Samir Nasri is hoping Manchester City will ease his Wembley woe and avoid suffering the same fate as former club Arsenal.
City warmed up for their League Cup final date with Sunderland next Sunday with a scrappy 1-0 win over Stoke that kept them three points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea.
While Nasri admits a first trophy under Manuel Pellegrini could spur them towards more glory, he recalls how Arsenal never recovered from the shock of a 2-1 final loss in the competition to Birmingham in 2011. Like City, the Gunners went into the game chasing an unprecedented quadruple – but ended up with nothing.
Arsenal won just two of their remaining 11 league games to finish fourth and 12 points behind champions Manchester United. They also lost to United in the FA Cup quarter-final, and crashed out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage when Barcelona wiped out a 2-1 deficit with a 3-1 second-leg win at the Nou Camp.
“I don’t have good memories in the League Cup because I lost the final with Arsenal,” said Nasri, whose City side will not return to league action until March 15 at Hull, with an FA Cup test against Wigan and the Champions League return with Barcelona beforehand.
“We got to the League Cup final with Arsenal and lost – and, after that, we won only two games in the league, so a win would be really important for us.
“It was a boost for the team to win against Stoke. After the mid-week defeat to Barcelona, we were all down, because of the circumstances. But we did the job. “
It is difficult not to play a Premier League game for two weeks, but we have other targets and we are going to try to win every game.”
That is the target set by boss Manuel Pellegrini too as he seeks his first prize in English football. “Of course, I’m expected to win trophies here, so I will be very happy to win a trophy, with the style of football we have been playing, on Sunday,” Pellegrini said.
“We play the four competitions with the same intensity and, of course, finishing the League Cup by winning at Wembley is very important for the squad.”