Nico O'Reilly hails perfect birthday as Bernardo Silva points finger at Arsenal's final flops

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Nico O'Reilly went from birthday boy to head boy - to lead Manchester City to Carabao Cup glory at Wembley.

O'Reilly, who turned 21 on Saturday, scored with two headers in four minutes, as City sank Arsenal 2-0 to demolish their Quadruple dream. And the England star admitted his fairytale weekend had left him feeling on top of the world .

O'Reilly said: "It's an unbelievable feeling. To win a final, to beat this team, we know how good they are. I'm buzzing. It's a bit of disbelief seeing all the fans cheering like that when I scored those goals. A really good feeling and a great birthday weekend. My whole family came down for the game. They are all in the stand and I know they will be buzzing. I can't wait to celebrate with them."

Pep Guardiola has now become the first manager to win the competition five times. This was also his 19th trophy in less than 10 years as City boss.

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He said: "What can I say? When you win a trophy it is important. I'm really pleased because Mikel (Arteta) created a team that is almost unbeatable. A fifth Carabao Cup in 10 years is not bad.

"We are still not the team like Arsenal are, or like we were in the past. But we always found a way to win titles. It's a real joy and feels special."

Guardiola hailed O'Reilly and added: "Maybe he was the signing of the season. When we started the season we had a long conversation with him. He started to play at left-back and impressed a lot. He can play in many roles, he is a guy in the final third in a position he likes. He made two fantastic goals."

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City captain Bernardo Silva accused Arsenal of running out of steam.

He said: "The first 15 minutes felt difficult. They were able to create a big chance where James Trafford was amazing for us. In the second half we tried to go for them a bit more. We felt they lost a bit of energy and when we felt that, we had to go even more for them.

"In a final you know both teams are going to have momentum. In those moments you fight together to make it as short as possible. We had the firepower to go for them as well.

"We wanted to stay stable, stay compact, not make stupid mistakes. Overall it was a very good performance."

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