Manchester City will ask the EFL to change Carabao Cup rules to permit new signing Marc Guehi to feature in next month’s final.
Pep Guardiola expressed his disappointment that the £20million central defender cannot play when City face Arsenal at Wembley on March 22.
The City boss revealed that he has already asked the club’s hierarchy to make representations that selecting the England international ought to be allowed.
Rules were altered this season so that players could turn out for two different teams in a single campaign – and Antoine Semenyo started both legs of the semi-final against Newcastle United.
Semenyo arrived before the first leg at St James’ Park, whereas Guehi was hit by a time restriction by signing after that 2-0 win, meaning he was ruled out of the home leg and a potential final.
‘Marc can hopefully play the final,’ Guardiola said. ‘You pay a lot of money and I can’t understand why you can’t play him in the final.
Marc Guehi cannot play for Man City in the Carabao Cup final against Arsenal next month
‘Hopefully we can convince them, sometimes it’s difficult to understand. Apparently Marc couldn’t play the second leg because he didn’t play the first.
‘Now it’s the final so why should he not play? Why not? We pay his salary, we hire him as our player. It’s logic.’
Guardiola – who claimed that captain Bernardo Silva is ‘an incredible doubt’ for Sunday’s trip to Liverpool – added: ‘We’ll make a letter, and hopefully they understand he’s not able to play for a rule that I don’t understand, hopefully they can change it and he can play.’
Asked if he thought the rules would be overturned, the Catalan replied: ‘No. To change the rule in this country? No way. We will try.’
Meanwhile, Newcastle boss Eddie Howe fears an injury lay-off for Anthony Gordon after he was forced off with a hamstring issue. ‘It’s a big worry,’ Howe said after a sixth consecutive domestic game without a win.
‘There is no let up for us. We have to get back to winning ways. I’m really annoyed with the first half display, we pride ourselves on being really organised and tactically. We want to be able to handle any problem. That first half we weren’t good enough individually. We are still fighting on various fronts.’
