Humbled 3-0 by Manchester City on Sunday, Arsenal cannot afford a repeat on Thursday if genuine ambitions still remain to claim a top four spot.

Victory would move Arsene Wenger's side to seven points behind Tottenham in the final Champions League place and provide a glimmer of hope.

Losing again would extinguish the flame and heap further scrutiny on a manager desperately trying to argue he deserves to stay in position in perpetuity.

Sportsmail examines what went wrong at Wembley and how Arsenal could produce a shock win.


Arsenal were humiliated by Manchester City in Sunday's Carabao Cup final at Wembley


The Gunners - 10 points adrift of fourth place - cannot afford another slip-up on Thursday night


Switch formation

Wenger's flirtation with a back-three system in the winter of his career has always seemed at odds with the players at his disposal and the tactics did not work in the League Cup final.

The personnel was significantly different to April's successful FA Cup semi-final, and this time City's wide players pinned Arsenal's full-backs so their attacking potential was nullified.

A 4-2-3-1 formation would create an extra man in midfield and limit the need for another central defender – a position Arsenal have long struggled with.

Sead Kolasinac and Hector Bellerin have enough energy to get up and down the flanks from a more conventional defensive start.


Hector Bellerin has the energy and dynamism to give City problems on the flanks on Thursday


Arsene Wenger surely won't go with a three-man defence again after Sunday's shambles


Work harder

Whatever the merits of Gary Neville's ultra critical assessment of Arsenal on Sunday, it is undeniable the hunger seemed to be absent all too quickly.

Wigan showed that City are beatable through determined effort, and in particular applying pressure at key moments.

Nobody expects Arsenal's players to run around at full pelt all game, but it was awkward to see some of them walking as City passed the ball around Wembley's wide expanse. Full athletic application is the minimum requirement against a side such as City.


Arsenal were accused of not putting in enough effort during their Cup final humiliation


Get the right midfield

It was three years ago now, but the high-point of Arsenal's recent battles with the top six came in the 2-0 win at City from January 2015.

The strength of that display came from a midfield duo of Francis Coquelin and Santi Cazorla, who controlled the pace of the game.

City are much improved of course, and those two players will not feature now, but the principle still applies.

Granit Xhaka has failed too many times to show reliability so perhaps it is time to replace him with a more orthodox defensive midfielder.

Mohamed Elneny would be disciplined in patrolling across the pitch to snuff out City attacks and the statistics back up his effectiveness.

Arsenal win 56.4 per cent with Elneny playing, and 45 per cent without, while the goals conceded per game goes down to one from 1.5.


Granit Xhaka has failed to show the required reliability in midfield for some time now


Mohamed Elneny could be a better option in the defensive midfield role against City


Maximise Mesut

Mesut Ozil remains a special player but all too frequently the German disappears in crunch games. This is an opportunity to challenge him to affect the contest decisively from his preferred No 10 role.

Ozil needs to get City's centre-backs fearing the pass in behind. Constantly forcing Vincent Kompany and Nicolas Otamendi to turn around, chasing runs by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, could expose their defensive deficiencies.


Mesut Ozil is Arsenal's main creative force but all-too-often disappears in the big games


Be stronger at set pieces

Pep Guardiola's side scoring through a blistering counter-attack or slick interchange of passes can sometimes not be helped. But twice on Sunday Arsenal conceded when the ball was dead.

Claudio Bravo registering an assist

Expected Results: Over 2.5 goals

Source: www.surepredicts.com

.