Pep Guardiola set off down the touchline, unleashing his inner Jose Mourinho on a joyous run into the history books. Given how much else Guardiola has achieved, a fifth League Cup – more than any other manager in the competition’s history – may be a footnote. But a first trophy for his new-look Manchester City side has a significance for Guardiola, offering proof of his ability to renew and revive.
And denying his former assistant Mikel Arteta silverware, and a quadruple, meant this was not the day to prove there has been a changing of the guard. Guardiola is still a serial winner, Arteta a manager accustomed to coming second to his old mentor. A day when Arsenal paid a price for both their dullness and the lone risk Arteta took – in his choice of goalkeeper – was an occasion when City could celebrate one of their own.
Blimey O’Reilly? There have been points in Nico O’Reilly’s remarkable rise when the temptation has been to assume he cannot continue defying logic. A Wembley brace in four minutes instead felt the most extraordinary element of it. The secret to breaking down Arsenal’s robust, redoubtable defence, it transpired, was to have a marauding left-back who materialised in the centre-forward position.
Arsenal had only lost three games all season; but then they encountered O’Reilly, who ensured it mattered not that Erling Haaland extended his drought both at Wembley and in finals for City. The penalty-box poacher instead was O’Reilly, a midfielder for much of his life, a defender now and yet only the second player – after Alejandro Garnacho – to score twice in a game against Arsenal this season.
The man with the Manchester telephone code tattooed on his body may want to mark other numbers; 2-0, for instance. And while City’s rebuild has required some distinctly large figures, with around £430m spent in the last three transfer windows, it was the man on their books since the age of eight who earned Guardiola his 19th trophy with City.
There were some similarities with his second Carabao Cup, though, as Arteta ought to remember; he was Guardiola’s sidekick in the 2019 final when Kepa Arrizabalaga refused to come off so the penalty specialist Willy Caballero could take his place in the Chelsea net for the shootout.
Seven years on, Arteta, the manager who usually leaves nothing to chance, chose one Spaniard instead of another, benching David Raya. Sadly for Arrizabalaga, he became the calamity Kepa again.
There had already been one lapse of judgement from him, leaving his penalty area, being fooled by a bouncing ball, tugging back Jeremy Doku. He was spared a red card by the acute angle. But City could be glad he was still on when he spilled Rayan Cherki’s cross to leave the predatory O’Reilly with a tap-in.
The second goal was full-back to full-back, City outflanking Arsenal as Matheus Nunes crossed for O’Reilly to beat Bukayo Saka to it to head in. Cue Guardiola’s touchline charge, a brown-trousered figure heading towards his players, leaving the four-time winners Sir Alex Ferguson, Brian Clough and Mourinho behind him in the all-time standings.
For O’Reilly, it was quite a weekend in another respect. He has come of age, in more ways than one. He turned 21 on Saturday. His birthday may forever remain less memorable than the afternoon after the day before, however: a Wembley double.
He had been recalled and it was a day when Guardiola’s decisions, whether enforced or inspired, paid off. Cherki sparkled in the second half, justifying his inclusion. Nathan Ake’s return was the consequence of losing Ruben Dias; with Marc Guehi ineligible and Josko Gvardiol already injured, City nevertheless shut Arsenal out.
If it shaped up as the duel of the second-string goalkeepers, City’s was superb when called upon. James Trafford made a seventh-minute triple save to deny Kai Havertz and Saka.
For the first half, it seemed a case of Arteta’s grind to glory, a slugfest of the unimaginative when Arsenal seemed marginally the likelier to prevail.
Then City raised the tempo, showed more ambition and ruthlessness and illustrated that Arsenal needed to create more when they were marginally the superior side. They missed Eberechi Eze, ruled out, and Martin Odegaard, not fit to return, but they were too drab.
When Arteta tried to respond in kind after O’Reilly struck, it was with a goalscoring left-back. The substitute Riccardo Calafiori volleyed against the foot of the post; yet it was an indictment of his teammates that the Italian was the greatest goal threat. Another replacement, Gabriel Jesus looped a header on to the bar.
He had seemed a winner imported from City. And yet Arsenal’s wait goes on, even if perhaps not for much longer. Arteta has been stuck on one major trophy for almost six years, since the 2020 FA Cup final.
Guardiola first won at Wembley as a Barcelona player in the 1992 European Cup final and has rarely returned here since then as an underdog. But as he did, he reminded Arteta he can still be top dog.
