LONDON — A second-half brace from Nico O’Reilly ensured Manchester City beat Arsenal 2-0 in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final to earn Pep Guardiola’s 19th trophy in charge of the club.
After a cagey opening 45 minutes of few chances at Wembley, Man City upped the tempo and scored on the hour mark after a bad mistake from Gunners stand-in goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga. Kepa could only get his fingertips to Rayan Cherki’s cross and O’Reilly beat Martín Zubimendi to the loose ball for a simple close-range header.
City doubled their lead four minutes later as Cherki releases Matheus Nunes and his cross found O’Reilly in a similar position to score.
With the result, Arsenal’s hopes of an unprecedented quadruple are over and their six-year wait for a trophy goes on. Meanwhile, City will hope this victory can inspire them to overhaul a nine-point deficit to the Gunners in the Premier League. — James Olley
– Premier League Power Rankings: Why Arsenal dropped below Man City
– No plan, no fight: Spurs near relegation after limp loss to Forest
– UWCL quarterfinal predictions: Will Arsenal beat Chelsea?
Passive Arsenal’s trophy drought continues
Arsenal have occupied a curious position for a while: they were in the hunt for a Quadruple while also facing questions over their ability to win any silverware at all.
The Gunners’ last trophy was the 2020 FA Cup but manager Mikel Arteta’s transformational job in the interim has positioned them on the brink of greatness. After three consecutive second-place finishes in the Premier League, the one remaining ask of them — and it is a big one — is this: can they get over the line and win?
The answer here at Wembley, yet again, was no. They ultimately paid the price for being too passive, concerned primarily with keeping City out rather than injecting enough risk in their play to create chances.
After an opening salvo, Arsenal sat deep and struggled to exert any sustained pressure, and their second-half showing was alarmingly underwhelming. Yet, they have a healthy nine-point lead at the top of the table, an inviting Champions League quarterfinal tie against Sporting Lisbon and an FA Cup quarter-final at Championship side Southampton.
Their season could still be spectacular. But trophies don’t often come to you — you tend to have to reach out and grab them. Arsenal’s ability to do that is still in doubt. — Olley
Man City put Arsenal on notice in Premier League race
Speaking at his pre-match news conference on Friday, Guardiola was reluctant to make any link between possible victory over Arsenal in the final having an impact in the title race.
“We could play good in the final and then bad in the league,” was his conclusion.
It’s a fair point, but one which ignores the nerves in Arsenal’s fanbase as they chase a first Premier League title in more than 20 years. Nine points clear, it’s theirs to lose. But City have a game in hand and Arsenal still have to travel to the Etihad in April. One slip up from Arteta’s team and it’s game on.
There were no league points on offer at Wembley, but there will be plenty of Arsenal fans heading home after the game nervous about what’s to come over the next few weeks.
The question all season has been about whether they have the mentality to get over the line when it really matters. In an age driven by data and statistics, it’s impossible to quantify what losing a cup final to City will do to their confidence.
It’s something that will only be answered on the pitch, starting with their next league game against Bournemouth at the Emirates on April 11. — Rob Dawson
O’Reilly the face of Man City’s new era
For Bernardo Silva, this was a fifth Carabao Cup final win. But for others, including match-winner O’Reilly, it was a first medal in City colours. Siva is one of the last remaining players of the treble-winning 2022-23 team. He’s likely to leave in the summer — possibly with Guardiola.
City’s new team has already started to evolve around him, built around younger players like Marc Guéhi, Antoine Semenyo and Rayan Cherki. O’Reilly, a graduate of the club’s academy, is another important piece.
He turned 21 the day before the Carabao Cup final and could yet have another decade in the first-team. He started at left-back against Arsenal — a position he could fill for England at the World Cup — but it’s likely that eventually nail down a place in midfield, the position he played regularly as he came through the ranks.
Wherever he plays, O’Reilly will become one of the faces of City’s new era. One without Guardiola or long-serving stalwarts like Silva. Depending on the next two months play out, this could end up being Guardiola’s last trophy at City. It’s likely to be the first of many for O’Reilly. — Dawson
Backup goalkeepers help decide the Carabao Cup
Neither team fielded their first-choice goalkeeper here. Guardiola confirmed on Friday that James Trafford would start for City while Arteta admitted he had made his decision but did not publicly state Kepa would play.
The pair could not have had more contrasting fortunes. While Trafford made a superb triple save from Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka (twice) in the seventh minute to stifle Arsenal’s positive start, Kepa made the mistake which turned a tight contest in City’s favour. The Spaniard could only get his fingertips to Rayan Cherki’s 60th-minute cross, taking all the pace off the ball as it dropped behind him, where O’Reilly stooped to head in.
Kepa’s complicated relationship with this fixture continues: he sensationally refused to be substituted when Chelsea lost the 2019 final to City and then missed in the shootout as the Blues were beaten by Liverpool on penalties three years later.
Kepa started every game in this competition and the decision to continue was perfectly logical in theory but David Raya is one of the best in the world these days and leaving him out may be a source of regret for Arteta. Trafford is likely to leave City after joining last summer expecting a prominent role, only for Gianluigi Donnarumma to join afterwards and usurp him. His time at City may be short but he played a key role in having something to show for it. — Olley
Haaland still in search of his goal in a final
There were questions but to Guardiola earlier in the season — when Erling Haaland was banging in goals every week — about whether City were too reliant on their Norwegian striker.
Well Haaland drew another blank at Wembley and yet Guardiola’s team still found a way to win. Haaland has looked short of his best for a while now and it continued against Arsenal. He hasn’t scored in a final since the 2021 German cup final when he was playing for Borussia Dortmund.
In the end it didn’t matter. O’Reilly popped up from left-back to score two opportunistic headers in the space of four second half minutes and it was enough to win.
It earned O’Reilly the man-of-the-match award, but it could have quite easily gone to Cherki. The Frenchman was involved in both goals as he buzzed around Arsenal’s box. In a tight game decided by fine margins, he was one of the few players who looked like he had enough space to create genuine chances.
He’s having an impressive first season at City following his summer move from Lyon and he’s capped it with at least one trophy. There’s far more to come from a young player with a very high ceiling. — Dawson
