City spike Gunners for Cup
Guardiola’s lads nab his first big trophy at helm with 3-0 win
Manchester City completed part one of a possible treble yesterday, winning the League Cup final in style with a comprehensive 3-0 win over a defensively absentminded Arsenal.
It was the first major English trophy for City manager Pep Guardiola in his second season at the helm. His counterpart, Arsene Wenger, has never won the League Cup since he became Arsenal’s manager in 1996, and the stinging defeat at Wembley Stadium puts his position at the club under further pressure.
City looked a completely different team from the start of the week, when the team crashed out of the FA Cup in a 1-0 loss to Wigan last week that ended its hopes for a quadruple.
City still has a chance to win the Champions League and Premier League, where its lead at the top of the table was cut to 13 points after a 2-1 win by Manchester United over Chelsea.
Guardiola viewed the trophy as a springboard for future team success, rather than focusing on it as a personal achievement.
“It’s important to win titles because maybe it will help us to win the next games in the Premier League, and win the league,” he said. Coincidentally, City faces Arsenal next in the league on Friday.
Sergio Aguero gave City the lead in the 18th minute against Arsenal after an atrocious defensive error from defender Shkodran Mustafi, who misjudged a direct long ball launched from goalkeeper Claudio Bravo and allowed Aguero a free run on goal.
City captain Vincent Kompany doubled the scoreline when he diverted a shot from Ilkay Gundogan into the bottom corner in the 58th, courtesy of more poor defending from Arsenal before David Silva scored City’s third goal seven minutes later with a low angled shot.
Arsenal supporters started heading for the exits after Silva’s goal with shouts of “Wenger Out” and ironically chanting “There’s only one Arsene Wenger.”
The Gunners continued to pressure City and they looked like they might just repeat their FA Cup suc- cesses at Wembley, after winning that competition three times in the last four seasons including 2017.
But Arsenal’s casual defending was the team’s undoing again.
In the premier league, substitute Jesse Lingard’s late header capped a comeback for Manchester United in a 2-1 win over Chelsea. United regained second place with the result and is now 13 points behind City, which has a game in hand.
The defeat means Chelsea is now in fifth place, two points behind Totttenham.
It was Harry Kane to the rescue with a late winner for Spurs in a 1-0 win away at Crystal Palace. The home team was well organised and appeared to be on the verge of taking a point before the England striker’s header from a corner beat Palace goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey in the 88th.
The result moved Spurs up into fourth, two points behind third-place Liverpool.
For Palace, a draw would have lifted the team a point clear of the bottom three and it remains just above the drop zone on goal difference. — AP SCOTLAND SPAIN