Freddie Ljungberg sends advice to Arsenal after Carabao Cup defeat to Man City

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Former Arsenal star Freddie Ljungberg has urged his former side to forget about their Carabao Cup final defeat as focus shifts back to the Premier League title race.

The Gunners slipped to a 2-0 defeat to Manchester City at Wembley Stadium on Sunday afternoon - Nico O’Reilly netting twice for Pep Guardiola ’s side.

And given the defeat was at the hands of their main rivals for the Premier League title, former Arsenal star Ljungberg has concern for the North London side as they attempt to secure the trophy.

Speaking after Sunday’s defeat, he said: “It is a blow. The talk of the town, that’s Arsenal. Arsenal are the new ones coming in. They are doing amazing in the Champions League , it was the quadruple, everything was going their way.

“Manchester City had a Champions League run, they’ve been heavily criticised, but all of a sudden, they demolish Arsenal a little bit.’

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Arsenal remain nine points clear of City, albeit that advantage could be reduced to three points should Guardiola’s side beat the Gunners and win their game in hand. And Ljungberg believes that the momentum could now have shifted in favour of City.

He added: “It was 2-0, they had the ball all the time and I think it’s going to be hard for them. I think they feel they’re going to win the league but if you look at this here, they’re going to go to the Etihad and I would imagine City would be like, ‘We’ll take three points there!’

“Of course there’s a break now but then they probably need to go clean [slate] because if City now gears up and goes clean…”

Ljungberg is far from the only one to speak out on the potential impact that the Carabao Cup final could have on the league. City star Rodri has warned Arsenal that his side are ready to take advantage of any slips.

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He said: “A lot, a lot. That's why I told you it's a game not only for this title but to show that we can beat them.

“There is still a lot to do and it's clear we didn't want to go out of the Champions League. But we went out and now we have to take the positives, we have more time to prepare for the games. So that's something to take into account - but we also have to celebrate this.”

Rodri added: “We knew it was a very important game not only because of the title but also because we had to face the best team in the league.

“Now we need to rest, go back to the next round of internationals and come back with the optimism that we still have two more competitions to fight for.”