Man City, a League Cup, and a tremulous treble...

So. Pep Guardiola's quest for footballing immortality has foundered on the shoals, has it? His fountain of youth hath run dry. His unslakeable thirst for trophies, not unlike that of Tantalus's thirst for food or drink, threatens to endure a second straight year. His arrival in Manchester cruelly crushed his previously pristine curriculum vitae; he had never suffered a trophyless campaign until his arrival on English soil. Now, a second year in, he seems now more than even before like a remorseless eating machine, devouring talent over the summer to the tune of some £285m to bolster what was already one of Europe's deepest and most-talented squads. Wigan ruined his Quixotean quest for a quadruple. Into the breach steps Arsenal—can they deny the Spaniard his treble?

Arsenal 1-2 Östersunds FK—Vote for Player Ratings/MOTM!

It was awfully touch-and-go there in the first twenty minutes as our visitors twice took advantage of a sloppy, high line and slip-shod defending, scoring twice in a matter of seconds to seize an early 0-2 lead, offering in the process one of the most ironically Arsenal of Arsenal moments in recent memory—seizing a confident, seemingly insurmountable lead in the first leg only to suffer an historic second leg comeback to get knocked out on away goals. Somewhere, Bayern were enjoying this. Thankfully, it was moments after halftime that Kolašinac latched onto a failed clearance to make it 1-2, settling a few jangled nerves and unclenching if not wiping more than a few squeaky bums. Things settled down from there, and although it was hardly the swaggering walk in the park we might have hoped for, we're through to the next round. So it goes. Let's get down to the poll to rate the lads!