Mikel Arteta faces biggest Arsenal test after costly Carabao Cup final errors

Ruthless streak deserts the Gunners boss as abject Manchester City defeat at Wembley piles on pressure for title run-in

Kepa Arrizabalaga stood with the ball at his feet for 36 seconds as 10 Arsenal statues stared back at him.

It was an extraordinary sight at the very start of the second half and yet an apt one, summing up a lifeless Arsenal performance that had no answers to the questions Manchester City posed in the Carabao Cup final .

Pep Guardiola pushed Antoine Semenyo and Jeremy Doku up alongside Rayan Cherki and Erling Haaland to effectively create a wall in front of the Arsenal midfield.

The Gunners had neither the technical quality or the guile to play around that press and instead resorted to lumping it long and gifting possession back to City .

It was as one-sided a 25-minute period as you will see at any level. Arsenal had 25 per cent of the ball during that spell and it was bizarre that Mikel Arteta did not try to change anything.

By the time he did make his first two substitutions, Arsenal were 2-0 down and the game was gone.

That was not the only mistake Arteta made on the day. Piero Hincapie, booked early, should have come off at half-time, while starting Kepa in goal backfired massively.

Mikel Arteta has to ensure that Arsenal bounce back quickly after the international break

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The Spaniard gifted City their opener by letting a routine cross through his hands to allow Nico O'Reilly a tap-in. Kepa had already been booked for charging off his line and pulling Doku back. He was nervous throughout.

"I have to do what I feel is right, which is honest and which is fair," Arteta said of starting Kepa. "I think it would have been very, very unfair for him and for the team to do something different."

This was a strange defence from a manager who has had no issue being ruthless in the past. The likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Aaron Ramsdale found that out in no uncertain terms.

Why is it fair that Myles Lewis-Skelly and Christian Norgaard helped get Arsenal through the early rounds of the Carabao Cup and then dropped out for the semi-finals?

Arteta replaced them in the starting lineup with better players once the stakes were higher and the opposition more difficult. That was not unfair, but simply the reality of football.

David Raya should have started. Pep Guardiola went with his No2 goalkeeper in James Trafford, but City were not trying to end a six-year trophy drought.

This was a final billed as an occasion to launch Arsenal into a new era and they needed to be at full-strength. The challenge now is to ensure the consequences do not extend beyond leaving Wembley empty-handed.

Arteta was adamant this will not derail the season . He said: "Every time you have a defeat or a draw, if that's the consequences, then you're not prepared to play 70 games because it's something that will happen at some point.

"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."

It was bizarre that Arteta did not try to change anything - by the time he did, it was too late

Arsenal, to their credit, have been excellent at responding to setbacks this season. Before Sunday's disappointment, their only three defeats were followed by unbeaten runs of 18, 12 and 14 matches.

A dreadful draw at Wolves in February threatened to derail their season, but the Gunners gathered themselves to thrash Tottenham and see off Chelsea.

However, this is now by far their biggest test. That nine-point lead at the top of the Premier League suddenly feels much more vulnerable. City will be buoyed by this final and will firmly believe they can beat Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium next month.

Do that and win their game in hand, and they will have only three points to make up in the other six league matches remaining.

Arsenal's final defeat did not come out of nowhere. This was a more extreme exposing of their shortcomings, but there have been plenty of games in which they have been poor technically, lacked in composure, and had to lean back on their defensive strengths to get them out of trouble.

Those concerns have been pushed away to be solved in the summer and beyond, with Arsenal in the short-term committed to winning by whatever means necessary.

Over the course of a season, that fine-margin football will still probably work out for the Gunners. They have not played particularly well in attack more than a handful of times in recent months but still keep picking up points.

In one-off matches, though, as Sunday brutally exposed, they are vulnerable. The midfield does not offer enough control or a platform to sustain attacks.

The forwards, out of form for pretty much all of the season, do not look capable of producing the magic moments that make the difference. Eberechi Eze is one player that can do that, but he is now out with a worrying calf injury .

Kepa Arrizabalaga’s crucial mistake led to Nico O’Reilly’s first goal for Manchester City at Wembley

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Arteta pointed to an early chance missed by Kai Havertz as a crucial moment, but more concerning is that it was the only meaningful opportunity Arsenal created. A team of this quality should not have to score every chance, fearing another one might not come.

The international break offers a welcome opportunity to reset, and Arsenal return to face Southampton in the FA Cup quarter-finals. The Gunners should win that and secure a Wembley return.

However, the scar tissue of performing when it really matters, when the spotlight shines brightest, has now only been added to.

The Carabao Cup was supposed to ease the pressure on the bigger prizes to come but instead it has been cranked up to the maximum.

This final will be forgiven and forgotten if Arsenal bounce back to claim major silverware. The weight of the world on the shoulders makes that no easy task.