Arsenal will still win the Premier League this season despite their Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City – but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Arsenal](\"https:\/\/e0.365dm.com\/26\/03\/768x432\/skysports-man-city-arsenal_7200342.jpg?20260322183254\")