{"id":45399,"date":"2026-03-23T08:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T03:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=45399"},"modified":"2026-03-23T08:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T03:09:11","slug":"no-regrets-arteta-stands-by-kepa-after-cup-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/football\/no-regrets-arteta-stands-by-kepa-after-cup-defeat\/","title":{"rendered":"No Regrets: Arteta Stands by Kepa After Cup Defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"202\" data-end=\"509\"><span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Fabrizio Romano<\/span><\/span> revealed <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Mikel Arteta<\/span><\/span>\u2019s strong stance following <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Arsenal FC<\/span><\/span>\u2019s 2-0 defeat to <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Manchester City<\/span><\/span> in the Carabao Cup final, as the manager refused to backtrack on his controversial goalkeeper selection.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"511\" data-end=\"721\">Arteta opted to start <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Kepa Arrizabalaga<\/span><\/span> ahead of <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">David Raya<\/span><\/span>, a decision that drew heavy criticism from fans, especially after Kepa\u2019s shaky performance on the night.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"723\" data-end=\"1092\">City took the lead following a costly error from Kepa, who failed to deal convincingly with the opening goal. The Spanish goalkeeper looked visibly low on confidence throughout the match, making a series of questionable decisions that put his side under pressure. His hesitation and lack of authority in key moments only fueled the growing frustration among supporters.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1094\" data-end=\"1261\">With Arsenal chasing the game, Kepa\u2019s struggles became more apparent, as City capitalized on defensive uncertainty to secure a comfortable 2-0 win and lift the trophy.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1094\" data-end=\"1261\">Despite the backlash, Arteta remained firm in his post-match comments. \u201cI would do that again. No regrets,\u201d he said, emphasizing that his decision was based on fairness and trust within the squad. The Arsenal boss insisted that changing course would have been \u201cvery unfair\u201d on both the player and the team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fabrizio Romano revealed Mikel Arteta\u2019s strong stance following Arsenal FC\u2019s 2-0 defeat to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final,\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":45400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[270,2255,3686,1823,1730,3796,2503,2524,702,359,4970],"class_list":["post-45399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-arsenal","tag-carabao-cup","tag-david-ornstein","tag-fabrizio-romano","tag-finals","tag-football","tag-goalkeeper","tag-kepa-arizzabalaga","tag-mikel-arteta","tag-pep-guardiola","tag-trophy"],"reading_time":"1 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45401,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45399\/revisions\/45401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}