Arsenal 1-4 Man City: Goalkeeper’s dreadful mistake spelt disaster for the Gunners



Manchester City’s remarkable Carabao Cup run goes on after they dismissed Arsenal 4-1 to confirm their place in the semi-finals.

They remain on course to win a fourth consecutive League Cup. Though it is not a competition Pep Guardiola covets above others, their display in this quarter-final at the Emirates spoke of how seriously he insists they take it. They were ahead after three minutes through Gabriel Jesus, but went in at half-time on level terms after Alexandre Lacazette had brought them back into the match against the run of play.

But two goals in the space of five second-half minutes from Riyad Mahrez and Phil Foden put Mikel Arteta’s side at arm’s length, before the fourth from Aymeric Laporte ensured the intensity drained out of this encounter for the final 17 minutes. Of course, it would not be Arsenal if there were not extra sore points. Gabriel Martinez's first start of the season after a nine-month lay-off ended with him hobbling off at the start of the second-half. Runar Runarsson was shaky and at fault for the third, failing to catch Mahrez's simple free-kick. 


And, to be fair, because Arsenal’s recent record in cups is pretty good. It was this City side they beat in last year’s FA Cup semi-final as they won the whole thing. And as patchy as their league form is, they saw off the current top two - Liverpool and Leicester City - to get to this point. But it did not take long for confirmation that teams in disarray rarely happen upon glory on a whim.  

As Arsenal backed off during City’s attack, left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko was given ample room by Cedric Soares to line-up a cross and ample time to double-check it, before finding Jesus, who had nipped in front of Runarsson to head City into the lead.