James Trafford will start the EFL Cup final, Pep Guardiola has confirmed, but Manchester City will find themselves in the dark until the teams drop on Sunday, with Mikel Arteta refusing to confirm who will be in goal for Arsenal at Wembley.
Both teams have played their nominal back-up goalkeeper en route to the Wembley final, with Trafford and Kepa Arrizabalaga the only two ever-presents through the competition for their sides. The Manchester City goalkeeper will retain that status ahead of Gianluigi Donnarumma, who has started every Premier League and Champions League game since the start of September.
There was no such clarity from Arteta, who responded to questions over whether Kepa will keep his place over David Raya by saying, “We will see how everyone is tomorrow.” When it was put to him that Guardiola had confirmed who his goalkeeper will be, Arteta said: “Good for him.”
The Arsenal manager did acknowledge that changing his man between the posts is different to the rest of the team, where his options to rotate are numerous. “If you talk to the goalkeeping coaches, they are very special because they are always different. And they are different; it’s a position that is very specific.
“There is a lot of history about that as well that is very related to how people have made decisions in the past, and when something different happens, it sounds different at least. But we don’t know how it’s going to be in 10 or 20 years’ time.”
The clarity on City’s selection did not, however, preclude any questions over the status of Trafford, who has made no secret of his frustration at being thrust into the role of domestic cup goalkeeper. Before Donnarumma’s arrival, it had appeared that Trafford would be the successor to Ederson in the City side, but a shaky start to the season and the Italian’s availability from Paris Saint-Germain prompted a volte-face at the Etihad Stadium.
Guardiola said he had “nothing to say” in regard to Trafford’s statement in February that he “didn’t expect” to be consigned to the bench, adding: “Players can be happy, unhappy. It is what it is.
“They have to be here to do the best they can do, and after, we will see what happens at the end of the season. The important thing is they have to be ready.”
City have no fresh injury concerns going into a final where they will be without the ineligible Marc Guehi as well as long-term absentee Josko Gvardiol. Arsenal, meanwhile, will assess the fitness of Martin Odegaard and Jurrien Timber, the latter of whom has been called up to the Netherlands squad. “We have another training session [on Saturday], so the ones that are in contention, hopefully they can give us good news.”
Predicted lineups
Arsenal XI: Kepa Arrizabalaga; Jurrien Timber, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Piero Hincapie; Martin Zubimendi, Declan Rice; Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke; Kai Havertz
Manchester City XI: James Trafford; Matheus Nunes, Abdukodir Khusanov, Ruben Dias, Rayan Ait Nouri; Rayan Cherki, Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Jeremy Doku; Antoine Semenyo, Erling Haaland
Viewing information
- Date: Sunday, March 22 | Time: 12:30 p.m. ET
- Location: Wembley Stadium — London
- Live stream: Paramount+
- Odds: Arsenal +130; Draw +210; Manchester City +200
