Manchester City against Arsenal is more than a cup final. Sunday’s Carabao Cup clash at Wembley marks the start of a two-month period in which English football’s two leading clubs could carve up all the domestic silverware between them.
Arsenal could still win the quadruple, and City could still win a domestic treble. The Gunners are the pretenders, second in the Premier League for three consecutive seasons, whereas City are the battle-hardened champions with the winner’s pedigree.
However, lately it has felt as though the sands are shifting. As City have faltered and crashed out of the UEFA Champions League, Arsenal have reached the quarterfinals and amassed a nine-point lead at the top of the Premier League.
A first trophy for Mikel Arteta in six years would be a tangible sign that the balance of power might be moving toward London. A Wembley win for City would be a statement of authority and cast fresh doubt over Arsenal’s ability to get over the line when silverware is in sight.
So, what does each side make of the other, and what is the mood in the respective camps? ESPN spent time with Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhães and City center back Rúben Dias this week to find out.
Can Arsenal finally take a trophy from City?
Shortly after joining a small group of journalists gathered around a table bathed in sunshine at Arsenal’s Sobha Realty Training Centre, Gabriel is confused by an accent he doesn’t recognize.
“You’re from Manchester?” he says, before adding, “What are you doing here?”
Gabriel breaks out a smile, but his penchant for protection knows no limits. Teammate Martin Ødegaard once suggested the Brazil international would be a security guard if he wasn’t a footballer.
The fans sing he is “the wall at the back,” the man whose combative style and social-media badinage earned him cult-hero status long ago. He is, quite simply, a man who loves the physical side of the game and revels in rivalry. The battles are too numerous to list in full, but perhaps the most high-profile is with Manchester City striker Erling Haaland.
Last season, Haaland hit Gabriel in the back of the head with the ball as City equalized in stoppage time before Arsenal won the return fixture 5-1, during which Gabriel screamed in Haaland’s face when the Gunners scored the opening goal. Haaland showed Gabriel his Premier League champions badge at full time. September’s 1-1 draw at Emirates Stadium saw Haaland score again, taking his tally to five goals and two assists from seven games against the Gunners.
“I enjoy every game, every striker,” says Gabriel of Haaland. “It is my job, so I like to battle, but he is a top player and, of course, I think he likes to play against me as well. I think it is fun. We enjoy it.
“I’m a defender, so I need to bring this energy for my teammates, for our fans. I give everything when I’m on the pitch. I try to push everyone. [Sunday] is going to be a big battle and I’m ready to do this.”
Is Haaland the toughest striker in the league to play against? “Yes, of course,” says Gabriel, who revealed he has watched videos of legendary defenders including Paolo Maldini, Fabio Cannavaro, Lúcio, Thiago Silva and Marquinhos in an effort to improve.
The dynamic against City, however, feels different this time. Arsenal have not lost to City in their past six games, and the title race has swung notably in their favor of late. Set pieces have been a vital component to their overall improvement, with Gabriel the biggest threat. On 20 goals, he is two short of Laurent Koscielny in becoming their most prolific defender in Premier League history.
“When we have a corner or a free kick or something like that, I just put it in my head. I want to score, I want to help my team,” Gabriel says. “But everyone talks about ‘Gabi, Gabi, Gabi scores a lot,’ but it’s not only Gabi, it’s our team. It’s the way we work together.”
Arsenal now must prove they can deliver when the trophies are up for grabs. The only question is: Can they see it through?
“I think we learned a lot in the past,” Gabriel says. “Of course, we work very hard to win. We want to win every game, but we know the Premier League is the toughest league to play. The last three years we didn’t get it, but I think this year we start [well].
“Of course, we try to do our best. I think we are in a good moment. Just keep doing what we’re doing and let’s see how it ends.”
If Arsenal win Sunday, Gabriel will likely celebrate more candidly than most. Although many players shy away from social media, Gabriel embraces it.
Even his jibes are tailored. After beating Aston Villa in December, he was filmed putting three fingers in his pocket, replicating Amadou Onana’s celebration when Villa bagged the points in their previous meeting. Following September’s 4-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur, he posted a picture from the team bus holding up the four of hearts playing card and tagged his Brazil teammate and Spurs striker Richarlison.
“I remember, that’s why,” Gabriel says of those celebrations. “I don’t write [them down], but that’s why the football is beautiful. Because they can do what we can do as well.
“Like Richarlison, he’s my friend. When we lost against them in preseason, they posted a picture, and now we see it in the Premier League. So it’s in my mind, I don’t forget. But it’s nothing personal.”
Often he is very quick to post after a win. “Against Spurs, it has to be quickly,” he said.
Against City, it might be, too. — James Olley
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Guardiola praises ‘exceptional’ Arsenal ahead of Carabao Cup final
Pep Guardiola speaks ahead of the Carabao Cup final between Manchester City and Arsenal.
City’s changing of the guard
Depending on how you look at it, Sunday’s Carabao Cup final is either one of the last opportunities for Pep Guardiola to win a trophy with Manchester City, or a chance for his new-look team to bag a first piece of silverware.
Guardiola is coming to the end of his time at the Etihad Stadium. He’s not letting anything slip just yet, but it’s possible he could leave as early as this summer.
He has won everything there is to win — including the Carabao Cup four times — but many of the players he will lead out at the weekend are just starting. Indeed, victory over Arsenal at Wembley would mean a first winner’s medal with City for the likes of Gianluigi Donnarumma, Nico O’Reilly, Rayan Cherki, Antoine Semenyo, Tijjani Reijnders, Omar Marmoush and Abdukodir Khusanov. January signing Marc Guéhi is ineligible, but falls into the same group.
The prospect of leading another great team could yet convince Guardiola to see out the final year of his contract, due to end in June 2027.
Dias, who has played for Guardiola since 2020, has seen the highs and the lows: from winning Premier Leagues, the Champions League, treble and domestic quadruple to last season when, in Guardiola’s own words, it felt like City were struggling to win a game, never mind a trophy.
One of City’s squad leaders handpicked by Guardiola in the summer, Dias says the new players have helped to reset the standards, which the Portugal international hinted had slipped over the past year when winning suddenly became more difficult.
“I feel like sometimes, while winning, you get into certain patterns that are working in the moment,” he says. “It goes in behaviors day to day, it goes in tactics, it goes everywhere in football, as it goes in life, but I think it’s just an update, sometimes doing something different again.
“By doing so you commit everyone to it. You put everyone on the same boat, same mentality, same standards and same responsibilities.
“I feel like it’s taken a very much better route now and it was needed. Obviously, lots of things changed after that period [of winning]. We need to set the standard for a new season. It was needed and I felt like we did it at the right time.”
If Dias has been key to restoring some order to the dressing room, he will also be vital at Wembley.
Arsenal’s ability to score from set pieces means he will be under pressure to deal with anything that’s flung into City’s penalty area. The way Arteta’s side plays has drawn criticism — particularly when set against the attacking football produced by Guardiola’s teams — but as someone who puts winning above anything else, Dias says he will never judge how others go about their business.
“I would say I don’t care,” he says when asked about Arsenal’s style of play. “I just want to win and that’s it. Like any other game, you see what you’re up against, you see what can and what you cannot do, and within those lines you do the best you can.”
When City won the Carabao Cup final in 2018 — against Arsenal — it provided the platform for a spell of dominance in English football. It was Guardiola’s first trophy at the club, and a first title was secured a matter of months later. They flowed regularly after that until last season.
Ahead of another final on Sunday, City stand simultaneously at the end of one era and the beginning of another. Guardiola is looking to squeeze the last few pieces of silverware out of an already-glittering career, while his new team is aiming to begin its own collections. — Rob Dawson
