Carabao Cup Final | City v Spurs – the stats

Ahead of Sunday afternoon’s Carabao Cup Final (4.30pm kick-off), we take a look at the key statistics behind the game.

League Cup records

This weekend’s League Cup Final will be the ninth time in our history that we have stepped out in the Wembley showpiece - four times we have triumphed, four times we have fallen short. In 1971 and 1973 we picked up our first League Cups in a golden period for the Club. We wouldn't then collect the trophy again until 1999 with a 1-0 win over Leicester City - a triumph sandwiched by defeats in the 1982 and 2002 finals. In 2008, we then collected our fourth piece of silverware in the competition with a memorable 2-1 victory over Chelsea, however, in our last two outings in finals at the national stadium (2009 and 2015) we have met disappointment.

Manchester City on the other hand have enjoyed unrivalled success in this competition over the last seven years, having lifted the League Cup five times in that period. Since Head Coach Pep Guardiola arrived at the Etihad Stadium back in the summer of 2016, City have only failed to win the competition once. They have won each of the last three on the bounce.

In total, the Citizens have triumphed in the League Cup on seven occasions and have lost just one final in the competition. Only Liverpool have won it more times (8), meaning the Sky Blues could equal the record for most wins in the tournament if they are victorious on Sunday.

Spurs v City

While Manchester City are flying in both the Premier League and Champions League this season - they currently sit at the top of the table domestically while they have reached the semi-finals in Europe - we have enjoyed positive results against the Citizens in recent times. In the Premier League for example, we have won two of our last three games against them, keeping two clean sheets in the process. Meanwhile, in our last cup competition meeting with the Sky Blues, we also edged the tie as, back in April, 2019, after a thrilling two-legged encounter in the Champions League quarter-finals, we progressed past City on away goals to earn our place in the final four.

In the League Cup, we have faced Manchester City three times to date and on each occasion, we have been victorious. First, in a third round tie in 1992, a sole Vinny Samways goal saw us overcome the Citizens at Maine Road. Some 11 years later, we welcomed the Sky Blues to White Hart Lane and once again we edged the encounter as strikes from Darren Anderton, Helder Postiga and Frederic Kanoute helped us into the fifth round with a 3-1 win. Our most recent meeting in the competition came back in December, 2007 - a night which proved to be vital on our road to silverware. Facing off in the fifth round, we earned a commanding 2-0 victory at the City of Manchester Stadium to book our place in the semi-finals. And from there, we beat Arsenal across two legs before going on to taste victory in the showpiece at Wembley with a 2-1 win over Chelsea.

Run to the Final

Having begun our campaign in unprecedented circumstances, progressing to the fourth round by virtue of round three opponents Leyton Orient being unable to fulfil our fixture, we then earned a momentous result in the next round as we knocked out London rivals Chelsea with a 5-4 penalty shootout triumph. Into the quarter-finals and we faced a trip to Championship side Stoke in December where, despite being pulled back by the Potters early in the second half after Gareth Bale’s opener, we produced a late flourish to win 3-1 and book our place in the final four thanks to strikes from Ben Davies and Harry Kane. In the semi-finals, we again faced second-tier opposition as high-flying Brentford visited N17, but we eased past the west London side with goals from Moussa Sissoko and Heung-Min Son earning us a 2-0 win and a place in the final. So far, we have scored six goals in this season’s competition and they have all come from different scorers.

City, meanwhile, began their campaign at home to Championship Bournemouth, who they dispatched 2-1, before they travelled to Burnley in round four where they earned a comfortable 3-0 win. Then, in the quarter-finals, they faced a trip to Arsenal and, at the Emirates, they strolled to a 4-1 victory before the small matter of the Manchester derby in the semi-finals, the Sky Blues overcoming their neighbours 2-0 at Old Trafford to book their place at Wembley.

Coming of age

At the age of 29, Ryan Mason became the youngest Premier League manager in history when he stepped into the dugout for our 2-1 win over Southampton on Wednesday. On Sunday, he’ll also become the youngest manager ever to take charge of a team in a League Cup Final.

If we go on to win against City, Ryan will also be the first English manager to win the competition at the new Wembley and first to lift the cup since Steve McClaren led Middlesbrough to victory over Bolton in 2004 at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium. In fact, only one English coach has won a major domestic final at the new Wembley to date – that was former Spurs manager Harry Redknapp who led Portsmouth to the FA Cup in 2008.

Wembley goals

Harry Kane is a player who enjoys a goal or two at Wembley. Having played 66 professional games at the national stadium in his career to date for both club and country, our number 10 has found the net there 44 times. In our colours alone, the striker has scored 31 goals in 48 appearances under the arch.

The same love of goals at Wembley could also be said for Heung-Min Son. Our South Korean forward has so far played a half-century of games for us at the national stadium and in those 50 matches, he has been directly involved in 33 goals.