Man City’s Sterling doubtful for League Cup final

“City at the moment are playing the best football in the league right now, even in Europe they are playing awesome football”.

Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola have plenty in common: an obsession with football, a commitment to attractive, attacking play, a hunger to evolve the game in new ways and an approach to management that is both theoretical and academic but also fiery and emotional.

It’s been a frustrating season for them.

However, a lot has changed since that triumph, especially post the January transfer window. A North London derby, no less, but one that saw Spurs control the game through a dominance of the ball.

City remain unhappy with the standard of stewarding and has sought answers over how it was possible so many fans got onto the pitch and so close to their stars.

If the aim was to come out of the window stronger, then they achieved that.

What have been the concerns for Arsenal? Guardiola may opt for right-back Danilo over converted winger Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Laurent Koscielny has not performed as well as previous years. Granit Xhaka is inclined to go forward.

Those decisions formed part of a letter which Manchester City sent to the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the body responsible for referees, reporting a total of nine challenges they felt had not been sufficiently punished.

But Wenger left nobody in any doubt as to where he thought the balance of power lay with regard to the final.

It’s a weird one with the ‘keepers and it’s the same at City. “That’s what you have to keep from the night and that’s it”.

“I don’t want to make a press conference about Pep Guardiola”, he said.

“Not even in Barcelona when we won the first title in the cup did I expect to win 14 titles in four years”, said Guardiola.

Bravo, who became a maligned figure in a disappointing first season at the Etihad Stadium, excelled in games against Wolves and Leicester earlier in the competition, both of which were won after penalty shoot-outs.

And the side will also take solace from the fact that Mkhitaryan has made a promising start to his Arsenal career.

What the Arsenal boss did concede was that his team were underdogs at Wembley.

The Wigan defeat ended City’s hopes of winning an unprecedented quadruple this season but the week would still end on a high if they succeed at Wembley. But you just don’t trust it at the minute, you just don’t trust the midfield.

They may try and pack the midfield. We are used to upping our game when weare written off, and Wenger sees no reason why we can’t do it again this season. The midfielder could still make an impact off the bench and is now going through an intensive treatment program to make the squad.