Pep Guardiola takes Manchester City one step closer to winning the EFL Cup in four years in a row

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer lifted the quarter-finals of Manchester United at Everton by admitting they wanted to lift any trophy. The same cannot be said of Manchester City.

Not in terms of recent history, at least, and that one phrase that Solskjaer uttered symbolizes the upward shift in power in this part of the world. City have held their heads to collect five of the last seven League Cups but what others would not take for just the same.

It is a subordinate competition. Of course it is. One thing Pep Guardiola even suggested was baking a whole not so long ago, but even though that silverware will sit on the shelf, it will always scrape to get a grip. They are aiming to become the first Liverpool team in the 1980s to win this in four consecutive seasons.

Guardiola wants to collect the numbers for legacy purposes, for reasons that are simply immoral, and there is nothing wrong with that. This year, however, winning in the last eight years is a bit more meaningful as they are infamous in the Premier League.

It offers vitality, which has not been the case lately. A night against Arsenal; puts Arsenal in charge.

The City manager moved the speech from his inexperienced strikers to a lack of momentum over the weekend – despite a credible win at Southampton they were still spouting plenty of chances – and with that perhaps that it meant muscle memory in front of the goal.

They have been deficient in final results recently, scoring more than twice in a home game just once since September. That unwanted record was definitely broken – eventually, at least.

Gabriel Jesus had his first goal in 10 hours of football within three minutes, although he then missed a glaring opportunity when this was 1-1. The first half to reveal City’s season: the whole ball, missed opportunities, conceded a foul goal. Rinse and repeat. Unlike previous blips, they responded.

‘Goals are something special,’ Guardiola said while rubbing his thumb and index finger. ‘It’s the friction, the fluidity. We’re closer to being when we win games. ‘

Closer does not mean close and it is only through a hard grip that City come out of this sticky spell in the third final.

‘We couldn’t score the clear chances and when that happens you always suffer,’ said Guardiola at Southampton. The same could be said about their trip to the Emirates longer than they could admit, in a cup he always wants to be treated with great respect.

Guardiola has included the youngsters in previous rounds – Liam Delap, Cole Palmer, Tommy Doyle and Taylor Harwood-Bellis have all appeared this year – but the children are rarely seen in the those final stages.

This was an opportunity for those on the fringe to apply. There were many who did not, especially the middle half of Aymeric Laporte, and his positioning error for equalizer Alexandre Lacazette increased John Stones stock again.

Phil Foden, however, with a peerless gart forward from a pier in the middle and a right flick over the Runar made Alex Runarsson stop. That’s the kind of times a young person can come to terms with when he gets a break to express it.

City needed it at the time, ahead only because of Runarsson ‘s worse minutes earlier.

But, as Guardiola said, winning of any kind will advance their game in the coming weeks, and this tournament has brought them a lot of joy over the years.

Fans wake up to every disappointing result either in the league or in Europe with irony: ‘We will always have the Carabao. ‘This year, progress feels a little more important.

More healing than legacy, but equally important.