...while City and Chelsea eye Wembley silverware

PEP GUARDIOLA’S repudiation of the idea that Manchester City might win a quadruple of trophies was spikier than ever.

‘How many times in England does one team win four titles in one season?’ he demanded to know, as he prepared for today’s Carabao Cup final with Chelsea. ‘Don’t put that pressure on our shoulders, because we don’t deserve it.

‘First for the club we are, for the history. Sir Alex Ferguson’s incredible United? He never did it. Liverpool, in the Eighties, how many Champions Leagues they have in their pockets? They didn’t do it. So don’t put the pressure on one team in February. You sell something that is not true. After that you say: “They fail. Manchester City fail because they don’t win four titles. They only win three titles”.’

Pep’s comparison with those other clubs betrayed the insecurity which, for all their talents, City still sometimes display in the darker moments. What they still lack is an era in which they have been able to say they were serial winners: indisputably the best in the land.

City have not once retained a cup in 139 years of history. Their tally of eight trophies in the last eight years is no more, nor less, than decent for a club who by last spring had spent £775million on players. Their 15 cups, excluding Charity Shield and second-tier prizes, pales by comparison with Liverpool’s 43 and United’s 45.

‘Maybe for United and Liverpool it is not important,’ said Guardiola. ‘In their trophy cabinet, they have many titles. But it is not our case. Retaining a title will be good, playing a final will be good and always will help us grow as a club.’

This trophy still carries significance, despite sounding very much like what Liverpool’s Phil Thompson once described as ‘the Mickey Mouse Cup’ when Liverpool were winning it as a matter of routine in the Eighties. City have won it four times in the past six seasons, but a fifth would be a building block towards a sense that they are ready to step onto a higher plane.

‘For the players coming and managers in the future, they have to know how to arrive in the last stages for all the titles,’ reflected Guardiola. ‘That is what I count when I build a big, big club.