If you wanted a quiet evening out on Sunday, north London might be your best option.
Just hours after Tottenham Hotspur lost 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest to stare the threat of Premier League relegation squarely in the monocle, Arsenal surrendered to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final.
Nico O'Reilly scored twice for his boyhood club as Pep Guardiola won this trophy yet again. Arsenal, English football's immovable object this season, looked frozen in the limelight of Wembley Stadium. This was the least significant trophy they hoped to win this year, but this final was supposed to be about more than just silverware: it was an opportunity to launch a dynasty, to put Pep and City in their place, to maintain a challenge for football's Holy Grail.
The Gunners' chance of winning the quadruple was not an idle terrace daydream. It was a tangible opportunity, the pathway plotted with precision, the obstacles simply a part of the process, like figuring out how to get through a crowded box at a set-piece.
That chance evaporated quicker than the pre-match red smoke on Wembley Way. The dynasty was cancelled with less fanfare than the TV reboot. The possibility of the greatest ever season was ruined by the worst 90 minutes Mikel Arteta has overseen for months.
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Only two teams have won the treble in the Premier League era (the league, FA Cup and Champions League in the same season), and both were eliminated from the League Cup in those seasons at the quarterfinal stage: Manchester United lost 3-1 at Tottenham in 1999, and Man City were upset 2-0 by Southampton in 2023.
In fact, the team that got closest to a sweep of all four only managed to win two in the end. Liverpool were Carabao and FA Cup winners in 2021/22, lost out in the title race to City by a point on the final day of the season, and lost the Champions League final to Real Madrid by a single goal. It was only City's dramatic 3-2 comeback win over Aston Villa on matchday 38, inspired by Ilkay Gundogan, that denied Liverpool the chance of heading to Paris as winners of a domestic treble. In that scenario, it's hard to imagine they would have fallen to a good but flawed Madrid side.
Jurgen Klopp's team were granted similar strokes of fortune to Arteta's Arsenal. Both teams had kind draws in the early rounds of the domestic cups. Arsenal were rewarded for topping the league phase by being placed in a very soft Champions League bracket, with Bayer Leverkusen and Sporting CP their opponents before the semifinals; four years ago, Liverpool had to beat a good Inter Milan side in the Round of 16, but then faced Benfica and Villarreal.
The big difference is the league. From this stage of the 2021/22 Premier League right to the end, Liverpool were behind City — arguably the greatest City team ever assembled — in the standings. They chased admirably, remarkably, ending the season with 92 points, the eighth-highest tally in the competition's history.
The City of 2025/26 isn't close to the standard of four years ago. Arsenal's title challenge has been largely, well, unchallenged. They, like Liverpool in 2022, have been dealt kind draws in the early rounds of the two domestic cups and the Champions League knockouts, but the relentlessness of the title pursuit, knowing a single dropped point could be fatal, has not existed this season.
Losing a cup final is no disgrace, especially against a Guardiola team. But to lose in the manner they did, and to surrender that quadruple dream so meekly, will be hard for fans to stomach.
This can still be a fabulous season for Arsenal, perhaps even one of unparalleled success for the club. But the chance to make history was theirs, and they baulked at it.