Why Arsenal and Man City’s Carabao Cup final is about more than just a trophy

The Carabao Cup final has never had so much on the line, a weight that can be sensed in the very shifts in moods. Over the build-up, Pep Guardiola has been trying to figure out a few things. Does he go more attacking, as Manchester City have been doing recently, or repeat the constrained approach from drawing 1-1 with Arsenal in September?

If the former, is it with this open midfield that he has been trying, or was Real Madrid too much of a lesson ? What would such an approach in a marquee game even say? Such variables give a tactical obsessive like Mikel Arteta a lot to think about, but he is at least sure of his own structure.

That won't shift. The main question will be over personnel, and how much that changes the emphasis of the team; whether it’s Riccardo Calafiori or Piero Hincapie at left-back, for example. Martin Odegaard is expected to return to the bench, and Jurrien Timber may start.

Arsenal, in short, have a lot less to think about. That is very different to when the two sides qualified for this final, way back at the start of February. At that point, the trophy was seen as psychologically crucial to Arsenal sustaining both a momentum and the idea of superiority over City, a key part of the wider pursuit for the first Premier League title in 22 years.