Nico O’Reilly said he’s hoping Manchester City have dealt Arsenal “a blow” ahead of the Premier League run-in with their Carabao Cup success at Wembley.
City beat Mikel Arteta’s side 2-0 on Sunday as Pep Guardiola lifted the trophy for the fifth time in his career.
The two teams are separated by nine points at the top of the Premier League table and play each other again at the Etihad Stadium on April 19.
Guardiola said afterwards that he doubted whether the Carabao Cup result would impact the title race.
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But O’Reilly — the match-winner against Arsenal with two goals — believes it will increase the pressure on the league leaders as they try to secure their first title in more than 20 years.
“100 percent, it is a blow for them and we need to build on it and get some momentum from this win now,” O’Reilly said.
“As soon as the international break is over we need to kick on and fight hard.
“We have a game in hand in the Premier League, we have to play them at our place. We are still in the FA Cup. Liverpool is a tough tie and we know that so we need to do everything we can to keep going.”
City failed to register a shot on target in the first half against Arsenal.
But they were by far the better team after the break and afterwards O’Reilly revealed it was Guardiola’s halftime changes which helped City get the upper hand.
“I think we dominated as soon as we came out in the second half,” he said.
“We didn’t let them out of their half, a few tweaks from the manager tactical wise and positional wise, and it worked well.”
Two goals in the final capped a good weekend for O’Reilly, who was named in the England squad on Friday and celebrated his 21st birthday on Saturday.
“Perfect weekend, I couldn’t have asked for much more,” he said.
“Now we can celebrate a bit and get ready for the international break.”
