Aston Villa won the first ever League Cup in 1960/61, but any hopes of securing another one on the 60th anniversary of the birth of the competition were dashed by Manchester City, who proceeded to win their seventh League Cup, and third on the bounce, beating Dean Smith's spirited Villa side 2-1.

Goals from Sergio Aguero and Rodri put Guardiola's side into a comfortable 2-0 lead within half an hour, before a Samatta goal just before half-time offered a glimmer of hope to the Midlands outfit.

Aston Villa were lively in the opening minutes of the final, and the first real chance of the match fell to Anwar El-Ghazi in the third minute, when his header just grazed the crossbar from an Elmohamady cross, an early warning sign for Man City.

However, that early warning sign did not disrupt Manchester City who started to stamp their authority on proceedings, dominating the ball with them enjoying 75% of the possession - this retention of the ball however, wasn't quite translating into anything that threatening.

Dean Smith had set up his team, like many do against City, very deep, attempting to absorb the pressure and seemingly hit on the counter attack, however this game-plan was infiltrated in the 19th minute by Pep Guardiola's side.

Rodri clipped an inch-perfect cross to the back post where Phil Foden knocked the ball back to Sergio Aguero with his head, who from inside the box does what he does best by firing past Nyland.

Four minutes before City scored, Guardiola had a quick word with Foden and told him to stick more to the right, as he kept drifting inside, and this tweak worked to exquisite effect.

After the goal, City continued to assert their authority, Villa simply could not get hold of the ball and ultimately did not look like posing any genuine threat when they had the ball, for brief periods, in attacking areas.

And in the 30th minute, City doubled their lead. A Gundogan corner found Rodri who was too strong for Guilbert and he headed a bullet header past the helpless Villa keeper. Villa fans and Dean Smith were clearly annoyed after the awarding of the goal though, as the ball appeared to hit off Gundogan.

In what was a one-way first-half, Tanzanian striker Mbwana Samatta offered the Midlands side a ray of hope just before half-time. John Stones should have dealt with a bouncing throw-in, but instead he fell over, leaving El-Ghazi free to run down the left and cross perfectly straight onto the head of Samatta, whose header evaded the grasp of Claudio Bravo in the City goal.

As much was the case in the first-half, City dominated the ball from the commencement of second half, enjoying the lion's share of possession, and looked a threat when attacking, though they were taking one too many touches and passes in the final third and could not get another goal to swiftly kill off the game.

The raucous Villa support continued to back their team, but the men in claret and blue could just not seem to carve out any real clear-cut opportunities, a big save from Orjan Nyland in the 73rd minute denied City and Rodri scoring from a corner again.

Grealish's lack of input during the second half had a major impact on their threat moving forwards, with City comfortably keeping the Villans at bay.

However, in the 87th minute a huge opportunity fell to Bjorn Engels whose header from a Jack Grealish corner was palmed onto the post by Bravo, it felt like that was the Villans' best opportunity to source an equaliser.

And that proved to be the case, as City pushed on to cement an impressive seventh League Cup trophy.