Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says winning the Carabao Cup for the third time in a row is a “big success” and shows his side’s consistency.
Goals from Sergio Aguero and Rodri before Mbwana Samatta’s reply saw City beat Aston Villa 2-1 at Wembley.
Guardiola’s side have now won the Community Shield and League Cup this season and are still in the FA Cup and Champions League.
“It’s the consistency, incredible,” Guardiola said.
“Three times in a row is a big success.”
Speaking to Sky Sports, he added: “We’ve won a lot. Every game we play we try to win it, every competition we try to win it, and three times in a row, being here and winning is great.”
‘We nearly climbed that mountain’
City dominated for long spells of the final but Aston Villa almost took the game to extra time when Bjorn Engels’ header was turned onto the post by Claudio Bravo.
Villa boss Dean Smith said he was proud of his players’ efforts against “one of the top teams in the world”.
“We knew we would have to be patient without the ball,” he said.
“They went 2-0 up and it is a mountain to climb against a team of that quality but we nearly climbed that mountain.
“I thought the lads showed a lot of heart and a lot of quality as well.”
Wins for West Ham and Watford in the Premier League on Saturday saw Villa drop into the relegation zone, albeit with a game in hand.
But Smith is confident his side can take heart from their performance at Wembley.
“You can’t not look at the results from yesterday and because we weren’t playing we end up in the bottom three,” he added.
“We have got a game in hand and if we take the performance from today into our league season then we will be OK.”
Article courtesy of BBC Sport
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