Overview
It is not an exaggeration to say that Manchester City's hopes this season depend greatly on next month.
After being eliminated from the UEFA Champions League with a 1-2 defeat to Real Madrid (aggregate 1-5), Man City will enter the Carabao Cup final against Arsenal at Wembley.
The confrontation between Pep Guardiola and former assistant Mikel Arteta is not only a final, but also a showdown between the second-placed team and the Premier League leader. However, losing points in the last two rounds means Man City is 9 points behind Arsenal.
In Premier League history, only Man City in the 2013-2014 season once won the championship when they were 9 points behind the leading team after more than 30 rounds. This shows that the challenge that Guardiola's team is facing is extremely large.
After the international holiday, Man City will continue to enter a series of decisive matches when they meet Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter-finals, before facing Chelsea and Arsenal in the Premier League respectively. This is clearly a pivotal period of the season.
Last season marked the first time Guardiola did not win any major titles with Man City. If the upcoming series of matches is not smooth, he may face the prospect of returning empty-handed for two consecutive seasons - something that has never happened in his career.
In the opposite direction, this is also a key period for Arsenal and Arteta. The journey begins from Wembley, where the student seeks to overcome his teacher.
Since winning the 2020 FA Cup (2-1 victory over Chelsea), Arteta has not had any major titles. In the same period, Guardiola helped Man City win 4 Premier League titles, 1 FA Cup, 1 Carabao Cup and 1 Champions League.
However, after many seasons of second place, Arsenal is facing a great opportunity to break through. If they want to end the Premier League title drought from 2004, winning the first title of the season will be of particular importance.
Arsenal aims for their third Carabao Cup title in history (1987, 1993), but is also the team that has lost the most finals in the league (6 times), most recently losing to Man City in 2018.
Meanwhile, Man City has impressive achievements in this arena when winning 8/9 finals, only behind Liverpool (10 championships). They have won 7 of the most recent Carabao Cup finals since the defeat to Wolves in 1974.
However, signs of instability have appeared. Man City lost their last two major finals, both in the FA Cup (against Manchester United in 2024 and Crystal Palace in 2025). They have never lost 3 consecutive major finals in history.
Arsenal won a ticket to the final after defeating Chelsea with a total score of 4-2 in the semi-finals. Notably, Arteta remained unbeaten at Wembley with Arsenal, both as a player and as a coach, and both won in the penalty shootouts in the draws.
A positive sign for Man City is that Erling Haaland has ended his goalless streak. The Norwegian striker has scored in all three recent encounters with Arsenal, but has not yet scored in 6 appearances at Wembley in a Man City shirt.
Head-to-head record
Arteta has only won 3 victories in 16 encounters with Guardiola. Meanwhile, the Spanish strategist has won all 4 Carabao Cup finals that he led Man City, spanning four consecutive seasons from 2017-2018 to 2020-2021. To date, no coach has won this title 5 times.
Arsenal is showing signs of improvement when they are unbeaten in the last 6 encounters with Man City in all competitions (2 wins, 4 draws). Previously, they had lost 15/16 encounters with this opponent.
However, in the Carabao Cup arena, Man City still completely dominates. They have beaten Arsenal in all 4 recent encounters in this tournament, with a total score of 11-1. The last time the "Gunners" defeated Man City in the Carabao Cup was in the 2004-2005 season (won 2-1 in the third round).
Score prediction: Arsenal 0-1 Man City
The match between Arsenal and Man City takes place at 11:30 PM on March 22nd (Vietnam time).
