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Arsenal FC and Kai Havertz missed out on winning the English League Cup title. The German international lost 0-2 (0-0) to Manchester City with the Gunners in the EFL Cup final at Wembley. A mistake by goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga gave City the win. It was the fifth League Cup title under head coach Pep Guardiola.
Kepa stood between the posts in place of his Spanish compatriot David Raya and let the ball slip through his hands from a cross from Rayan Cherki in the 60th minute. Nico O’Reilly took advantage of this to make it 1-0 and just four minutes later increased the score to 2-0 with a header.
In the duel between the Premier League leaders from North London and their pursuers from Manchester, Arsenal disappointed for a long time. In a somewhat uneventful first half, Havertz, like captain Bukayo Saka, failed with his follow-up shot past City goalkeeper James Trafford (7th). Star striker Erling Haaland missed the lead for Manchester twice with a header.
Five days after the 2-0 win against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League, Arsenal struggled for a long time. Coach Mikel Arteta’s team went into the game with 14 games unbeaten. In front of England’s national coach Thomas Tuchel, City increased the pressure and were rewarded.
Guardiola celebrated the lead with lots of jumping for joy. ManCity had only won one of its five competitive games in March and was eliminated from the premier class by Real Madrid. Shortly before the end, Trafford directed a header from Viktor Gyökeres onto the crossbar.
Premier League: Tottenham’s crisis is coming to a head
Meanwhile, Tottenham Hotspur is slipping ever more deeply into crisis and has to worry more than ever about staying in the Premier League. Spurs lost 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest and fell to 17th place in the table. It was the Londoners’ tenth home defeat this season – no team has a worse record in front of their own crowd. For coach Igor Tudor, the commitment to Tottenham is increasingly becoming a fiasco. The 47-year-old Croatian lost five of his first seven games.
