Rodri fires clear Premier League title warning to Arsenal after Carabao Cup success

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Rodri has warned Manchester City are now ready to hunt down Arsenal in the title race. City midfielder Rodri insists Pep Guardiola ’s men have proved they have got the beating of Arsenal - and have got them in their sights again.

Arsenal are nine points clear at the top of the Premier League and remain red-hot favourites to win the title. But City beat Mikel Arteta ’s men in the Carabao Cup final to win the first trophy of the season and Rodri believes that could be a huge psychological blow to the Gunners.

City have a game in hand on Arsenal who also have to go to the Etihad on April 19 while the Gunners are still in the Champions League while Guardiola’s men are already out of Europe.

When asked whether winning the Wembley final could have an effect on the title race, Spain star Rodri 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.”

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City ended Arsenal’s hopes of winning a historic quadruple but Rodri says it is now City who are dreaming of winning their own Treble. City have won the Carabao Cup, they are out of Europe but have an FA Cup quarter final against Liverpool and have not given up on winning the title.

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.”

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City also have the experience of winning and Rodri revealed that Guardiola’s half time team talk actually calmed their nerves and that was the secret of their success at Wembley.

It was goalless at half time but Guardiola outwitted Arteta in the second half and City lifted the trophy to leave Arsenal empty-handed again. They have not won a trophy since the FA Cup in 2020 and Rodri says you could see Arsenal ran out of gas at Wembley.

Rodri added: “I think it was a calming talk - we were doing things well and we didn't have any problems - we were doing well in terms of pressure - it was more a matter of personality wanting to go for the game, not letting them take control.

“I felt like they dropped a bit physically, we detected it and we wanted to go for them. You can tell when you have players who are good in the area and Nico O'Reilly has again shown his potential.”