There was real purpose to Pep Guardiola minutes after the final whistle at Wembley on Sunday. The Manchester City manager made a beeline for John Stones – and with good reason.
Guardiola had watched another high-profile Stones mistake, when he accidentally slipped before half-time, allow Aston Villa into a Carabao Cup final they had previously appeared out of.
These errors have become all too common for a central defender that club sources were talking up as possessing the attributes required to become one of Europe’s finest early last season.