Arsenal pay the price for Arsene Wenger's gross mismanagement in EFL Cup final defeat to Manchester City

In the end, it was referee Craig Pawson who delivered the most withering assessment of Arsenal. Amid fevered Manchester City celebrations that greeted the final whistle, Arsene Wenger questioned the officials over their addition of just three added minutes at the end of the second half.

“Why do you want more time?” Wenger claimed Pawson told him. It is a question somebody should have asked Wenger at the end of last season when fighting for a new contract. It is one that could have been put to him in 2014 when his previous deal expired, too.

Both occasions, Wenger retained his position based on a belief he was best placed to lead Arsenal back to competing for the game’s biggest prizes.

Yet on a day when Pep Guardiola achieved affirmation of his place as football’s leading managerial thinker with a first trophy in England, Wenger and Arsenal look further away from that than ever. There is no shame in losing to this City side given the stunning combination of attacking talent, purpose and poise with which they now operate under Guardiola but they didn’t have to be anywhere near their best to win the Carabao Cup yesterday.

Arsenal could have come out bristling with defiance and conviction — they are still capable of it on any given day — but instead they fell into a familiar pattern of absent-minded defending and anonymity in attack.

These are cyclical failings for which Wenger is ultimately responsible. The Frenchman can highlight, as he did, mitigating factors on the day such as Leroy Sane standing in an offside position for the second goal or a missed chance early on as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang failed to convert from close range but these arguments are mere footnotes to the gross mismanagement of a team that has fallen into a state of disrepair.

The failure, once again, in recent transfer windows to bring in both a physically commanding centre-back or a bonafide holding midfielder is felt acutely on days like this. Skhodran Mustafi’s defending for Sergio Aguero’s goal was shambolic, as was allowing Ilkay Gundogan such freedom to turn Kevin De Bruyne’s corner into the box for Vincent Kompany to steer home Arsenal’s second. Wenger’s decision to select Callum Chambers was baffling and he was turned all too easily by David Silva, who smashed home a third.

Signing Aubameyang while opting not to strengthen their defence is akin to buying state-of-the-art CCTV for the front of your house while choosing to leave the back door wide open and wondering how you were robbed. The point about spending money is that it still has to be done well and with a coherent plan. Mustafi cost £35m, Granit Xhaka a little less, yet were among the worst players here.

Arsenal actually started reasonably well yet their inability to respond after falling behind revealed a staggering lack of hunger and application that reflects badly on Wenger. He abhors confrontation and refused to criticise his players publicly but behind the scenes home truths must be aired.

Nobody with a genuine affection for football wants Wenger hounded out but he continues to cling onto a job he deserves only on the basis of past successes which become more distant with each damaging setback. As first reported by this newspaper last month, there is a growing feeling this could be Wenger’s last season as Arsenal manager. He would ideally like to see out next year but the justification for doing so would be purely sentimental unless Arsenal can win the Europa League.

No other way back looks possible. There is now a 10-point gap between Arsenal and the top four — they simply do not look capable of putting together a consistent run of form to overhaul such a deficit in their final 11 games.

A second year without Champions League football would be a significant blow to Arsenal’s finances and make the club an even harder sell to prospective new signings. The wagons are circling all around Wenger. Above him, his power is receding as chief executive Ivan Gazidis moves the club towards a more continental infrastructure in which the head coach is a component part, not its epicentre. Underneath him, the players throw in performances like this. Time is running out for Wenger to prove his position is not untenable.