Nico O’Reilly scored a second half brace as Manchester City defeated Arsenal 2-0 at Wembley to win the Carabao Cup.
After a first half of few clear-cut chances, City dominated the second half from the off but it was not until an hour in that they made that pressure pay.
A looping ball in from Rayan Cherki saw Kepa Arrizabalaga make a howling error, dropping the ball into the path of O’Reilly, who made no mistake in heading home from close range.
Arsenal were shell shocked and with Noni Madeueke and Riccardo Calafiori preparing to come on, things got even worse for Mikel Arteta.
This time, following some quality build-up play from City, the ball was clipped in by Matheus Nunes across the box and it went all the way from right back to left back, as O’Reilly scored his second.
Arsenal came close to scoring on two occasions, with Calafiori striking the right post from a superb volley, before Gabriel Jesus’ header hit the cross bar and bounced away fortunately for City.
Pep Guardiola’s side put in a performance that will have caught the eye though, with the two sides going up against each other on April 18 in what is a pivotal match in the Premier League title race.
City trail Arsenal by nine points heading into the international break, but with a game in hand and the game against Arsenal to come, that gap could yet get significantly closer in the coming weeks.