2025-26 Carabao Cup Final Preview

Arsenal meet Manchester City in a blockbuster final to determine the 2025-26 Carabao Cup champions.

Victory would see Arsenal claim their third League Cup title, whilst Man City can claim a ninth title in this competition with a win.

Team News

Arsenal have no fresh injury concerns to report following their 2-0 Champions League victory at home to Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday evening.

Martin Odegaard (knee) and Jurrien Timber (knock) face late fitness checks, but Mikel Merino (foot) remain absent.

Man City have no fresh injury concerns to report following their Champions League exit against Real Madrid on Tuesday evening.

Josko Gvardiol (leg) remains sidelined.

When is Kick-Off?

Arsenal meet Man City at Wembley Stadium, London, on Sunday 22 March at 4:30pm GMT, live on ITV1 and Sky Sports in the UK.

Route to Final

Arsenal

Second-half goals from Ethan Nwaneri and Bukayo Saka saw Arsenal claim a 2-0 fourth-round win at home against Brighton.

Mikel Arteta’s Gunners then prevailed 8-7 on penalties against Crystal Palace following a 1-1 draw in North London, having led through Maxence Lacroix’s own-goal before Marc Guehi brought Palace level in the fifth minute of injury time, although Lacroix subsequently was the sole player to miss in the shootout.

Ben White, Viktor Gyokeres and Martin Zubimendi were on the scoresheet as Arsenal won 3-2 at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of their semi-final against Chelsea, in which Alejandro Garnacho netted twice for the Blues either side of Zubimendi’s winner for the Gunners.

Kai Havertz’s injury-time strike saw Arsenal edge the return leg at home against his former team to claim a 4-2 aggregate victory.

Man City

Man City began their campaign in the third round with a routine 2-0 win at Huddersfield through goals from Phil Foden and Savinho, before Omar Marmoush and Rayan Cherki secured a 3-1 comeback fourth-round win at Swansea after Jeremy Doku cancelled out Goncalo Franco’s early opener.

Cherki and Savinho then scored in a clinical 2-0 Quarter-Final victory for Pep Guardiola’s Cityzens at home to Brentford.

Second-half goals from Antoine Semenyo and Cherki then saw City clinch a 2-0 first-leg semi-final victory at reigning champions, Newcastle.

Marmoush’s brace and Tijani Reijnders’ effort subsequently sealed a 3-1 second-leg win at home to prevail 5-1 on aggregate despite Anthony Elanga’s consolatory strike for the Magpies.

Stat Attack

• Arsenal have avoided defeat in six of their ten previous meetings against Man City in this competition across nine previous ties (W5, D1, L4), having taken a 1-0 aggregate win across a two-legged Quarter-Final in 1977-78 season.
• Man City have won three of their five League Cup meetings against Arsenal when played as the designated away team (W3, L2), including their last three such clashes.
• Arsenal lost 3-0 to Man City in their only previous Carabao Cup Final meeting in 2018.
• Arteta’s Gunners have kept three clean sheets in this season’s competition en-route to the final.
• Man City are only the fourth club after Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea to reach at least 10 finals in this competition.

Prediction

Currently sat nine points clear of City at the summit of the Premier League, Arsenal have a psychological edge coming into this match but they will need to be as patient and clinical as they were in their last two matches in all competitions if want to lift the trophy.

Man City meanwhile know that this is a chance to deliver a mental blow to Arsenal going into the international break but after a pretty frustrating fortnight against Real Madrid and a 1-1 draw at West Ham, they really need to ideally score first here given the Gunners’ momentum.

Many of City’s squad also have the title-winning experience that Arsenal lack in this competition which is another psychological motivation, but I do think that this is probably the strongest Arsenal team in years so I fancy them to snap that duck but it will be a tough battle.

Prediction: Arsenal 2-1 Man City