Manchester City trounce Arsenal 3-0 in the League Cup Final : 5 Talking Points
SCORE : Manchester City 3 - 0 Arsenal
SCORERS : Sergio Aguero 18' Vincent Kompany 58' David Silva 65'
Manchester City made light work of their first final under Pep Guardiola by completely dismantling Arsene Wenger's Arsenal. The side from London found it impossible to get going in the match as the run-away League leaders (and now the League Cup Winners) breezed through their third final in the competition since 2014.
Aguero opened the scoring for City in the 18th minute, lobbing the keeper from a Claudio Bravo direct goal-kick. Captain and soul of the club, Vincent Kompany made it two by steering home the ball from a misdirected hit by Gundogan. Nothing the keeper could do but watch it go past him. Soon they made it three with David Silva getting in on the act and that was all she wrote.
3-0 to Manchester City who have claimed their first major scalp of the season.
#5 The final failed to live up to the billing and Arsenal failed to show up at all
The match got off to a timid start with both sides trying to get a feel for the ball under the blinding lights of the Wembley Stadium. Nerves were evident in the two teams who failed to create as much as the build-up had hoped for. For all the silky footballing talent on display, it was route one football that broke the deadlock.
Arsenal, looking to press high up the pitch from a City goal-kick, found their centre back Skhodran Mustafi horribly out of position who, to make matters worse, looked for a cheap free-kick (when he should've been worried about getting goal-side of the deadly striker) but the ref wasn't buying it. All this from a long thump upfield from Claudio Bravo.
Sergio Aguero found himself in acres of space vacated by the German and the minimal work of deciding how to finish was done for him by the rash judgment of Ospina who came out to try and smother the Argentine. All the Colombian did was manage to find No Man's Land.
Aguero simply dinked the ball over the keeper with ease and the side from Manchester drew first blood. It was a very cheap goal to concede in the Final, but they weren't done being horrible yet.
Such has been the state of affairs of Arsenal Football Club that it's supporters almost expect their team to go behind before anyone in a red shirt bothers to get off his behind. Regrettably, what followed was somehow even more hideous than what preceded it. At least from an Arsenal perspective.
The "Gunners" fell asleep (or stayed asleep) when Kevin de Bruyne cut the corner back to Ilkay Gundogan who took a pop at goal only to connect poorly, but his captain steered the ball toward goal with a composed finish. The game was only to get more lopsided later as David Silva also found the back of the net to compete the scoring on an uncharacteristically miserable night in Wembley for the North London side.
Make no mistake about it, City were from their mesmerising best, failing to reach the lofty standards set by them this season under the Spaniard. But they didn't need to.
Arsenal never showed up and the Cup Final soon became an exercise in patience, not for the players who were more than patient while City did all the scoring, but for the fans who couldn't believe that they were going to be expected to not only stay till the final whistle but actually wake up tomorrow morning, go into work and defend the pathetic display of ghastly cowardice from a club they swear by. Nah Arsene, not anymore they won't.
The following stat is all the proof one needs of the utter toothless nature of Arsenal's performance.