5. 17 December 1963 – Notts County 0-1 City
We start our top five with the 1-0 win over the Magpies at Meadow Lane in the 1963/64 season. The League Cup began just three years before and City were yet to have any success in the competition. They Blues reached the quarter-final the year before, but suffered a 6-0 defeat at the hands of Birmingham.
City headed into the game full of confidence after securing their place in the last eight by beating Don Revie’s Leeds United 3-1 at Maine Road with Derek Kevan scoring two of the goals.
It was Kevan again who had the final say at Meadow Lane as his goal secured City’s progression into the semi-final, but that’s where the journey ended on this occasion.
Starting XI: Dowd, Leivers, Sear, Kennedy, Wood, Oakes, Young, Gray, Murray, Kevan, Wagstaffe
4. 29 October 1969 – City 3-0 QPR
After reaching the semi-finals of the League Cup in 1963/64, City didn’t make it through to quarter-finals for another six years – their best effort coming in 1967/68 when they lost in the fourth round against Fulham.
October 1969 was a great month for City fans with them seeing their side remain unbeaten in the six games prior to the League Cup tie against QPR, winning four of them and drawing the other two. The 1-0 win against Wolves on the previous Saturday also pushed City up to fifth in Division One.
Colin Bell grabbed a brace while Mike Summerbee added the other as the Blues stormed into the semi-final where they were pitted against Manchester United. The first leg at Maine Road finished 2-1 to City, Bell and Francis Lee with the goals, before the two sides drew 2-2 at Old Trafford to send City into the League Cup final for the first time.
West Brom were the opponents at Wembley that year and City picked up the trophy after Glyn Pardoe and Mike Doyle scored in a 2-1 win to secure City’s first League Cup title.
Starting XI: Corrigan; Book, Pardoe, Doyle, Booth, Oakes, Summerbee, Bell, Lee, Young, Bowyer
3. 17 December 2013 – Leicester 1-3 City
Fast forward 44 years and City were looking to end their 37-year wait for a League Cup trophy after their previous success in 1976.
City thrashed Wigan 5-0 in the third round before swiftly moving past Newcastle in round four, picking up a 2-0 win in extra time – Alvaro Negredo and Edin Dzeko with the goals.
The two sides had met twice before in the League Cup, 1965/66 and 1968/69, with City winning both games. The clash at the King Power Stadium brought together the Premier League and the Championship and Leicester were looking to pull off a cup upset against fourth placed City, who were high on confidence after the 6-3 demolition of Arsenal the previous weekend.
Aleksandar Kolarov opened the scoring in the eighth minute with a fantastic free kick before a double from Dzeko all but confirmed City’s place in the semi-finals. Lloyd Dyer added a consolation for Leicester late on but the Foxes couldn’t stage a revival and City went through to face West Ham.
A 6-0 win at the Etihad in the first leg put one foot in the final before their place at Wembley was confirmed with a 3-0 victory in the second leg. Sunderland were the opponents in North London as City ended their long wait to secure the trophy with a 3-1 victory.
Starting XI: Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Kolarov, Javi Garcia, Rodwell, Navas, Silva, Milner, Dzeko
2. 2 December 2009 – City 3-0 Arsenal
The first of two Arsenal games which make our list, City made easy work of the Gunners at the Etihad in 2009. The Blues had drawn their previous seven games in the Premier League, sandwiched by a 5-1 win against Scunthorpe in the previous round of the League Cup, and faced a side in fourth place who had only lost once at home in the league.
The two sides had met six times before in the League Cup and City were yet to win one of them, but that was about to change.
Carlos Tevez’s spectacular strike early in the second-half started City on their path into the last four before an angled drive from Shaun Wright-Phillips all-but sealed progression into the semi-finals. Substitute Vladimir Weiss wrapped up the victory a minute from time to complete the scoring as Mark Hughes’s side set up a semi-final against Manchester United.
What made the victory even more special was that it was the first cup win over Arsenal in 105 years. Before this victory, the last win in a cup competition against the Gunners was in the 1903/04 FA Cup with 19-year old Sandy Turnbull and Frank Booth grabbing the goals in a 2-0 win.
Starting XI: Given, Richards, Toure, Lescott, Bridge, Wright-Phillips, Ireland, Barry, Bellamy, Adebayor, Tevez
1. 29 November 2011 – Arsenal 0-1 City
You had to go back 4 October 1975 to find City’s previous win at Arsenal ahead of this League Cup tie - a total of 36 years and 28 fruitless trips ago. Asa Hartford, Joe Royle and Rodney Marsh added the goals in a 3-2 win that day at Highbury as City moved up to ninth in Division One.
Moving forward to 2011 and the odds were firmly stacked in the favour of the Blues. Arsenal were down in seventh place, 12 points behind the unbeaten City at the top of the table. Both sides had drawn 1-1 the previous weekend, but though City should have started favourites, the Blues’ appalling record away to the Gunners made this a fascinating encounter.
Roberto Mancini made ten changes from the weekend’s draw at Anfield with Samir Nasri the only survivor as he faced off against his former club. One of the changes, Costel Pantilimon, produced two fantastic saves in the first half to deny Park Chu-Young and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain whilst City went close through Adam Johnson and Dzeko.
With eight minutes to go, City struck the killer blow. Dzeko started a counter attack before feeding the ball to Johnson and he teed up Sergio Aguero to fire in his 12th goal of the season to end City’s barren run of 36 years without a win at Arsenal.
Starting XI: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Savic, Onuoha, Toure, Kolarov, Nasri, Hargreaves, De Jong, Johnson, Dzeko
