Nico O’Reilly stamped his name in Manchester City folklore with two Wembley goals that secured a Carabao Cup Final win over Arsenal.
O’Reilly, the day after his 21st birthday, struck with two headers in four second-half minutes to secure City’s ninth League Cup title and Pep Guardiola’s fifth as boss, making him the most successful manager in the competition’s history.
The first was a gift from Gunners keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, fumbling a cross for the City academy product to nod in, and the second was a well-placed header into the bottom corner.
It puts City’s name back on a trophy they have had a stranglehold of in recent years, winning it four times back-to-back between 2018 and 2021 and having prevailed in nine of the last 14 finals.
This was the first time a Carabao Cup Final had been contested by the current top two in England’s top flight and Arsenal, who sit nine points above their opponents in the Premier League title race, actually settled into proceedings quickest, looking to turn around the City defence as often as possible.
There were early signs it might be a fruitful approach, as Gyokeres got to the by-line for a pull-back that failed to find Kai Havertz and James Trafford was called on to make an incredible triple save, first parrying a Havertz effort and then repelling Saka’s two attempts on the rebound.
Piero Hincapie headed over from a Bukayo Saka corner as the Gunners continued to press, but City slowly grew into the game as the first half wore on and nearly went ahead just before the break, with Erling Haaland’s stretching header missing the target.
City carried that momentum into the second period as Haaland almost wriggled free in the area before being snuffed out by Arsenal bodies.
And Gunners keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga found himself in a muddle when coming out of his area to deal with a high, bouncing ball, only to misjudge the flight before pulling back the on-rushing Jeremy Doku. The Spanish stopper saw yellow and Antonie Semenyo curled the resulting free-kick past the post.
City’s pressure gradually became relentless, as Rodri, Semenyo and Haaland all saw half-chances go by, before O’Reilly struck in the 60th minute.
And it came courtesy of a Kepa mistake, with the keeper fumbling Rayan Cherki’s cross from the by-line, allowing O’Reilly to head in from two yards out and send the sky blue half of Wembley into raptures.
That noise increased just four minutes later, with Matheus Nunes clipping a ball across goal from an almost identical spot as Cherki had done just moments earlier and O’Reilly was on hand again to nod past Kepa.
Arsenal tried to shift the momentum, with Riccardo Calafiori seeing a header and then a rasping shot miss the target, as the Gunners pursued a first Carabao Cup win in 33 years.
But this was to be City’s day, as they comfortably saw out the closing stages to move to within one success of Liverpool’s record 10 triumphs in the competition.
Arsenal: Arrizabalaga, Trossard, White, Rice, Havertz, Saka, Gyökeres, Gabriel Magalhães, Hincapié, Saliba, Zubimendi
Subs: Nørgaard, Raya, Gabriel Jesus, Madueke, Gabriel Martinelli, Calafiori, Lewis-Skelly, Mosquera, Dowman
Manchester City: Aké, Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Haaland, Doku, Trafford, Semenyo, Matheus Nunes, Cherki, O'Reilly, Khusanov
Subs: Donnarumma, Foden, Reijnders, Omar Marmoush, Aït-Nouri, González, Savinho, Kovacic, Stones