Arsenal receive Aaron Ramsey injury boost ahead of Manchester City encounter

But the Gunners – who named a reasonably strong side only three days before their Carabao Cup final with Manchester City – improved slightly after the break and Sead Kolasinac finished from Hector Bellerin’s cross to relieve the sense of dread inside Emirates Stadium.

Ozil will be hoping to help Arsenal win the League Cup on Sunday as they look to lift the trophy for the first time under Wenger. “He had a problem against Basel”.

Jesus has not played since limping out of the New Year’s Eve game at Crystal Palace in tears, having suffered medial collateral damage in a knee.

The City boss has revealed a major injury concern as Raheem Sterling is considered a doubt to face the Gunners this weekend due to a muscle injury. It’s great to see a team doing what City are doing, because I think it’s different to what we’ve seen before in the Premier League.

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss has been left fuming on more than one occasion after seeing his players hit by a string of risky challenges in recent months. But for them to have a chance, every player has to have an excellent game from goalkeeper right through to striker. “You want all your best players available and, of course, he is an important player for us”.

“There’s more responsibility on his shoulders now that Alexis Sanchez is gone, but don’t expect him to change the way he plays. At Wigan, we could have played two up front in the last minutes if Gabriel had been on the bench – now we have that chance with Gabriel”.

“I don’t have any speculation on any weakness of Manchester City”, he said, despite Pep Guardiola’s men coming into the game on the back of an FA Cup humbling at League One Wigan Athletic.

Now it seems the League Cup and FA Cup carry so much more weight for the Gunners that they can be lumped together and celebrated as a very real achievement.

Hercules staged an upset worthy of Greek Mythology when it executed the high-press to perfection against Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona in 2010, starving the full-backs of time and space which prevented Barca from enjoying its usual dominance in midfield.

“They’ve made some excellent signings in January which we need to be careful of, and we need to just say: “Let the best team win”. So why should i think we can do it?

“Without Claudio we would not have been in the semi-final”.

And though City have a healthy lead at the Premier League’s summit and a spot in the Champions League quarters all-but secured – the club will want to quickly forget their FA Cup exit – their name has not been etched onto any trophy just yet. Then we’ll see next year.