Secret Guardiola ambition could see Man City unravel

Starting this evening, the Gunners and Cityzens face two pivotal games each before meeting in the Carabao Cup final as they battle for major silverware

- Miguel Delaney

If Pep Guardiola was understandably deflated after another bad defeat at Real Madrid, it was actually all the more acute because of the game immediately before.

There’s a belief around Manchester City that the Catalan was unusually emboldened by the FA Cup victory over Newcastle United. The team had recently seen a revival of their attacking play through an aggressive formation that involved Antoine Semenyo tucking in while the fullbacks offered the width, with Rodri pinning everything together. Modified for the cup game at St James’ Park, City produced what was probably their most complete performance in months.

A feeling pervades that Guardiola thought he’d finally got it to click. Except then he tried something similar against Madrid - albeit with Erling Haaland accommodated and Rodri and Semenyo returned - only for the Spanish side to just pick that apart. The open space perfectly suited Madrid’s technical excellence.

Some at rival clubs spoke of an “arrogance,” The Independent understands.

If that’s maybe pushing it, it’s pretty clear that one fixture influenced the other, one competition conditioned another, in a way that might now really escalate as the run-in ramps up.

Arsenal might be able to empathise if there wasn’t such an antipathy between the clubs in this title race. They looked leggy against Bayer Leverkusen, but that’s perhaps inevitable when you’re still in every competition.

The next week is going to take that to its first extreme, as the Carabao Cup final decides the first trophy of the season. While much of the focus so far has been on the potential psychological effect of that Wembley fixture’s outcome, just as significant may be the buildup to it.