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Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, has claimed that Manchester City capitalized on “good moments” in their 2-0 win in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final.
Nico O’Reilly scored two second-half headers, to ensure that City won the first silverware of this season at Wembley.
Arteta, speaking after the game, said they had chances to score in the first half and didn’t take it.
“There were different moments in the game,” Arteta explained.
“We had some really good ones in the first half, we had the biggest chance of the game by far and would have been 1-0 up.
“That would have changed the course of the game. In the second half, we had some issues to get out of the block in the first 20 minutes some issues to get out from that block, to press them better and manage the ball much better than when we did.
“We conceded the goal in an unexpected manner, and three minutes later they scored in similar conditions.
“Sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition, they capitalised when they were on top and we didn’t.”
Chelsea are now mathematically out of the Premier League title race following their 3-0 drubbing in the hands of Everton at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday night.
Liam Rosenior’s men came into the match with 48 points, looking to keep pace with the teams in front of them.
However, Beto opened the scoring for the hosts in the first half, before adding a second after the break.
Chelsea barely threatened Everton and looked flat for most of the game, before Iliman Ndiaye added a third.
The result means the Blues cannot match the 70 points that league leaders Arsenal currently have with seven matches left.
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Champions Liverpool are also on the verge of being mathematically ruled out, as they have 49 points.
Manchester United opened a three-point advantage over Aston Villa in the race for Champions League qualification with a composed 3-1 victory at Old Trafford on Sunday, their seventh win in nine matches under interim manager Michael Carrick, and a fifth consecutive home success that has transformed the picture at the top of the table since the former midfielder took charge in January.
Three weeks ago United and Villa were level on points. Now, with eight Premier League fixtures remaining, United sit third and Villa fourth, the gap between them exactly three points and the gap to fifth-placed Chelsea six. United are seven points behind second-placed Manchester City but have effectively locked down their position above all teams outside the top four. The afternoon also provided a platform for Bruno Fernandes, whose two assists took his Premier League tally for the season to sixteen — one beyond David Beckham’s previous United record of fifteen in the 1999-2000 campaign — and whose creative output has underpinned every convincing Carrick performance in the past two months.
The first half produced almost nothing of consequence. United controlled possession and territory, but without the cutting edge to test Emiliano Martinez consistently. Matheus Cunha crossed dangerously from the left early on, and Amad Diallo’s header from inside the box drew a sharp save from the Villa goalkeeper, but Villa’s defence — organised carefully by Unai Emery — offered United no channel to exploit. The teams went in goalless.
The second half was different in character from the moment it began. Casemiro opened the scoring in the 53rd minute with a run that belied any suggestion he had lost a step. Fernandes curled a corner toward the near post, Casemiro timed his movement perfectly and glanced a header past Martinez with precision that made the finish look simpler than it was.
The goal came after a spell of second-half pressure that had United pushing Villa back into their own half from the restart, and it was the reward the crowd had sensed was coming. Old Trafford responded with chants of “one more year” for a midfielder whose contract expires at the end of the season and whose future at the club remains publicly unresolved.
Villa responded with a goal of real quality. In the 64th minute, Lucas Digne played the ball across the face of the penalty area after United failed to clear a corner properly, and Ross Barkley, making his first Premier League start in fourteen months, met it with a controlled first-time finish that gave Senne Lammens no chance. There was a nervous wait to determine whether Amadou Onana had been in an offside position, but the goal was given, and Villa were level.
