The last time Manchester City and Arsenal faced each other in the League Cup final, Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta sat side by side in the Wembley dugout as head coach and assistant before celebrating as their City team destroyed the Gunners 3-0 and claimed the first of piece of silverware of the former's time in England. The rampant win only crystalized the widening gap between the two clubs.
City and Arsenal had never previously considered themselves rivals until Sheikh Mansour and the United Arab Emirates set their sights on the blue half of Manchester and quickly established a new empire to compete with the established order, of which the Gunners were one of the proud leaders.
City's already striking land grab of English football was turbocharged by Guardiola's appointment, and Arsenal threatened to be confined to irrelevance as a result. That was until Arteta switched sides and returned to the club where he had spent the final years of his playing career.
Having watched Arsenal's decline under Arsene Wenger from the inside, Arteta was uniquely placed to plot the club's resurgence. He developed his own critique and as coach has reshaped Arsenal in his own direction. The Spaniard has veered from the irresistible but often naive style Wenger was renowned for and instead embraced a more scientific vision of football, prioritising physical prowess and efficiency at scoring from set pieces over joie de vivre.
Like it or loathe it, Arteta has turned Arsenal into a formidable force that have reined City in and risen above them. They are nine points clear of Guardiola's side in the title race and are in the Champions League quarter-finals while the Blues are licking their wounds from yet another elimination at the hands of Real Madrid.
At Wembley on Sunday, Arsenal will be hoping to cement all the progress they have made under Arteta and beat City in the Carabao Cup final to claim the first of what could be an incredible four trophies. Guardiola has, meanwhile, admitted that his side are, for once, the underdogs: "We challenge the best team in England, the best team in Europe."
GOAL charts the history of a rivalry that has been bubbling away for years and has finally reached boiling point...