Manchester City are second in the Premier League, they’re out of the Champions League despite being second in the Premier League, nine points behind Arsenal with a game in hand. Their season has been, by their own extraordinary standards, a frustrating one so close to the summit yet unable to close the gap.
And yesterday Pep Guardiola lifted his 19th trophy at the Etihad.
That is the Guardiola paradox in one sentence. The man finds a way to win silverware even when everything around him is falling apart. And yesterday at Wembley, with a 2-0 win over Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final, he did something nobody in football has ever done. He became the first manager in history to win the League Cup five times, ahead of Brian Clough, ahead of Jose Mourinho and ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson.
Forty trophies as a manager. He now sits second on the all-time list behind only Ferguson himself.
The game itself told you everything about how Guardiola sets his teams up for occasions like this. Arsenal were the better side for long stretches. Riccardo Calafiori hit the post, Gabriel Jesus hit the crossbar, Arsenal created and probed and pressed the way they always do, and City just waited.
Then in the space of four minutes, the 60th and 64th, Nico O’Reilly, a 21-year-old academy graduate, scored twice. The first came after a moment of individual quality, the second arrived before Arsenal had time to process the first. Game over.
And that was that, Arsenal hit two pieces of woodwork and lost 2-0. City won the cup they’ve now won nine times in their history.
But here’s what I want to talk about, because the result is one thing, and Guardiola is another.
After the final whistle he sprinted down the touchline and kicked an advertising board. Guardiola, the composed, cerebral, philosophical manager who talks about positional play and pressing triggers and high defensive lines, kicked an advertising board. It was a celebration more associated with Mourinho than Guardiola, and the internet immediately had opinions about it.
He addressed it head on in the press conference: “I am not artificially intelligent. I am a human being. If I can’t celebrate in the moment, against a team like Arsenal, the way we were playing, then when can I?”
And honestly? Fair enough. This was not a comfortable win, Arsenal pushed them all game. City had to be defensively brilliant for large stretches. The fact that Guardiola let himself go like that tells you how much this meant, not just the cup, but proving something. Proving that this City side, in this difficult season, still has enough.
The question that follows all of this is the one that always follows Guardiola, where does he rank among the greatest managers of all time? Because at 40 trophies, you’re having a conversation with the very top of the list. Ferguson has 49, Guardiola is 55 years old and still going.
He’s won leagues in three different countries, he’s won the Champions League, he’s dominated English football for nearly a decade. He’s now won more League Cups than any manager in history. The only argument against him being the greatest of all time is Ferguson’s longevity and volume. And Guardiola isn’t done yet.
Now what City do from here is interesting. They’re nine points behind Arsenal with a game in hand and a visit to the Etihad still to come. The title is a long shot but Guardiola said himself: “The Premier League is in their hands. We will try to win our games and see what happens.”
Translation: we’re coming.
He always is.
