Arsenal vs Manchester City Live Score, League Cup Final 2026: Both clubs are chasing their first trophy of the season. Arsenal vs Manchester City Updates, Carabao Cup Final 2026: Manchester-born Nico O’Reilly continued his breakthrough season and delivered two crushing blows on Arsenal as Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City prevailed 2-0 in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley on Sunday. After a goal-less first half, in which Arsenal had the best chance to take the lead through Kai Havertz, City turned it up after the interval to end Arsenal’s hopes of ending a six-year long wait for a title.
League leaders Arsenal, who opted to leave their No 1 goalkeeper David Raya on the bench, were made to pay for the selection call as Kepa Arrizabalaga made a critical error in the 60th minute to hand City the lead. O’Reilly made no mistake four minutes later when he rose the highest to head home City’s and his second. Arsenal hit the post and crossbar late on but couldn’t break City’s defence as Guardiola became the first manager to win the League Cup titles five times as the manager.
This is Manchester City’s ninth EFL Cup title.
Defeat means Arsenal’s dream of a quadruple is now over. They are still in the hunt for their first Premier League title in 22 years, an FA Cup and the Champions League. In the Premier League race too, City are on Arsenal’s tails with the Gunners currently nine points ahead, having played one more game than City.
Arsenal were chasing their first major silverware since the FA Cup title they won in 2020. That 2020 season was manager Mikel Arteta’s debut season at Arsenal. Since then, Arsenal have come perilously close to winning titles, but have fallen short. The Gunners finished second in the Premier League in the last three seasons.
Scroll down for all the updates from the League Cup final between Arsenal and Manchester City
Full time at Wembley Stadium and Manchester City are the League Cup champions! This is Manchester City's ninth EFL Cup title.
A hard result to digest for the Gunners, who came into the game today with dreams of a quadruple. Now, they can only win three titles this season. They don’t play again in the league until 11 April. International break now for clubs.
Meanwhile, United legend Gary Neville names brace scorer O’Reilly as the player of the match!
Arsenal need a miracle. They get four added minutes for it. Arsenal fans are already emptying out!
ARS 0-2 MCI
After looking like they had lost the appetite for a fight in the last 10 minutes or so, Arsenal hit the crossbar with a looping cross from the right flank that Gabriel Jesus heads towards goal! Erling Haaland was under the bar, and would have likely headed the ball clear.
Twice now after going down 0-2 that Arsenal have tickled the frame of the City goal.
After 87 minutes, ARS 0-2 MCI
Arsenal come close to scoring one as a shot from the left flank from Calafiori just kisses the upright on its way out!
A glorious chance for them to pull one back and make the remaining 13 minutes very, very interesting!
After 77 minutes, ARS 0-2 MCI
Nico O'Reilly again! Two goals in four minutes! Both headers! This one was easier than the first one. And once again the goal comes after a run from the right flank!
Arsenal are shell-shocked!
And Pep Guardiola celebrates like --- well, like Jose Mourinho --- as he goes on a run on the touchline with some wild fist pumping. He earns a yellow for that celebration. Not that he will care!
After 64 minutes, ARS 0-2 MCI
Manchester City have the lead after 15 minutes of sustained pressure on the Arsenal goal. And it's a mistake from keeper Kepa that leads to the goal! The keeper gets both hands on a cross from the right flank, but drops the ball and O'Reilly beats his marker to head the ball in.
After 60 minutes, ARS 0-1 MCI
Saliba saves!
Erling Haaland is through on goal but Saliba sticks out a leg in one of the most vital challenges of the game for the Gunners!
You just get a sense that City are about to score. Their forwards have parked themselves at the edge of Arsenal's box as wave after wave of attacks are mounted on the Arsenal citadel.
The Gunners have all their 11 players deep in the box, keeping out the ball from the goal.
City all the way at the moment!
After 55 minutes, ARS 0-0 MCI
Man City break at pace and Doku goes haring down the pitch as a ball is flighted from deep in the midfield. Arsenal keeper Kepa comes running out and misses the trajectory of the ball completely at the edge of his box and has to physically try and wrest Doku off the ball. Just when it looks like Doku has the ball and can pass it to the onrushing teammates, referee Peter Banks blows the whistle with City having the edge!
That's going to be a talking point, you just know it! Pep Guardiola is not having it. He's seen giving a ear-full to the fourth referee.
City have a free-kick in a dangerous area, and cannot do a lot with it!
A big chance for City there.
After 50 minutes, ARS 0-0 MCI
Still goalless after a fighting first half at the Wembley Stadium.
You get the sense that once the first goal is scored, the floodgates will open!
City finish the half as the much better side in possession, and the ref blows the whistle after the end of a strong run by O'Reilly down the left flank.
Ultimately, it was Arsenal who had the best chance in what was otherwise a cagey first half with Trafford making a HUGE SAVE off Kai Havertz.
At the end of a sustained spell of pressure on Arsenal, City create their best chance. Semenyo once again the major threat as he skips down to the byline past a few defenders and loops a cross in, but Haaland's header is over the crossbar. Good leap from the tall striker but not good enough connection.
Just 1 minute of added time in the first half.
Arsenal are in offensive position, but City counter at pace and Haaland finds himself in space in the midfield, the ball falls to Doku who wins a corner. But Arsenal deal with it once more. The ball eventually falls to Doku again and he cuts in to unleash a shot but it is blocked off.
Plenty of pressure on Arsenal at the moment but nothing concrete.
City are now hogging the ball but their spell of possession is wasted by a wayward cross from Semenyo. Arsenal's defence once again holding their fort well. No clear cut chance for Cityas we head into the final five minutes of first half.
A stat read out on broadcast. Pep Guardiola could become the first manager to win this trophy five times, if City triumph today. They had won four on the trot in this event not so long back.
Zubimendi does well in midfield to turn possession over and Havertz releases Saka down the left. The Arsenal captain does well to win a corner.
Can the delivery be better this time? Saka stands over it and sends a high ball to the far post, this is much better from Arsenal but Hincapie sends his header over the crossbar! He was free there, the Arsenal defender. Had to do better.
0-0 after 37 mins.
City play the ball out of defence well eventually after a couple of nervy passes and it leads to a nice counter from Guardiola's men but Bernardo's final ball is dealt with easily enough for Gabriel with Haaland waiting at the far post.
Manchester City meanwhile are dominating possession now and Arsenal largely having to work out of possession.
And that is another tackle that has flown in at Wembley. This time Khusanov goes into the books for a rash tackle against Gyokeres. City have conceded quite a few needless fouls and this is another free kick from the examt same poistion down the right as the earlier ones that Rice took. Rice's free kick is again dealt with by City.
Arsenal recycle the ball and Gabriel's header nearly puts Gyokeres through but Ake does superbly to concede a throw in.
0-0 after 33 mins.
Semenyo has been City's biggest threat already and as mentioned earlier, Hincapie is in danger territory after the yellow. The defender is beaten by a driving run by Semenyo down the right and Hincapie cannot put a tackle in. Semenyo goes down the byline and cuts the ball back before Gabriel clears it away for a corner. But the delivery from City again not that great.
Arsenal are pinned back for the last minute or so in their own half. City are not pressing aggressivley but have a block of four players cutting out passing lanes. It draws the error out of defence from Arsenal, and City have a decent chance as Haaland plays Semenyo through down the right but Gabriel clears the threat away.
0-0 after 26 mins.
Plenty of tackles flying around in this match. Khusanov a while back to prevent an Arsenal counter, now Saliba showing his pace to deal with City's threat from Doku. But the match has gotten cagey now.
0-0 after 24 mins.
At the 20-minute mark City have a corner and that comes from a superb cross from Semenyo down the right. A superb whipped cross into a dangerous area and Haaland leaped... but just evades his head. That was a real chance. From the corner though, Cherki's delivery is easily caught by Kepa.
Arsenal counter down the other end but Rice stumbles before attempting a through ball.
Arsenal's threat from dead ball situations is well established now but City have dealt well with what's been thrown at them so far. A couple of free kicks deep in midfield down the right flank for Arsenal already in this match, Rice has sent the ball in but no real danger to the City goal. There was a corner too a while back and Saka's delivery was uncharacteristically poor.
Still 0-0 coming up to 20 mins.
The first booking of the evening is against Arsenal. Hincapie is late to a tackle on City defender Nunes and it is a silly challenge this early in the match, deep in City's defence. A needless booking for a defender who would have to deal with Semenyo's threat all match.
Three chances in a row for Arsenal! All three saved by City keeper James Trafford.
Arsenal play their way into the box from the middle. And Havertz sees his shot first blocked off. then Saka has two bites of the cherry, but he just cannot slot the ball in!
A good passage of play for the Gunners, who have done all the chance creating so far in this game!
After nine minutes, ARS 0-0 MCI
An early chance for the Gunners after Gyokeres beats the City defence and goes on a run deep in City half. But his cutback is safely negotiated by Khusanov.
After 5 minutes, ARS 0-0 MCI
Good high press from Arsenal, who pick the ball off the City player up the pitch early on. A cramped midfield here as we start the game.
ARS 0-0 MCI after 2 minutes
Havertz in for Eze, who is injured. Kepa, as he has done all through the League Cup, is in goal instead of Raya for Arsenal.
Four changes for Manchester City. No Ruben Dias, so Khusanov slots in.
National anthem time as both sides line up before the game! It's a game that fans and players from both sides will be eagerly awaiting. The chance to win the first title of the season (and in Arsenal's case the first title in six seasons) is here!
90 minutes of war coming up from the Wembley.
Pep Guardiola was given the platform to engage in pre-match mind games with rival coach Mikel Arteta ahead of Manchester City’s meeting with Arsenal in the English League Cup final on Sunday.
He didn’t bite.
“Look what’s happened around the world,” Guardiola said Friday. “We have an incredible chaos and nobody moves one finger. Everything is behind the scenes. The world is going to collapse and still we are here talking about dark arts.”
Guardiola’s reference to “dark arts” recalled a flashpoint between the teams that reared up after a Premier League match in September 2024, when Arsenal’s tactics drew criticism from a number of City players following a 2-2 draw.
Arsenal chasing their first silverware in six years.
The north London club have become the nearly men of English football in recent years, finishing second in the Premier League in the last three seasons, and have not won a major trophy since the 2020 FA Cup in Arteta’s debut season.
But that long drought looks set to end with the possibility of a quadruple still alive.
They are nine points above second-placed City in the English top flight, are in the Champions League and the FA Cup quarter-finals and on Sunday at Wembley will start as favourites to secure the season’s first silverware.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has said that winning the League Cup today would be a massive moment for his players, who are currently on the scent of a quadruple this season.
“We want it so much,” the Spaniard said earlier in the week. “I’m really prepared and confident that we’re going to make it happen. It’s focused on that, basically, and that’s it.”
Arteta was entertaining that thought yet, at least not out loud.
“No, we need to go game by game. Trophy by trophy,” he said. “We are very excited about what we are doing and we need to continue to make the right strides and especially perform in the right way when those moments come to achieve what we want to start to build the momentum that we want as a club.”
Here are the teams
Arsenal (4-3-3): Kepa; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie; Zubimendi, Rice, Havertz; Saka, Gyokeres, Trossard.
Arsenal Subs: Raya, Mosquera, Jesus, Martinelli, Norgaard, Madueke, Calafiori, Lewis-Skelly, Dowman.
Manchester City (4-3-3): Trafford; Nunes, Khusanov, Ake, O’Reilly; Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Cherki; Semenyo, Haaland, Doku.
Manchester City Subs: Donnarumma, Reijnders, Stones, Marmoush, Kovacic, Nico, Ait-Nouri, Savinho, Foden.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the League Cup final between Arsenal and Manchester City from the iconic Wembley Stadium
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta shook off the nerves ahead of Sunday’s League Cup final against Manchester City, saying his team were determined to win their first silverware in six years.
The north London club have become the nearly men of English football in recent years, finishing second in the Premier League in the last three seasons, and have not won a major trophy since the 2020 FA Cup in Arteta’s debut season.
But that long drought looks set to end with the possibility of a quadruple still alive.
They are nine points above second-placed City in the English top flight, are in the Champions League and the FA Cup quarter-finals and on Sunday at Wembley will start as favourites to secure the season’s first silverware.
