A gateway had opened for Arsenal in the last few weeks of this football season. When they arrived at Wembley on Sunday afternoon, there was a feeling that if they could march through it, then the promised land would open up before them and its bounty would be theirs to claim.
The two best teams in the country cancelled each other out in a first-half notable only for its sterility but in the second-half, City overwhelmed the Premier League leaders. At times, their dominance was so complete, it seemed as if Arsenal must be playing with 10 men. Or even nine.
Arsenal were undone, initially, by a dreadful error from second-string goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who gifted City their first goal. But the level to which they were outplayed by City will have dismayed their supporters. There were periods they could barely escape from their own area.
For City, this 2-0 victory in the Carabao Cup final, the first showpiece occasion of the season, represented a surge of renewal after a difficult period where they were knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid and have fallen nine points behind Arsenal in the Premier League.
This triumph will give them hope that they can catch Arsenal. It will give them hope that they have struck a psychological blow against a team whose supporters live in fear that a collapse is coming. They had begun to banish those fears. This defeat by Guardiola’s side will reawaken them.
It certainly seemed to have breathed new life and a shot of joy into Guardiola. When Nico O’Reilly, the academy kid who turned 21 on Saturday and is the proud wearer of that 0161 tattoo, scored the second of his two goals early in the second half, Guardiola raced down the touchline Jose Mourinho-style, his delight unconstrained.
Nico O’Reilly scored twice for Manchester City as they beat Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final
Arsenal’s second-choice goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga had gifted the Gunners the opener as he flapped at a cross
The win means City have drawn first blood in the title race, with Arsenal currently out in front
So any hope of the Quadruple is over for Arsenal. The bigger question is how much they will be able to compartmentalise the disappointment of this defeat. The truth is that, if there was one trophy they could have chosen to sacrifice, it would have been this one. They have bigger prizes to chase.
The danger is that the pain of this defeat by City will bleed into other competitions, particularly the Premier League. Arsenal are nine points clear of Guardiola’s team but City have a game in hand and the two teams still have to meet at the Etihad on April 19.
Arsenal have shown their resilience already this season in the face of those who have prophesied their demise and predicted a fatal loss of nerve. Now, that resilience will face its acid test.
Arsenal dominated the early stages of the match and created a flurry of chances in a hectic scramble. James Trafford, who has started in all City’s Carabao Cup games, was equal to them all. He was out fast to block a shot from Havertz, then he pushed out the follow-up from Bukayo Saka before denying Saka a second time.
It was a long time before there were openings like that again. Or anything resembling that amount of excitement. Or, frankly, anything to quicken the pulse. The rest of the half descended into a dour, tense war of attrition, with neither side giving any quarter. Both sides cancelled each other out.
The fiercest battle was between William Saliba and Erling Haaland. It started in the first few seconds when Haaland charged into the Arsenal half after the kick-off and Saliba and Gabriel tag-teamed him to block his run.
Haaland targeted Saliba, perhaps with the idea that he could overpower him physically, but Saliba was more than a match for him. Any time the ball was lifted towards Haaland, the two men wrestled furiously to contest it. It was always Saliba who came out on top.
Haaland had one sniff of a chance. Antoine Semenyo beat Piero Hincapie wide on the right and drove in a cross to the near post. Haaland had stolen a yard on Saliba but when he tried to glance the ball goalwards, it flew just in front of him.
There were periods of play in the second-half when Arsenal could hardly get out their own half
Defeat by Pep Guardiola’s side will reawaken Arsenal, whose supporters are worried that the team could collapse at any time
In a game of attack versus defence, Erling Haaland struggled – but that did not matter to City
The first-half was an advert for sterility. The second started differently, mainly because Arrizabalaga made a dreadful mess of coming out to try to clear a long ball forward from Matheus Nunes.
Arrizabalaga misjudged the bounce of the ball and then desperately tried to stop Jeremy Doku wriggling away from him and latching on to it. He wrestled and grappled with him so much, he was shown a yellow card. Semenyo wasted the free kick.
Then, as the clock ticked towards an hour, the monotony was punctured. City pressed Arsenal back on to the edge of their own penalty area and Arsenal simply could not get out. It started to resemble a game of attack versus defence.
And finally, Arsenal’s resistance crumbled. Rayan Cherki turned away from Leandro Trossard on the right and found enough space to drive a cross into the six-yard-box. It was straight at Arrizabalaga but it was rising and as the goalkeeper tried to pluck it out of the air, it slipped through his fingers and bounced up invitingly.
Martin Zubimendi and O’Reilly, who grew up in Collyhurst, a suburb of east Manchester not far from the Etihad, both went for it and O’Reilly got there first. He lunged at it with his head and nodded it over the line. The goal was scored in front of Wembley’s City section. It was a festival of blue and joy.
Four minutes later, City doubled their advantage. The goal came from the same area but this time, City did not need an error from Arrizabalaga. This time, Nunes drifted a lovely ball to the back post and O’Reilly came steaming in, burst ahead of Saka and guided a perfect header across Arrizabalaga and into the net.
Arsenal’s response was muted. For those expecting a furious reaction, it never came. Riccardo Calafiori drove a volley across the face of Trafford’s goal but City were allowed to play out the game in relative serenity.
In the titanic struggles that will decide where the big prizes go this season, City have drawn first blood.
