Man City have won the Carabao Cup consecutively from 2018 to 2021. But this time Guardiola has placed the competition lowest on his list of priorities as he aims to defend his Premier League title and reclaim the Champions League trophy from Real Madrid. Pep Guardiola will not risk using any of his Man City first-team players for this match. With one less tournament, Man City players will have more time to rest and recover from injuries and avoid overload. This is understandable for coach Pep Guardiola who does not want his key players to get injured because the Premier League and Champions League are the top tournaments.
This obviously explains the reason behind the performance Manchester City had in their game yester day because they would definitely not loose to Tottenham in such a way in a premier league fixture normally, Priority has always influenced the tactics and strategy of any team in almost every game, looking at Manchester city's form and squad for that game, it was obvious they had some players rested ahead of the champions league and premiere league games by weekends and probably within the week.