It's somewhat ironic that the Carabao Cup is sponsored by an energy drink when you compare and contrast these two statements . . .

“This is a competition Manchester City has always loved.”

“We’re not going to waste energy for this competition for sure.”

The first one was made by City manager Pep Guardiola in his programme notes for last night’s cup tie with Watford at the Etihad.

The second was made by City manager Pep Guardiola in his press conference directly after City’s 2-1 win.

While, given the circumstances around City having to play Arsenal on Sunday and then Watford on Tuesday, it might be understandable and possible for a club to love a competition but also choose not to waste energy on it, Guardiola was virtually straying into dichotomous territory when he assessed the Carabao Cup.

“I would say the next round, we are going to play the players at the last minute or play the second team,” said the Spaniard in the press conference.

“We’re not going to waste energy for this competition for sure. I don’t know what’s going to happen.

“If I have a lot of injuries, I’m going to play the second team, but we will have all the squad ready and it’s a good competition for some players to take the rhythm, that’s for sure.

“We play to win the game. But we played 50 hours ago and players play a lot of games so absolutely I am not going to take a risk in this competition for Premier League or Champions League.”

The City boss was asked how he got his team ready for a second match in little more than two days.

“Our preparation was that the guys that didn’t play against Arsenal trained a little bit in the positions they were going to play,” he explained.

“Then there was recovery, and then today the players came earlier than usual to make another recovery.

“We tried as much as possible to watch Watford, my people and myself, to watch what they do.

“We prepare the game like usual and compete like they have done.”

Guardiola felt his team should have killed the game off long before Tom Ince pulled one back for Watford late on.

“We created a lot to finish the game, with three or four situations in the second half that were very clear chances,” he said.

“In the last minute we went through everything that happened but finally we could close the game.”