The Club have enjoyed a period of sustained excellence in the competition, emerging victorious on four occasions – in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2019 - to take our total number of League Cup wins to six.
Be it in our two triumphs in the League Cup’s former guise as the Capital One Cup or more recent victories in its current incarnation as the Carabao Cup, City have become a byword for success in the competition.
Indeed, having secured back-to-back Wembley triumphs under Pep Guardiola in both 2018 and 2019, City are still in contention for a third successive triumph, with a semi-final to look forward to against Manchester United in the New Year.
Such as has been our incredible level of consistency, you have to go back to October 2016 for the last time we suffered a League Cup defeat.
READ: A City Decade | Ten years of success
READ: A City Decade | The one that started it all
The springboard for that decade of League Cup domination was our 2014 triumph under Manuel Pellegrini.
Having plundered a plethora of goals on the way to Wembley, City were pitted against a struggling Sunderland in the showpiece final.
However, the Wearsiders struck first through Fabio Borini and made life tough for us before we drew level thanks to one of the most iconic goals seen at Wembley – a stunning 30-yard drive from Yaya Toure.
That proved our inspiration with Samir Nasri scoring to fire us ahead a minute later before Jesus Navas rounded off a 3-1 success in injury time.
Two years later City and Pellegrini were back in the Capital One Cup final, this time pitted against Liverpool.
The Merseysiders proved formidable opponents, Phillipe Coutinho’s late goal cancelling out Fernandinho’s early opener with the game going to a penalty shoot-out.
Goalkeeper Willy Caballero proved to be City’s shoot-out hero, memorably saving three penalties as we secured a 3-1 shoot-out victory.
Two years later, with Guardiola now at the helm, the Catalan inspired us to a third League Cup win of the decade and fifth in total.
The competition may now have been rebranded the Carabao Cup but there was a familiar name for the eventual winners as a dominant City swept Arsenal away 3-0 thanks to efforts from Club titans Sergio Aguero, skipper Vincent Kompany and David Silva.
Twelve months later Guardiola and City retraced our Wembley steps once more with Chelsea the opponents this time around.
It proved to be a cagey, hard-fought affair and after 120 minutes of combat had ended goalless, the drama of another penalty shoot-out ensued.
It was City who again held our collective nerve, Raheem Sterling’s memorable ‘top bins’ effort securing a 4-2 win on penalties which proved to be the catalyst for our subsequent historic Fourmidables campaign.
Along the way to that most recent triumph, City also created yet another slice of history, recording the biggest aggregate win a semi-final, courtesy of our 10-0 triumph over Burton Albion earlier this year.
Our League Cup exploits have also proved infectious, with City’s Women also emerging as the pre-eminent force in the women’s format of the competition, following our professional inception in 2014.
Under the leadership of manager Nick Cushing, City have won the WSL Continental Cup on three occasions this decade, emerging victorious in 2014, 2016 and 2019.
That 2014 triumph – a 1-0 win over Arsenal thanks to an Izzy Christiansen strike – represented our first trophy and served to help inspire our subsequent numerous successes in the women’s game.
Two years later, City were League Cup winners once again as we overcame Birmingham City 1-0, after extra time, in the final through a Lucy Bronze effort.
And it was a triple crown for Cushing’s side in 2019 as we secured a third Continental Cup crown thanks to a dramatic 4-2 win on penalties over Arsenal in the final at Bramall Lane after 90 minutes and extra time had finished goalless.
That 2019 success proved a history making weekend for the Club, with our men following suit 24 hours later by securing a League Cup final penalty shoot-out win of their own over Chelsea in what was another English football first.
