Manchester City win the Carabao Cup, the League Cup.

Manchester City win the Carabao Cup, the League Cup.

At times it was almost as if  Arsenal had just dropped onto the set of Hancock's Half Hour. Oh glumness and despondency, possibly the end of the world! Poor Arsene Wenger looked as if he'd just given too many pints of blood and had just bumped into Sid James while walking along the Wembley corridors. Everything seemed so miserable and apocalyptic that not even June Whitfield or Patrick Cargill would have been able to offer a sympathetic shoulder to cry on.

By the end of this remarkably one sided Carabao Cup Final (or League Cup Final for the traditionalists) Arsenal looked so badly beaten that you almost felt that the whole game had begun to drift into a sideshow of total irrelevance. Manchester City had not only punched them into submission but had also left sore and festering wounds to an already troubled season. When the teams re-assemble for the Premier League match at the Emirates on Thursday Arsenal will find themselves looking at a broken mirror.

And yet at heart Arsenal are still capable of playing the kind of football that the classical purists would still claim to be the finest and most pleasurable to watch. After over 20 years at the club Arsene Wenger has set down some of the most honourable  of attacking principles ever seen in English football. Arsenal, until quite recently, have delivered some of the most forward thinking and handsomely constructed football in the Premier League, a combination of subtlety, cleverness, intelligence and footballing intellect that has left most of their fans begging for more.

On their day Arsenal have been models of refinement, clear minded and innovative thinking and refreshingly precise in their passing. Not for nothing have they won the FA Cup on several occasions in recent years with something to spare but they've also imposed their natural passing game so powerfully that some of their defeated opponents have been rubbing their eyes with utter disbelief.

But yesterday at Wembley Arsenal once again found the old League Cup something of an ongoing problem, an Achilles heel that seems to get worse with every appearance in a Wembley Final. Just over 10 years Birmingham City disrupted the Gunners golden halo of success in the League Cup Final. In 1987 George Graham's Arsenal eventually overcame Liverpool while a year later Luton Town had flummoxed everybody including Arsenal with a 3-2 victory at the old Wembley.

A couple of years ago their old nemesis Chelsea beat Arsenal in this same competition so there was a widespread belief that yesterday would finally bring their League Cup woes to a grateful end. Sadly though Manchester City were their opponents on the last Sunday afternoon of February and we all know what that means. So far City have been unplayable, unstoppable, imperious and imperial. In fact most adjectives have been rendered utterly redundant. City are a force of nature and, at the moment at least, appear to be running away with the Premier League with some of the most beautifully becoming football seen in the Premier League.

City, under the wonderfully inspirational Pep Guardiola, are so far ahead of the rest of the teams behind them that search parties may be required at some point. They have left a visible cloud of dust in their wake and eventually and mercifully those chasing them will just bow to their superior knowledge. It is hard to imagine how anybody can even mathematically catch them at the moment although realistically the fight is over, the towels have been thrown into the ring and Manchester City are, more or less, Premier League champions elect.

Yesterday Manchester City bore a vague resemblance to Guardiola's Barcelona with their rich range of quick witted and impulsive passing at close quarters, the ball quickly whizzing between light blue shirted feet with a startling ease and fluency. It seemed at times that the City players had some hidden magnet in their boots that connected instantly, an electrifying sight at times and somehow miraculous at others.

But City, after one or two wobbles recently with FA Cup defeat at Wigan and Premier League defeat at Liverpool perhaps subconsciously preying at the back of their minds, were slow starters. The ball admittedly flowed across the ground when City had possession but, occasionally, there has been an alarming raggedness and complacency to City that may have alerted their neighbours United at Old Trafford, not a million miles behind them in the Premier League title chase.

In the first half at Wembley City stepped out onto the famous Wembley turf rather like those snobbish landowners who rightly believe that nobody should ever encroach on their precious territory. Defeat should be unthinkable and City adopted an air of self righteousness that Arsenal were determined to take advantage of. This was no occasion though for the delusional to assume airs and graces. How dare Arsenal even think of stealing City's thunder. It would be most unseemly and unheard of.

So it was that after a jittery and uncertain start from City and an Arsenal side almost hell bent on grafting their passing game onto the game, City rolled up their sleeves, worked the ball with an enviable simplicity and just tinkered with the ball like a laboratory of scientists experimenting with different chemicals. By the end of the first half Arsenal knew neither to stick or twist.

City though, after a brief passage of moderately impressive one touch football struck the first blow. This time though their opening goal was uncharacteristically direct and most unlike City. A long goal kick straight down the pitch bounced deceptively in front of bemused Arsenal defender Shkodran Mustafi and the German seemed to lose his sense of direction, allowing City's lethal striker Sergio Aguero a straight path. Aguero gleefully lobbed the ball over grasping Arsenal keeper David Ospina.

For the rest of the half Arsenal struggled haplessly, pressed back into their own half and to all intents and purposes  a side with neither shape, method or pattern. City reminded you of those rural dogs who spend most of their lives endlessly chasing a herd of sheep back into their pens. City had trapped their prey, surrounding Arsenal at every turn, hassling and hurrying the Londoners with a marvellous persistence and tenacity.

Yesterday City had the impeccably evergreen Vincent Kompany patrolling at the heart of a City defence like a nightwatchman or security guard, ever watchful, vigilant and completely self assured at all times. Kompany has been one of the most reliably consistent of City captains in recent seasons and one defensive challenge in particular robbing Arsenal of a potential goal, had to be seen to be believed.

Then Nicolas Otamendi began to surge into Arsenal's half, pestering, badgering, forcing the issue for City and marvellously adventurous. Kyle Walker, who Spurs may have cause to regret missing, had one of those typically heroic and imaginative games overlapping on the flanks that the watching England manager Gareth Southgate may have to cause to take private notes on.

It was now that City began to look their usual faultless and assertive selves. City's football is both calming and soothing to the soul at times and in the second half, they almost blinded Arsenal with their very own brand of science. Ilkay Gundogan looked more and more of a free spirit and this spirit of liberation made his assignment on the day look much less taxing than it could have been.

Now Leroy Sane emerged as one of the most authoritative looking of players on the day. Sane is a very learned and knowledgeable footballer who floats across the pitch like some like a holiday cruise ship. The German never looks flustered and is forever weaving in and out of defenders like a playful spider spinning its web. He dribbles with the ball with both assurance and a sense of insurance that the ball will never be given away lightly.

With David Silva playing with that ever present air of a lightning conductor, buzzing and scheming around red shirts as if he'd always done it like this, City fluttered around and flirted with Arsenal as if genuinely enjoying themselves. Fernandinho provided that customary Brazilian blend that is slowly making a noticeable difference to the national team once again and Sergio Aguero once again gave the entire Arsenal defence the most tiring of run arounds.

The second half was growing older and more frustrating for Arsenal. Then from a low corner on City's right, the ball was driven firmly across the Arsenal penalty area where, after a blur of bodies had left everybody slightly perplexed, the ball fell to Vincent Kompany who stuck out a foot and diverted the ball into the Arsenal net for a vital second goal for City.

It was at this point that large sections of red began to desert their team. The Arsenal fans, almost stunned at their team's increasing discomfort on the ball, now left Wembley in their thousands. Arsenal looked as though they had been strangled by a bizarre inferiority complex. This was not a day for Arsenal will look back on with any kind of pleasure and their season is gradually lapsing into a state of total indifference to everything around them.

Jack Wilshere, combining with Aaron Ramsey and Granit Xhaka are still players of influence and stature, players of genuine awareness, excellent positional play and positive attacking instincts. Wilshere is one of the country's most instinctive touch players, driving forward at every opportunity and making things happen that lesser midfield players may not have thought of. Xhaka though is no Patrick Vieira and his temper may leave some Arsenal supporters fuming with fury. Critics of Viera though will insist that the Frenchman was no angel even at the best of times.

For Arsenal though City's third and almost insulting goal was by now no more than a formality. Once again David Silva had discovered wide open spaces in front of him and the Spanish playmaker powered forward at the now peeling skin of Arsenal's now back pedalling defence. Silva moved swiftly behind the Arsenal back line and steered the ball perfectly across the line of Arsenal keeper David Ospina with a shot that flew past the Spanish keeper.

And so it was that Arsenal looked as if they could hardly wait for the referee to blow the final whistle. Their only light at the end of a very long dark tunnel looks to be a victory in the Europa League Final provided they do get to the Final. Arsenal, of course are still one of the most original and eye catching of all Premier League teams but at the moment it all looks as if their world has collapsed around them. Still revenge can still be found in their Premier League match on Thursday and Arsenal fans, for a minute or so of reflection, that may never be sweeter.