For something he doesn’t much care about, Pep Guardiola has a curious knack of winning the League Cup. The Manchester City manager has been open about his belief that the secondary domestic cup competition needlessly clutters the calendar, but after Sunday’s 2–1 victory over Aston Villa, he has now won it three times in a row, while City has won it in five of the last seven finals. If you include the Community Shield, as Guardiola does, City has won eight of the last nine domestic trophies.
It was not a procession of a final, which perhaps underlined what has gone awry for City this season.