MANCHESTER City produced an excellent display to beat Arsenal 2-0 in the Carabao Cup final, courtesy of two second half headers by 21-year-old Nico O’Reilly to give manager Pep Guardiola a record fifth win in the competition, reports the Voice of Sport from Wembley Stadium.
It was a tale of two keepers with Arsenal’s Kepa Arrizabalaga at fault for the first goal while City’s James Trafford’s triple saves at the start of the match proving the difference between the two teams.
Manchester City, who were dumped out of the Champions League earlier this week following a heavy loss to Real Madrid, started the game slowly and on the back foot but they came out of their shell to end the first half in the ascendancy. They dominated the opening twenty minutes of the second half where defender O’ Reilly popped up twice in the box to head home and seal City’s ninth EFL Cup win.
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Arsenal had not lost in two months and were unbeaten in 14 matches in all competitions, but today’s performance – and in particular their slow and poor second half in which they were far too defensive – closes all talk of a possible “quadruple” for the Londoners.
The result handed Mikel Arteta his first defeat either as player or manager at Wembley while Arsenal finish runners-up for a record seventh time.
While Arsenal did have recent success of beating City at Wembley by winning the 2023 Community Shield, this fixture represented a huge opportunity for both teams to win the first piece of silverware of the season, along with inflicting a potential psychological blow in the title race.
There were just seven shots in the first half proving how both teams were set up to cancel each other out and nullify all attacking threats. Both teams’ full backs performed very well leading to limited chances for either team.
Kai Havertz missed the first chance of the game after just six minutes when he was played through by Martin Zubimendi but took too long with his shot which was smothered by keeper Trafford, who also saved Bukayo Saka’s follow-up attempt.
Arsenal were the better team in the first 20 minutes with three shots on target, while City finally got going with their best piece of play coming down the right-hand side from a superb delivery from Antoine Semenyo which was just out of the reach of Erling Haaland. The winger was the best player for City in the opening half an hour beating Piero Hincapie twice down the right-hand side and was looking dangerous every time he had the ball.
Arteta decided against starting with David Raya in goal and instead went for Kepa with Viktor Gyokores up front, Kai Havertz in midfield, and Ben White ahead of Jurrien Timber. Meanwhile Manchester City made four changes with defender Ruben Dias dropping out for Nathan Ake, and Semenyo and O’Reilly also starting, while Marc Guehi was cup-tied.
City began the second half in complete contrast to the first, dominating possession perfectly while Arsenal could not get the ball out of their half. Kepa got himself in trouble as soon as the second half began when he came out of his box and got tangled with Jeremy Doku, picking up a yellow card in the process.
And the pressure told: just before the hour mark Rayan Cherki crossed from the right and Kepa failed to hold on the ball which fell to Nico O’Reilly; he outmuscled Zubimendi to head home into an empty net.
And they doubled their lead again just four minutes later when Matheus Nunes chipped a lovely ball from the right into the box and once again O’ Reilly was there to head the ball past an outstretched Kepa.
Arsenal had no choice now but to play with more urgency. Noni Madueke was brought on for Kai Havertz and Riccardo Calafiori replaced Hincapie. The closest they came in the second half was a looping header from substitute Gabriel Jesus which hit the crossbar, but aside from that they had nothing to cheer about though Riccardo Calafiori’s left footed shot fizzed past the post.
Arsenal were aiming to win their first trophy since the 2020 FA Cup Final which was Arteta’s only piece of silverware so far. Meanwhile Guardiola – widely regarded as one of the best football managers in history – had won an incredible nine trophies in the same six-year period including four Premier League titles.
The Gunners are nine points ahead of Manchester City – who have a game in hand – in the Premier League and are in the quarter finals of the Champions League and FA Cup and so their season may still end positively, but today they were once again bridesmaids to a classy and powerful City side led by relentless winner Guardiola who was in his 12th Cup Final overall.
The two teams still have to meet in a huge fixture in the league on April 19th, a game which will have a big bearing on where the Premier League title is heading this season.
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