Manchester City’s shock Carabao Cup defeat to Southampton will be a huge boost for Premier League rivals Arsenal and local rivals Manchester United.
That is the view of talkSPORT’s Adrian Durham, who has described City as ‘very beatable’ after their 2-0 quarter-final loss at St Mary’s.
Pep Guardiola‘s men looked a shell of the team that swept away Chelsea in back-to-back matches.
City even failed to register a single shot on target against the Saints, despite the likes of Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish all featuring.
And Durham suggested Arsenal will be given more hope they can beat City to their first Premier League title since 2004 as they sit five points clear of them.
Meanwhile Durham believes that United will now be relishing the Manchester derby on Saturday, with Marcus Rashford chomping at the bit to face them.
Speaking on commentary following City’s defeat, he said: “City now go into the derby live on talkSPORT on Saturday.
“I think [City’s defeat to Southampton ] will give Arsenal a lot of confidence in terms of ‘can they go on and win the Premier League title?’
“They will look at this and say, ‘well City are certainly very beatable’. Are they [City] really going to win the rest of their games?
“Are they going to go on that run that everybody seems to think they’re going to go on?
“So Arsenal will draw some confidence, but in terms of the Manchester derby at the weekend, Manchester United will draw confidence from this as well.
“I would reckon that Marcus Rashford will be rubbing his hands together with the form that he’s in.”
Stuart Pearce added: “He certainly will. United now have an opportunity to go and get some silverware this year which looked at times in recent history as a mile away.
“But they go in as favourites now potentially with the teams that are left – no disrespect to the others.
“But certainly, this couldn’t have been a better result for Manchester United with City going to the wire, getting beat, it’s all set up for Saturday, it’s an absolutely brilliant game.”
Guardiola had no complaints about the result, insisting that Nathan Jones’ men deserve their place in the last four of the Carabao Cup.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “The better team won. We didn’t play good, we didn’t play well in the beginning.
“There are many games you can start not good and overcome and we didn’t do it.
“When you are not prepared to play this game you arrive one inch late and don’t score a goal. When you are prepared you score the goal.
“Today was a bad night, the opponent was better so we have to congratulate them.
“To win games you have to deserve it and tonight we didn’t deserve it.”
City are in the midst of a tricky run of games, with the club to host bogey team Tottenham after their trip to Old Trafford.
They then welcome Arsenal to the Etihad in the FA Cup fourth round at the end of January, before starting February off with an another clash against Tottenham.
And they then travel back to London on February 15 to face the Gunners in the first Premier League meeting between the two this season.
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