Gary Neville slams Arsenal star for 'nonsense' behaviour after Man City Carabao Cup final defeat

Neville labelled this approach as "nonsense" and argued it invited sustained pressure from City, resulting in wave after wave of attacks on the Arsenal goal.

The Gunners entered the interval on level terms with their opponents but rapidly lost their grip on proceedings after the break.

Kepa had been selected ahead of first-choice David Raya as Arsenal's designated cup goalkeeper, but Mikel Arteta's decision backfired spectacularly as the club's trophy drought extended further and their quadruple ambitions came crashing down.

The goalkeeper's errors proved decisive when Nico O'Reilly found the net to give City the lead, with Kepa making a hash of his attempt to deal with the situation.

"It is a really bad one by the goalkeeper, a real howler in a massive moment, but it was punch after punch and O'Reilly steals in," Neville remarked during his commentary.

The former Manchester United defender was scathing about Arsenal's overall performance after the restart, observing that City's supporters behind the goal could sense an opportunity was brewing.

"City deserve that, they have been much the better team at the start of the second half and Arsenal now need to show up - what has happened to them in this second half? They have shrunk," he added.

Neville concluded that Arsenal had simply "gone missing" during the crucial second period.

This is not the first occasion Kepa has found himself at the centre of controversy during a League Cup final.

Back in 2019, while still at Chelsea, the goalkeeper made headlines for all the wrong reasons when he defied manager Maurizio Sarri's attempts to substitute him during the showpiece against Manchester City, a match the Blues went on to lose in a penalty shootout.

Three years later, he was involved in another final debacle when Chelsea faced Liverpool at Wembley.

Brought on specifically as a penalty specialist for the shootout, Kepa failed to keep out a single Liverpool effort from the spot.

To compound matters, he then sent his own decisive penalty sailing over the crossbar, handing the trophy to the Merseyside club and cementing his unfortunate association with cup final disappointment.

Meanwhile, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has defended his decision to play Kepa despite his decision backfiring.

"I made a decision before the game based on what he has done all season, the fact he has played in the competition and helped us be where we are today,” he said.

“It would have been very unfair to choose a different one."

The Spaniard added: “I have to do what I feel is right, which is honest and which is fair, and I think we have an understanding with Kepa.

"He's played all the competition and I think 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 of the day, they have to earn it, and they have to do enough like any other position to do that.

“We are guided by what we've seen and what he's done, what he's done in the competition, and he helped us to go all the way through here. I believe it's the right thing to do, and that's it. Errors are part of football, and today it happened, unfortunately, in a crucial moment."