Pep’s in it to win it as his trophy haul mounts up
MANCHESTER City have made winning the Carabao Cup a habit in recent years – and most would expect that to continue as they head into yet another final tomorrow.
Few who watched the holders swat aside their Wembley opponents Chelsea 6-0 in a Premier League match earlier this month could anticipate any other outcome.
Not only were City, managed by the ultra-demanding Pep Guardiola, at their dazzling best but Chelsea’s season, already starting to unravel, was apparently accelerating towards crisis.
It would certainly be some achievement for Maurizio Sarri to turn things around from there and deny City a fourth League Cup success in six years.
Adding to the scale of the task facing the Londoners, who also went out of the FA Cup in the past week, is the fact Guardiola has made clear he is taking the competition extremely seriously.
The Spaniard is fully aware of where the country’s second domestic knockout competition sits in the grand scheme of things, but his hunger for silverware is insatiable.
He readily counts Community Shields and Super Cups among his successes, taking his trophy tally in a decade of management at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City to 24 – and he clearly wants more.
Guardiola said: “I know it’s a competition, with all respect, that when you win and you are in the final you are so happy, but when you’re out you’re not sad.
“But once we are there we take every game seriously. We are in the final and we are, of course, going to try to win it.
“We have already won one title this season, the Community Shield, and I we have shown that every game is important.” TOWN visit Newcastle United knowing time is running out to kickstart a Premier League survival surge.
Victory for Rafa Benitez and his Newcastle side would leave them 17 points ahead of Town with just 11 matches to go.
Town are looking for a first win in 14 top-flight outings, but what is the deal from inside St James’ Park, where the story so often seems to be about what’s happening off the field rather than on it?
For the answers, we go to Newcastle Chronicle and ChronicleLive football reporter Sean McCormick :
BENITEZ seems to have settled on the current system of using three centre-halves with wing-backs in a kind of 5-2-2-1 system.
Against the bigger sides and particularly away from home, Newcastle have been pragmatic in their approach, staying compact at the back and limiting space in behind.
Then they have looked to catch teams on the break when the opportunity presents itself like they did against Wolves and Manchester City in recent weeks.