Arsenal v Manchester City: Carabao Cup quarter-final – live!

51 min: Dias tries to lay the ball into the path of Cancelo but overhits it, sending it right out of play. That sums up a scruffy start to the second half by both teams, with neither able to put together any move worthy of the name.

49 min: Arsenal substitution: Pépé on, Martinelli off. the teenager is at least able to hobble off by himself.

48 min: Oh dear. Martinelli is down again, lying on his back and exhaling dolefully as the physio attends to him…

46 min: The players are back, including Martinelli, who has presumably overcome the pain caused by that clash with Steffen.

“That Steffen tackle on Martinellii was definitely one of those that only a keeper gets away with,” interjects Rob Lowery. “He got to the ball but had less control than a 747 with its rudder jammed.” Yep, keepers are the only players who are allowed to launch themselves at the ball on the understanding that it is up to everyone else to get the hell out of their way.

Amazingly, Arsenal deserve to be level. They started terribly and looked pitifully inferior for about half an hour but Arteta adjusted tactics, Arsenal found some vim and they drew level with a nice goal, with Martinelli and Lacazette combining well. Since then it’s been pretty even, though Runarsson had to make one excellent ave to stop Jesus from putting City back in front. Jesus has generally looked sharp but City’s other attacking players, especially Foden and Mahrez, have been disappointing, as has City’s lack of moxie when Arsenal finally started fighting back.

45 min: Martinelli is helped to his feet by the physio and is able to limp off the pitch. Once he gets to the sideline, he starts trying to walk off the injury and indicates that he would like to come back on to the pitch to try to continue playing. So thankfully it looks like he is not seriously injured. Probably best to withdraw hm at half-time, however.

43 min: Willock splits the City defence with a splendid pass from deep. Martinelli races on to it from the left … but Steffen hurtles way out of his box to get there first, sliding in to kick clear. And he seems to catch Martinelli too, because the youngster is down and in need of treatment. Martinelli, just back from injury, looks to be in severe anguish…

41 min: Runarasson makes a superb save to deny Jesus, rushing out and spreading himself bravely in front of the striker to block a shot from 16 yards after the ball ran through to Jesus thanks to a feint by Foden.

40 min: Arsenal are looking admirably feisty now. They’re winning duels, especially in midfield, and generally making things much tougher for City, who haven’t yet adjusted to not being totally dominant.

38 min: Arsenal appear to have switched to a back four, with Maitland-Niles pushing into midfield.

35 min: Steffen tries to play out from the back but passes straight to Willock, who feeds Ceballos at the edge of the City box. Defenders scramble to surround the Spaniard and eventually whack the ball to safety. From being utterly serene, City suddenly seem a tad jittery.

34 min: That’s only the second goal City have conceded in their last nine games and they really only have themselves to blame for it; they lapsed into complacency because of Arsenal’s passivity, so when Martinelli introduced a bit of spunk, they were founding wanting. And now Arsenal have their danders up…

From out of nothing Arsenal have equalised! Martinelli created it with gumption and finesse. First he foraged down the left and sent over a cross that eventually came back to him. Then he clipped a dainty cross from the byline to Lacazette, who angled a fine header back in the direction from which it came and into the bottom corner of the net, past a motionless Steffen.

27 min: Cancelo angles a freekick from the right towards Rodrigo, but Willock manages to turn it out for a corner. Before the setpiece is taken, Ceballos collapses in the box clutching his face, drawing attention to the fact that Fernandinho tries to brush him out of the way as they jostled for position. There’s no VAR in operation today, so no opportunity for anyone to scrutinise that in slow motion and conclude that it was a heavyweight punch.

26 min: A beautiful turn by Jesus mid-way inside the Arsenal half bewilders Mustafi. All the defender can do by way of response is tug the Brazilian to the ground. That’s a yellow card in anyone’s book, including Mr Attwell’s.

24 min: Mahrez curls the freekick into the wall, which reroutes it out for a corner.

23 min: Elneny booked for a desperate lung at Jesus, who was scampering towards the area. Freekick to City in a mighty dangerous positon…

21 min: Mahrez delivers a corner from the right. Laporte rises highest amid three Arsenal defenders and sends a downward header bouncing just wide from seven yards.

20 min: Cancelo collects a pass from Silva in the right-hand side of the box Arsenal box. He picks out Mahrez near the penalty spot, and the Algerian’s shot is diverted wide by Ceballos. “That photo of the first goal is a lovely Christmas image, Paul,” carol-sings Justin Kavanagh. “Jesus is (air)borne, escaping all pursuers, while the Three Wise Men can only follow his star offering gifts.”

18 min: After some energetic flustering by Arsenal around the City box, Steffen is forced into action of the first time, albeit only to welly clear a pass back by Zinchenko under moderate pressure.

16 min: Cancelo fires a bobbling cross from the right towards the edge of the area, where Foden tries to hook it over his head towards goal. It’s an imaginative effort but he got nowhere near enough power into the shot trouble Runarasson.

14 min: Given how much of the ball they’ve had, City have been disappointingly short of creativity so far.

12 min: Ceballos with the outswinging corner. Lacazette with the wayward header at the near post.

11 min: Kolasinac shows a bit of zest to step in and nick the ball off Mahrez wide on the left. Arsenal then string together a couple of passes in their own half before sending one long for Willock to chase. The youngster forces Laporte to concede a corner.

8 min: It’s all so easy for City. Arsenal are pretty much letting them have the ball until they approach their goal, seemingly concentrating on not conceding more rather than trying to mount a comeback just yet.

6 min: Gabriel strides out of defence to try to dispossess Silva in midfield. His challenge is too robust and he concedes a freekick, but at least he showed a bit of vim, which has been otherwise lacking from Arsenal in these early stages. The polite observation would be that they look short of confidence.

3 min: Regarding the goal, it was a peach of a cross from Zinchenko but Jesus really should haven’t have been allowed to escape the attentions of Mustafi so easily, and Gabriel, and Runarasson wasn’t too clever either.

Have Arsenal even touched the ball yet? I don’t think so! City stroke it around for nearly two minutes before working Zinchenko into a crossing position down the left. The Ukrainian sends an out-swinging cross from the byline towards the near post, where Jesus arrives to nod into the net with no defender near him! Oh dear, Arsenal.

1 min: Off we go. In am empty Emirates, the black-clad visitors get the game going…

“As a Spurs I can’t believe what I am about to write,” begins Jerome Lambe. You think Tottenham are going to win the Premier League? “I think the media have gone OTT on Arteta. I for one would like to see Arsenal get back their mojo. Hope they get the result tonight. I want to see a London derby final.” Hasn’t the harshest criticism of Arteta been from Arsenal fans, rather than the nasty media?

Keeping his answers to the point, Guardiola explains the thinking behind his team selection thus: “To win the game.”

Asked whether Sergio Aguero will appear off the bench, he replied: “Maybe. He’s not ready to play 90 minutes but he will get some minutes.”

He concludes by noting the strangeness of the scenes he witnessed on the way to the Emirates, with the English capital in lockdown. “We saw London in a way we didn’t expect. It’s so sad to see this marvellous city this way.”

Explaining his team selection, he says: “We have to rotate the squad and we had some injuries as well, some people we had to leave behind. It’s still a really competitive team. We have put in players who have performed really well this season in other competitions so I’m really excited.”

Asked how long he expects Martinelli to be able to play today, he replies: “We will see howe he copes. He has been out a long time. But he’s full of passion and energy and I think he will add something different to the squad.”

In sum, he says: “We need to show the competitive edge … individual battles are key to winning these games.”

The winners of this quarter-final could meet Brentford in one of the semi-finals, as Thomas Frank’s team have just knocked out Newcastle. The other potential opponents will be in action in tomorrow’s quarter-finals: Stoke v Spurs, and Everton v Manchester United.

The news before kickoff is good for Arsenal, as 19-year-old Gabriel Martinelli is back in the starting lineup for the first time since suffering an injury in March. With Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang out of form before his own recent injury, this is a chance for the youngster to provide at least part of the answer to the goal problem that has afflicted Arsenal this season. That still leaves the question, of course, about how Arsenal are going to create chances for anyone to score …

Incredibly, that is a problem that has also befallen City this season. Guardiola gives Mahrez, Silva, Foden and Jesus a chance to address that today, and has fearsome options on the bench, to boot.

City: Steffen; Cancelo Dias, Laporte, Zinchenko; Rodrigo, Fernandinho, Silva; Mahrez, Jesus, Foden

Subs: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Gundogan, Torres, Sterling, Aguero

Arsenal: Runarsson; Mustafi, Gabriel, Kolasinac; Soares, Elneny, Ceballos, Willock, Maitland-Niles; Lacazette, Martinelli

Subs: Leno, Tierney, Mari, Smith-Rowe, Pépé, Balogun, Nkettiah

Referee: S Attwell

Hello. Manchester City used to be Mikel Arteta’s happy place. He did his job, people praised him, and the team he coached usually won. Heady days. Now Arteta takes on Man City in charge of an Arsenal team that has not won a match in a domestic competition for nearly two months and doubts are rife as to whether the manager knows what to do and how to get players back on board with his method and manner. After a bright start at Arsenal, Arteta seems engulfed in gloom. But a glimpse of silverware would bring some pre-Christmas cheer.

Arsenal beat Leicester and Liverpool(‘s second teams) in this tournament earlier in the season but City are likely to prove tougher. They tend to take this tournament seriously, winning it in five of the last seven years. So although Pep Guardiola will probably not deploy his strongest available side, he will show little mercy to his former assistant. As for Arteta, does he even know what his strongest side is any more?