Arsenal’s same fatal flaw haunted them again vs Man City

How will Arsenal respond to, by some substantial distance, their biggest set back of the season? On Sunday, Mikel Arteta's team were comprehensively beaten 2-0 by Manchester City in the EFL Cup Final at Wembley.

Nico O'Reilly scored two near-identical back-post headers a mere four minutes apart to secure the silverware for the Citizens, the first coming about after Kepa Arrizabalaga failed to collect a seemingly routine catch. This is the latest in a long line of individual errors that are costing the Gunners.

Sunday was Arsenal's 50th fixture of the season, set for, at a minimum, ten more, albeit that tally could rise to 15 if all goes to pan. Concerningly though, fair to say, since around the mid-way point, the Gunners' defensive record has deteriorated.

Arsenal's defensive record

Before New Year's Day, Arsenal were conceding a miserly 0.5 goals per game, a tally that has massively increased to 0.91 in 2026, which is still impressive, but represents a sharp increase. Also, only Sunderland and Aston Villa managed to score more than once against Arteta's team this season in 2025, something that has happened on seven seperate occasions since the turn of the year.

The most startling statistic however is the increased in errors leading to goals. Of the 20 goals Arsenal have let in this calendar year, seven have been as a result of individual mistakes.

Arsenal errors leading to goals 2025/26

• 22 March. Arsenal 0-2 Manchester City - EFL Cup Final. Kepa Arrizabalaga 60'.

• 7 March. Mansfield Town 1-2 Arsenal - FA Cup Fifth Round. Marli Salmon 50'.

• 22 February. Tottenham Hotspur 1-4 Arsenal - Premier League. Declan Rice 34'.

• 18 February. Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-2 Arsenal - Premier League. David Raya 90+4'.

• 28 January. Arsenal 3-2 Kairat Almaty - Champions League. Riccardo Calafiori 7'.

• 25 January. Arsenal 2-3 Manchester United - Premier League. Martín Zubimendi 37'.

• 3 January. Bournemouth 2-3 Arsenal - Premier League. Gabriel 10'.

• 23 November. Arsenal 4-1 Tottenham Hotspur - Premier League. Martín Zubimendi 55'.

Amazingly, before the turn of the year, only Richarlison's wonder long-range strike for Tottenham, given the ball by Martín Zubimendi, counted as an error leading to goal by an Arsenal player.

Since then however, there have been seven incidences of this. These mistakes have been particularly costly in the 3-2 home defeat to Manchester United, and the 2-2 draw with rock-bottom Wolves, in which a mix up between David Raya and Gabriel presented Tom Edozie with a 94th minute equaliser.

Again at the weekend, Arrizabalaga was very lucky not to be sent off at Wembley by referee Peter Bankes for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity, following a tussle with Jérémy Doku. It mattered not because, ten minutes later, he let the ball go straight through his fingers as Man City found the breakthrough anyway.

With the Premier League title, FA Cup and Champions League all still on the line throughout April and May, Arteta's team need to cut out these errors.