My Life in League Cup Finals #4 2018
By David Crook
On 25 February 2018 Manchester City won the first piece of silverware of the Pep Guardiola reign by beating Arsenal by 3:0 in the League Cup Final at Wembley.
In Pep Guardiola’s first season as manager of Manchester City we had faced Arsenal at Wembley in the FA Cup Semi Final, falling to an almost inexplicable defeat. Drawing them again in the League Cup Final in the following season felt like a chance to redress the balance.
Getting to the game itself was a bit of a rush for us, our train was late into London, turning the journey to Wembley into a mad dash. Our tickets were just behind the goal, allowing us the opportunity to just go straight in and take our seats just in tine for kick off.
The match started brightly, at least from a City perspective, and Sergio Aguero opened the scoring on 18 minutes. There were many reasons to marvel at this goal. The deft way that Aguero chipped the ball over the onrushing Arsenal keeper, David Ospina. The hopelessly positioned Arsenal defenders. And my personal favourite – the fact the assist was actually provide by Claudio Bravo.
The surprise was that City were only one goal to the good. Arsenal had offered little other than some theatrics from Jack Wilshere, who seemed determined to try and sucker Fernandinho into a red card.
Thankfully City were kicking towards us in the second half and it did not take too long before City had the game in full control. Ilkay Gundogan struck a sweet shot from the edge of the area and the ball was diverted by Vincent Kompany into the net. It was already goal bound but the change in the angle by Kompany rendered the keeper redundant.
The final goal sent the crowd into jubilation. This time it was David Silva who squeezed in a shot from a tight angle on the left. Quite how it bamboozled the whole of Arsenal was unclear, but what was clear to us all – with half an hour still to play – was City had won the Cup.
The party just got louder and louder in the stands and finally, as the whistle blew, the noise became absolutely deafening. Little did I know that I would be back again next year.