Football Apr 08, 2026

Paul Merson: Arsenal will still win the Premier League despite Carabao Cup final loss to Man City - but it's the only trophy they will win

👤
By Admin
Sports Journalist
Paul Merson: Arsenal will still win the Premier League despite Carabao Cup final loss to Man City - but it's the only trophy they will win

Your Site' 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.

Two goals from Nico O'Reilly gave City a 2-0 win at Wembley, which ended Arsenal's pursuit of an unprecedented quadruple.

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.

Read below for the Magic Man's thoughts on Arsenal's Carabao Cup final loss...

Man City turned up in the second half of the Carabao Cup final and absolutely gave Arsenal a footballing lesson at the highest level.

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.

And City destroyed them, absolutely destroyed them.

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.

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.

But watching that game and that second half, I don't see Arsenal winning anything else but the Premier League.

Man City are still in the FA Cup. Watching that game, you'd be shocked if Arsenal went back to Wembley and beat them.

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.

The forward players aren't electric - they're not like Anthony Elanga or Anthony Gordon who caused Barcelona problems in the last 16.

I'd dread to think what Barcelona could do to Arsenal.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Tags:

football news

Share this article

Related Posts

Hull City 0-0 Coventry City: Goalless draw takes Sky Blues a point closer to Premier League

Hull City 0-0 Coventry City: Goalless draw takes Sky Blues a point closer to Premier League

Coventry crept closer to promotion to the Premier League despite an off-colour display in a goalless draw at Hull.Setbacks for promotion rivals Millwa...

Real Madrid 1-2 Bayern Munich: Harry Kane strikes to earn Champions League first-leg victory over 15-time winners

Real Madrid 1-2 Bayern Munich: Harry Kane strikes to earn Champions League first-leg victory over 15-time winners

Harry Kane earned Bayern Munich a priceless 2-1 victory over Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final at the Santiago Bern...

Swansea City 2-2 Middlesbrough: Tommy Conway penalty earns Boro a point but they fail to retake second spot

Swansea City 2-2 Middlesbrough: Tommy Conway penalty earns Boro a point but they fail to retake second spot

Tommy Conway scored a second-half penalty equaliser as promotion-chasing Middlesbrough earned a precious point from a 2-2 Championship draw away to Sw...

Wrexham 1-5 Southampton: Saints rout Red Dragons to leapfrog them into sixth

Wrexham 1-5 Southampton: Saints rout Red Dragons to leapfrog them into sixth

Southampton produced a scintillating performance to rout Wrexham 5-1 and leapfrog them into sixth in the Championship table.Any fear of a hangover fro...

Premier League secures fifth Champions League spot for a second season running

Premier League secures fifth Champions League spot for a second season running

The Premier League has secured a fifth Champions League spot for next season's competition - although that could yet rise to seven places. A fifth-pla...

Sporting 0-1 Arsenal: Kai Havertz scores in stoppage time to clinch Champions League quarter-final first-leg win

Sporting 0-1 Arsenal: Kai Havertz scores in stoppage time to clinch Champions League quarter-final first-leg win

Kai Havertz came off the bench and scored a 91st-minute winner as Arsenal clinched a 1-0 victory over Sporting in the first leg of their Champions Lea...