Mikel Arteta defends decision to start Kepa Arrizabalaga in Carabao Cup final

Mikel Arteta said it would have been “very unfair” not to play Kepa Arrizabalaga as he defended his decision to start his back-up goalkeeper in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final defeat against Manchester City.

Kepa, deputising for the first-choice David Raya, endured a final to forget at Wembley after he gifted City their opening goal when he dropped Rayan Cherki’s innocuous cross which Nico O’Reilly converted from close range on the hour mark. O’Reilly then added a second four minutes later as City cruised to a one-sided win.

A summer signing from Chelsea, Kepa has not played at all in the Premier League this season with appearances only in the Carabao and FA Cups and a Champions League dead rubber against Kairat in the group stage.

But Arteta said: “I have to do what I feel is right, which is honest and which is fair. We have an understanding with Kepa. He’s played all the competition so far, and it would have been very, very unfair for him and for the team to do something different.

“I can never promise a player to play certain competitions because at the end they have to earn it. We are guided by what we’ve seen and what he’s done, and what he has done in this competition is to help us to go all the way through (to the final).

“I believe it was the right thing to do and that’s it. Errors are part of football and today it unfortunately happened in a crucial moment.”

Arsenal headed into Sunday’s final hoping to finish the season with an unprecedented four trophies, as well as ending their near six-year wait for silverware.

But Sunday’s damaging defeat is likely to do little to ease their tag as the ‘nearly men’ and also raises significant questions over the remainder of their campaign.

However, Arteta, whose team hold a nine-point lead over City in the Premier League, and are in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and FA Cup, added: “We have to have some perspective on it and what this team has done in the last eight months has been incredible.

“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.

“That’s on us and we’ll manage that energy in the right way. Now we have to go through that pain and disappointment.

“The good thing is that we have a very recent history with reacting in these moments, and I’m sure that we’re going to do it again.”