Arteta decided to start second-choice Kepa Arrizabalaga ahead of David Raya in Sunday’s defeat to Manchester City in the EFL Cup final in a move that backfired.
Arrizabalaga made a terrible error to gift Nico O’Reilly an opening goal on the hour mark and failed to impress throughout the game as fans held their head in their hands as the club’s quadruple hopes died.
Did Arteta make a mistake?
This was Arsenal’s chance to win a trophy for the first time in 6 years and Carragher held nothing back as he ripped into Arteta’s decision to start Kepa over Raya who is the club’s first choice goalkeeper.
“I’ve got strong views on playing the second goalkeeper. I don’t like it, but I can understand it in some situations.
“But Mikel Arteta does not owe Kepa anything. He owes Arsenal supporters the best possible chance of winning the first trophy in six years. They’ve won one trophy in nine years.
“The goalkeeper comes to the club because he knows he’s second choice. He can play through the rounds, but once you get to the final, it has to change for me because they haven’t won enough trophies and they need to get over the line.”
Can Kepa be compared to Kelleher?
Despite Carragher’s comments, City’s second choice goalkeeper James Trafford started in the final and kept a clean sheet.
Caoimhin Kelleher also impressed for Liverpool in cup competitions when he replaced Alisson Becker under Jurgen Klopp which Carragher also touched upon.
"People might also flip and say Kelleher and Liverpool. The reason he got so many opportunities to play in finals is because Liverpool were desperate to keep him - that is not the point with Kepa.
"He was signed as a No 2 and he's not good enough at the top level - we've seen that at Chelsea.
"David Raya is not just the first choice goalkeeper, we're arguably talking about Arsenal's best player this season, so it's not just changing No 1 for No 2, it's changing one of your best players when you haven't got a history of winning with this team."