Guardiola ´could not believe´ Man City dominance against Arsenal

Pep Guardiola did not believe his Manchester City team were capable of dominating Arsenal until he saw it with his own eyes in the second half of the EFL Cup final.

Guardiola became the first manager to win the EFL Cup on five occasions on Sunday, with two second-half headers from Nico O’Reilly guiding his team to a 2-0 Wembley triumph.

Having also overseen four straight EFL Cup wins between 2017-18 and 2020-21, Guardiola has surpassed Brian Clough, Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho to become the competition’s most successful manager.

His team were far from their glittering best in the first half, but they improved immeasurably after the interval.

City had a 60.8% possession share in the first half but did not register a shot on target and only managed 0.33 expected goals (xG) from two shots.

After the restart, their possession share rose slightly to 63%, and they fired off eight shots to Arsenal’s five, winning the second-half xG battle by 1.18 to 1.17.

Asked how it felt to lift his 13th major domestic trophy with City, Guardiola said: “I still enjoy it. Today was a real challenge and nobody gives us anything.

“Today we saw ourselves and our level against the best team. We were what we are. That is the proof and challenge. That’s what we’re about.

“We don’t regret the challenge, sport is all about that. They are the best so far. Second half, I could not believe we could do that against Arsenal, but we did it.”

City are still nine points adrift of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table with a game in hand, though many pundits had suggested losing the EFL Cup final could represent a major psychological blow for whoever did not hoist the trophy aloft.

But Guardiola does not feel the result will have an impact on the title race, instead turning his focus to City’s FA Cup quarter-final against Liverpool on April 4.

He said: “It will have no impact, it is different competitions. They will be more concerned when they come to the Etihad, maybe it will help us at the Etihad against Liverpool.

“The Premier League is in their hands, they punished us a lot. There were two periods, the three draws with Sunderland, Brighton and Chelsea, and then this one with Nottingham Forest and West Ham.

“If they drop points, we are going to try to win our games and we will see what happens.”