Arsenal’s players and staff stood in a beleaguered group and made themselves watch Manchester City pick up their medals, their cup, and all the rest of it. Hands on hips, arms folded, blank faces, thousand-yard stares.
You have to do it. You have to put yourself through it. It can be part of the process to absorb one of the fundamental lessons of sport: take this feeling hard on the chin. Let it sting. And then use it in the knowledge you do everything you can to land the next punch and avoid this feeling again.
Tony Adams, resplendent in his tangerine suit these days, was the last captain of Arsenal to hoist a League Cup more than 30 years ago. One of his mantras chimed here. “You learn more from defeats than victories,” he said, many moons ago in the aftermath of a painfully squandered final. Overall, he won bundles, so he ought to know about these things.
It is a message Arsenal have to reflect on in the aftermath of a match without any redeeming features. Perhaps Ben White clattering Rayan Cherki after he mockingly ball juggled was the highlight of the second half, which speaks volumes.
Mikel Arteta used the word “perspective” when considering how his players will digest this within the broader context of their season. “We’re going to use this disappointment and this fire in the belly to have the most amazing two months that we have ever had together,” he said.
It was the right thing to say, even if it is easier said than done — and it won’t only be his players reflecting and reacting after this. He will contemplate his own decisions too, even if he was adamant the selection of his second-choice goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga, whose error turned the match, was not a problem or a regret. He believes it was the fair and merited thing to do and wasn’t about to change his tune on that because the outcome was not what anyone wanted. “There will be a lot of aspects that we will discuss,” Arteta mused.
Arsenal, from back to front, did not show their best selves for this Wembley occasion. Once a promising opening period slipped into a tenser battle of attrition, they then began to mislay several basic principles. Passing became scratchy and hopeful rather than considered and precise. Marking became stretched. And, significantly, costly errors afflicted their game, particularly during the damaging spell after half-time when City pounced twice to swing the contest. They upped their game while Arsenal dropped theirs, and that was that.
Arteta and Guardiola meet again at the Etihad on April 19 (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
Will there be a consequence when these two teams meet again in four weeks’ time at the Etihad? There is plenty of football to be played in between, so let’s not get too carried away, but Arsenal have a pretty clear idea what not to do when they next face City with Premier League points at stake. They will surely have to play better, differently, with a more refined attitude and composure.
Curse the League Cup. It really is a horrible blot on Arsenal’s record going all the way back to the 1960s and players weeping on a pitch of gluey mud, battered by the Horse of the Year show, suffering a flu outbreak and losing to a third-tier team. What, Arsenal supporters were entitled to ask as Arrizabalaga’s butterfingers presented City with a goal, have they ever done to the wretched League Cup in all its guises to deserve this? Nine finals, seven losses, it just isn’t Arsenal’s thing.
So, here’s the rub. Luckily, Arsenal do have other things on the horizon. This is not the be-all and end-all of their season, and it is incumbent upon Arteta and his players to park this experience and ensure they are not derailed from three more significant ambitions this season.
They were nine points clear in the Premier League whatever the outcome of the Carabao Cup and they still are. They were one of only two English teams remaining in the Champions League, whatever the outcome of the Carabao Cup, and they still are. They faced an FA Cup quarter-final against Southampton, whatever the outcome of the Carabao Cup, and they still do.
If any critics outside the club wish to predict impending doom because of a bad afternoon, they are entitled to. But within, the priority is to reflect, learn, and use disappointment as fuel for the goals in front of them.
This simply has to be a rotten game in isolation. Agonising as it is, they must dust themselves down and relaunch their quest to win something again when club football resumes after the international break. They have tended to pick themselves up well after a body blow this season, a point Arteta stressed afterwards.
“That’s on us and we’ll manage that energy in the right way. Now we have to go through that pain and disappointment and it’s normal and it’s part of football. The good thing is that we have a very recent history, how this team has reacted in those moments, and I’m sure that we’re going to do it again.”
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