Sky Sports’ Paul Merson believes Arsenal will win the Premier League again this season despite losing to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final, the only trophy the Gunners will lift this season.
Two goals from Nico O’Reilly gave City a 2-0 victory at Wembley, ending Arsenal’s unprecedented bid to win the Quadruple.
Mikel Arteta’s side have reached the quarter-finals of this season’s Champions League and FA Cup, but remain nine points behind second-placed City, with the two sides scheduled to meet in the Premier League on April 19.
Use Chrome Browser for a more accessible video player
Highlights of the Carabao Cup final between Arsenal and Manchester City.
Read below for Magic Man’s thoughts on Arsenal’s Carabao Cup final defeat…
“Man City completely destroyed Arsenal”
Man City appeared in the second half of the Carabao Cup final and gave Arsenal a lesson in football at the highest level.
For 25 minutes in the second half, no one from Arsenal wanted the ball. They just kicked the ball out and kicked it back to City.
And the City destroyed them, completely destroyed them.
Use Chrome Browser for a more accessible video player
Relive the story of the day Manchester City defeated Arsenal 2-0 in the 2026 Carabao Cup Final at Wembley.
It’s painful for Arsenal. It’s a confidence-sapping loss because then you come to the locker room and think, “Oh my god, we just got beat in the second half.”
Will it affect the Premier League? Arsenal will beat the other teams they face in the run-in because they are too strong.
But looking at that game and the second half, I don’t think Arsenal are winning outside of the Premier League.
Man City are still in the FA Cup. I watched that game and would be shocked if Arsenal went back to Wembley and beat them.
And in the Champions League, all eyes will be on Barcelona, whom Arsenal will face in the semi-finals, but Arsenal do not have the pace to trouble Barcelona’s high line.
Forward players are not electric. They’re not players like Anthony Heranga or Anthony Gordon, who caused Barcelona problems in the last 16.
It’s scary to think what Barcelona could do to Arsenal.
“It’s quite worrying that Arsenal players don’t want the ball.”
It was a terrible mistake by Kepa, the impact of the mistake. But he was not on the pitch when eight Arsenal outfield players were torn to shreds.
Use Chrome Browser for a more accessible video player
Nico O’Reilly gave Manchester City the lead in the Carabao Cup final against Arsenal.
William Saliba and Gabriel are the only two Arsenal players who can leave the pitch with their heads held high. They were outstanding and couldn’t have done more.
For the other eight players, Kepa did them a favor. Because now everyone is talking about Kepa and his mistakes, but no one will talk about how the other players don’t deserve more than five out of 10.
I was at Wembley and what I was looking at was who in the Arsenal team would want the ball when they were losing and things were going badly? And no one wanted the ball. No one.
If any of those players wanted to sit down and watch my video, they’d say, “I was looking for that all over the place, and unfortunately you weren’t.” I was quite worried.
The positive for Arsenal is that they still have three competitions left. Don’t lose sight of that. The important thing for them is to win the Premier League.
If we were to give up a trophy, it would be the Carabao Cup. But it means losing another trophy and missing out on another final – and they will be facing some blame this week.
