Created on: February 27, 2018 10:58 pm
Last Updated: February 27, 2018 10:58 pm
Footage of the amazing scenes amongst Manchester City’s squad following their Carabao Cup final victory over Arsenal on Sunday has come to the fore online this evening.
Matchup
The two sides went head to head at Wembley, with Arsenal having been particularly desperate for a positive result following their dismal season to this point.
The Gunners currently sit in 6th-place in the Premier League table, and have already seen their chances of retaining their FA Cup crown crumble at the hands of Nottingham Forest.
Manchester City, meanwhile, hold a massive 13-point lead atop the English top-flight table (with a game in hand), with Pep Guardiola’s men having also set themselves up for the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a 4-0 first-leg drubbing of Basel in Switzerland two weeks ago.
Back-and-forth
The early goings of Sunday’s clash saw Manchester City unsurprisingly control the majority of possession, but struggle to carve out many clear-cut opportunities.
The best chance of the opening quarter of an hour in fact fell to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who looked certain to slot home from Mesut Ozil’s squared ball, only for a brilliant intervention from Kyle Walker to snuff out the danger.
And the Gunners were soon made to pay for failing to capitalise on this opportunity, as Sergio Aguero put City ahead with 18 minutes on the clock.
1-0
The goal came about after a relatively aimless lofted ball through the middle of Arsenal’s defence from Citizens’ goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, with the Gunners’ central defensive trio of Laurent Koscielny, Calum Chambers and Shkodran Mustafi expected to deal with the danger with little fuss.
However, Mustafi, who was deployed by Arsene Wenger in the middle of the back three, managed to get himself caught under the flight of the ball, before back-peddling into the alert Sergio Aguero.
The German stopper immediately threw his hands in the air to suggest to referee Craig Pawson that he had been fouled, with Aguero simply continuing his run through the heart of the Gunners’ defence to lift a perfect finish over the onrushing David Ospina.
3-0
City were dealt a blow shortly after the interval when Fernandinho limped off with a hamstring problem, but the Citizens didn’t allow the setback to affect their performance on the pitch, as Pep Guardiola’s men went on to completely show up Arsenal with a dominant second-half display.
The Premier League leaders’ second of the day came via Vincent Kompany, who, after doing brilliantly to win his side a corner, got on the end of Ilkay Gundogan’s driven cross-shot to divert the effort past the helpless Ospina in the Gunners’ goal.
And David Silva put the game firmly to bed with 65 minutes on the clock, rolling Calum Chambers following Danilo’s slipped through ball and smashing a splendid finish into the bottom right-hand corner of Arsenal’s goal.
This was how things ended, with Arsenal’s performance summed up by Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville as ‘disgraceful’ and ‘spineless’.
Celebrations
Manchester City, though, were at their imperious best on Sunday evening, with the Citizens tonight taking to Youtube to showcase footage of the amazing on-pitch scenes following the full-time whistle at Wembley, courtesy of injured defender Benjamin Mendy:
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