Carabao Cup elimination poses mindset concerns for Arsenal

LONDON — The result didn’t really matter to Arsenal on Wednesday, but the performance did. The Carabao Cup was never going to define the Gunners’ season, but a dreadful 3-1 defeat at West Ham raises questions that will linger beyond their fourth round elimination.

Ahead of this match, Mikel Arteta charged his players to demonstrate the mindset necessary to maintain a high standard, impervious to changes in competition. It was a challenge they unequivocally missed, putting in arguably their worst performance of the season and raising doubts about the competitions they are interested in.

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“What it shows is that in football what matters is the day,” Arteta said. “What you did three days ago doesn’t matter, what happens tomorrow is the most important thing.

“We have to use this defeat, this pain, to prepare the best way to go to Newcastle on Saturday and win.”

There was a degree of discord around the opening goal as goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale appeared to have his shirt taken off by Tomás Soucek moments before Ben White headed Jarrod Bowen’s 16th-minute corner into his own net.

Arsenal made their case, but as VAR was not used in the Carabao Cup until the semi-final, their protests fell on deaf ears.

“If there is VAR, there is certainly no goal,” Arteta said. “I understand that for the referees it is difficult because of the angle and the number of people there but I don’t want to use that as an excuse.

“We can still compete for the ball much better than we did and in this position. Obviously it takes [away] something very important in the game: dynamics.”

The fight wore out from Arsenal shortly after. Bowen almost doubled the lead seconds after the restart as Ramsdale saved well, but West Ham did not have to wait long as Mohamed Kudus produced a superb check and finished on 50 minutes to double their lead.

Bowen fired a third 10 minutes later, with which Ramsdale arguably could have done better, although it took a slight deflection from Jakub Kiwior along the way. Ramsdale had to wait since the previous round at Brentford on September 27 for a chance to impress when David Raya usurped him in goal, but he did little here to further his case.

Arteta believes Raya is more adept at playing from the back. Ramsdale had the worst pass success rate (74.1%) of any Arsenal player here and West Ham managed five shots in the entire match, scoring three times.

Kai Havertz spent the evening on the periphery after a strong start, Oleksandr Zinchenko was taken off after another shaky defensive performance while Fabio Vieira took a step back after several promising performances as a substitute.

But it wasn’t a one-man night for Arsenal. It was a collective failure to take responsibility that will have infuriated Arteta, a throwback to the dark early days of his reign when he fought to win the dressing room.

Arteta later denied it, but the introduction of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli at 3-0 looked like a pointed message to his underperforming players, one he doubled down on with 10 minutes to go by featuring Martin Odegaard despite being rested last weekend as he deals with a hip problem.

Odegaard scored a smart consolation goal deep into stoppage time, but it failed to mask the mayhem that preceded.

“I’m very disappointed,” Arteta said. “I am responsible for that. We are eliminated from the cup and we wanted to play a very different game. Above all, we wanted to compete in a very different way, as we discussed for 48 hours, in a very different way for what we have done. “

Before the arrival of Odegaard, Saka and Martinelli, Declan Rice made his first appearance at the London Stadium since leaving the Hammers for £105 million in the summer. A mix of boos and applause greeted his return and those who disparaged their former captain rejoiced at the lack of impact from Rice and his more vaunted colleagues.

“Maybe we are becoming a good cup team,” West Ham boss David Moyes said. “I want to be a really good championship team if I can be. But if I can’t do that, then I need to do well in the cup if we can.”

Arsenal have proven themselves to be a “very good Championship team” under Arteta. But to maintain and improve this reputation, evenings like this must be quickly left behind.