3 min readMar 23, 2026 05:36 PM IST
Arsenal were left heart-broken on Sunday evening after a 2-0 defeat to Manchester City in the League Cup final. This was Arsenal’s first chance at winning a trophy in six years, but two goals from Nico O’Reilly in four minutes helped Pep Guardiola’s City stun the Gunners.
It was Arsenal’s chance to win their first silverware since the 2020 FA Cup title that they won in coach Mikel Arteta’s debut season. The Gunners have finished second in the Premier League in the last three seasons. This season, they find themselves in the driver’s seat to win their first Premier League title in 22 years besides an FA Cup title and the Champions League. In the Premier League race, Manchester City are on Arsenal’s tails with the Gunners currently nine points ahead, having played one more game than City.
Arteta said that the players would use the “pain” from the defeat on Sunday to fuel their challenge in the other tournaments.
Arsenal team players talk before the Premier League soccer match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Arsenal in Wolverhampton. (AP Photo)
“It’s hard because everyone as a player really wanted it today and I know the supporters wanted it. The fact that we haven’t managed to deliver it is very, very painful,” Arteta said at his post-match conference.
“We’ve had a remarkable eight months together, and now there’s an international break. We all go into there with a very hard feeling and pain, and we’re going to use that as fuel for the next two months. We keep going. It’s painful not to give them what they are hoping for and what they are cheering for, but we’ll recover from that and go again.”
Arteta added that Arsenal were the better team in the first half, but just could not make it count.
“We are all feeling extremely sad, especially with the way the game went,” he said. “In the first half I think we were the better team, had the best two chances and certainly the best chance of the game to capitalise and get the momentum you need in a final.
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“In the second half we started to have certain issues to get out of that block, but credit to them as well, how composed they were in certain moments and us, with the ball we have to do much better than we’ve done. Without them having any shots, the first one, it’s a very unusual goal that we’ve conceded, and the second shot they’ve had all game, they scored the second and then the game becomes very tough,” said Arteta.
The Arsenal managed added: “You can have momentum, but if nothing happens, that momentum will shift at some point. And it was probably in the worst moment when that happened and that’s it, you have to take it. Sometimes you have to accept that the opposition was good in that moment. They capitalised and that’s what you have to do if you want to win titles.”
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