As the fallout from the FA Cup tie defeat to Wigan continue, Manchester City will be focussing on Sunday’s trip to Wembley and what better way to get over their cup exit.
The Aguero incident aside, the scenes at Wigan have been blown all out of proportion.
Paul Cook and Pep Guardiola passionately going at it while Peter Reid (what was he even doing there?) played peacemaker. The tie had it all.
But both sides have bigger fish to fry now with City closing in on the league title and League Cup (not to mention a Champions League quarter final) and Wigan concentrating on a promotion charge that has faltered of late.
Ahead of the League Cup final, Guardiola and his players will not have forgotten last season’s FA Cup semi-final defeat to The Gunners.
Arsenal won in controversial circumstances after they systematically kicked David Silva off the park, the Spaniard remonstrating angrily to the referee as he left the field injured in the 23rd minute.
Minutes later a cross from Leroy Sane resulted in a goal that was wrongly chalked off after the referee's assistant Steve Child judged that Sane's cross had gone out of play.
The referee that day was Craig Pawson – guess who is officiating again on Sunday!
And then there is the battle of the much-maligned goalkeepers. Claudio Bravo will start for Manchester City as he has done in every round so far. Arsene Wenger has also confirmed that David Ospina will also start for Arsenal for the same reason.
It's not for me, it's for the club. We are here to win the titles. We are involved in three. The first step was to arrive in the final, we are in it.
Both keepers have come in for their fair share of criticism and it could be the battle of the South Americans that decides who wins. Chilean Bravo has been in fine form in the League Cup this year, particularly where penalties are concerned, while Colombian Ospina has also been used predominantly in the domestic cups.
And there could be good news for both camps on the injury front with Aaron Ramsay and Gabriel Jesus likely to be fit for the final.
Guardiola will impress on his team the importance of the game to their season. As well as chance to settle old scores it would secure the first trophy of such a promising campaign and provide an immediate tonic to the disappointment of going out of the FA Cup.
Fabian Delph will not feature for City after his red card (or was it yellow Anthony?) so it is likely that either Oleks Zinchenko or Danilo will start in his place.
Nicolas Otamendi and Raheem Sterling missed the trip to Wigan after rumours that they failed ‘fatigue tests’ in training. It is more likely that they were simply given the night off after playing a lot of games this season.
This is a big game for both clubs and Guardiola will desperately want to win it.
Predicted City line up: Bravo, Walker, Otamendi, Kompany, Danilo, Fernandinho, De Bruyne, David Silva, Sane, Aguero, Sterling.
