LONDON, February 29 (AP): Manchester City added another League Cup to the growing collection of trophies under its Abu Dhabi ownership, beating Liverpool in a penalty shootout with Yaya Toure converting the clinching spot kick on Sunday.
And on a day of double delight for the Manchester clubs, United damaged Arsenal's Premier League title challenge after new star Marcus Rashford scored twice in a 3-2 win. The 18-year-old striker has now scored four goals in his first two starts for United.
Second-place Tottenham rallied to beat Swansea 2-1 to trim the gap to surprise league leader Leicester to two points.
Man City manager Manuel Pellegrini claimed a third trophy in his three-year tenure that is ending this summer — and it was one of his contentious selections that paid off after the final finished 1-1 after extra time and went to penalties at Wembley Stadium.
Second-choice goalkeeper Willy Caballero was selected ahead of Joe Hart for the game — as he has done throughout this competition — and saved three penalties in the shootout. Toure slotted the decisive penalty into the corner to seal a 3-1 shootout win and became the man for the big occasion again, having scored in both of City's FA Cup and League Cup final victories in recent years.
It was City's second League Cup title in three years and fifth trophy since the club was taken over by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi's royal family.
City went ahead in regulation time through Fernandinho and wasted a series of chances before Philippe Coutinho equalized in the 83rd minute. Coutinho was one of the three Liverpool players to have a penalty saved in the shootout, along with Lucas Leiva and Adam Lallana.
In the Premier League, few could have imagined that it would be Leicester and Tottenham as the top two with 11 games left.
Tottenham kept up its pursuit of the leaders after scoring two goals in eight minutes —through Nacer Chadli and Danny Rose — to overhaul Swansea, which led early through Alberto Paloschi.
Arsenal is five points adrift of Leicester after another bad day at Old Trafford, where Rashford scored in the 29th and 32nd minutes to continue his dream start to his United career. On his senior debut on Thursday, Rashford also grabbed a double in the Europa League against FC Midtjylland.
After former United striker Danny Welbeck replied for Arsenal, Rashford set up Ander Herrera for a shot from the edge of the area that deflected in off Laurent Koscielny. Mesut Ozil made it 3-2 but fifth-place United held on comfortably to move three points off the top four.
Arsenal hasn't won in the league at Old Trafford since 2006.
Wilfredo Caballero the Wembley hero
LONDON, February 29 (Reuters): Manuel Pellegrini will head to pastures new with at least one shiny memento of his final season as Manchester City manager after keeper Willy Caballero's penalty shootout heroics sealed a League Cup final win against Liverpool on Sunday.
The Chilean will be replaced by Pep Guardiola at the end of the campaign but, whatever happens between now and May, he will be guaranteed an appreciative send-off after City triumphed 3-1 on penalties after the Wembley Stadium showpiece finished 1-1.
City were stretched to the limit by Liverpool but Juergen Klopp's hopes of winning a trophy 143 days into his Anfield reign died when Caballero expertly saved spot kicks from Lucas Leiva, Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana.
It was a triumph for the 34-year-old Argentine keeper, whose selection ahead of first-choice Joe Hart had been much debated by City fans, and a vindication of Pellegrini's continued trust in the man he had chosen to keep goal throughout the Cup run.
Yaya Toure supplied the final touch, stroking home the deciding kick to give City their second League Cup in three years under Pellegrini. Fernandinho had given City the lead after 49 minutes when his shot slipped through keeper Simon Mignolet's grasp but Coutinho levelled late on.
"If we carry on and work really hard there is light at the end of the tunnel, but tonight we feel rubbish," a glum Klopp told reporters.
For Pellegrini, his much-criticised decision in fielding a second-string team in last week's FA Cup hammering at Chelsea looks fully justified after a 3-1 win at Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League in midweek and now victory over Liverpool. "That decision I took last week was very important to win these two games," Pellegrini said.
For all the pre-match razzamatazz, the first half was forgettable, barring a superb save from Mignolet to turn Sergio Aguero's shot against a post. Aguero had led Liverpool centre back Mamadou Sakho a merry dance in the build-up, the French centre back still dizzy from a clash of heads with team mate Emre Can that eventually meant Klopp had to replace him with Kolo Toure.
City went ahead when the otherwise impressive Mignolet let Fernandinho's shot from a tight angle squirm through his grasp.
Raheem Sterling, loudly booed by Liverpool fans throughout, then missed a sitter that could have killed off his old club. Aguero was denied a clear penalty and Mignolet then redeemed himself with a low save to keep out the Argentine's shot.
Klopp sent on Lallana with 20 minutes remaining and the England midfielder was involved in the equaliser. He prodded Daniel Sturridge's cross against the post but the ball rebounded to Coutinho who fired past Caballero.
Mignolet redeemed himself, denying Yaya Toure and Fernando in the final minutes of normal time and the Belgian also thwarted Aguero in the first period of extra time with a reflex stop. Caballero made an even better stop to keep out Divock Origi's point-blank header.
Liverpool drew first blood in the shootout when Fernandinho's spot kick hit the post but Caballero's three saves, which saw Hart giving his understudy a big hug afterwards, had their fans heading out before Toure's clincher.
