GUARD OF HONOURS

ARSENAL v MAN CITY TOMORROW, WEMBLEY, 4.30pm

PEP GUARDIOLA admits he needs trophies to be judged a success at Manchester City.

He has won plaudits for his team’s dazzling football, but knows it is silverware rather than style that goes down in the history books.

City meet Arsenal tomorrow in the League Cup Final and the Spaniard (above) said: “We have to lift titles to give more value to what we’ve done.

“In the beginning, in August, we said the same – that we would be judged on how many titles we win.

“In the five or six big clubs, it’s always the same, how many titles do you win. But at the same time, these eight months together – what we have lived

belongs to us. Every game we played, when we won, we were happy the day after.

“Of course, we will be judged on trophies and for the club it’s so important because it’s a club that needs to grow and grow and win titles. Hopefully on Sunday we will have the first one.”

Guardiola saw City’s hopes of the Quadruple ended by Wigan in the FA Cup on Monday, with Will Grigg (above) grabbing the winner, and he defended a comment he had made in September that the League Cup was “wasted energy”.

“The Carabao Cup is in October, November, December and January, it’s one of the toughest schedules,” he said yesterday. But if we weren’t interested in the competition, we’d have gone out in the first game.

“That didn’t happen. We played every game to win. We deserve to be in the final and we want to win it.”