THE 2026 Carabao Cup showdown will forever be remembered as the Nico O’Reilly (£3.8m) final.
Manchester City’s homegrown star scored twice in the space of four minutes to lead his side to a 2-0 win over Arsenal and claim the first major trophy of his career.
Cup winnerCredit: Getty
O’Relly’s twin headers resulted in an 18-point return, the second-best haul of Gameweek 29 — only Chelsea’s tormentor Beto (£2m) banked more points over the weekend.
The England international is categorised as a midfielder in Dream Team and so he doesn’t benefit from Man City’s clean sheets, even when he plays as a left-back, as he did at Wembley.
Even so, his owners can’t complain about a brace against the Gunners, who boast the best defence among Premier League clubs this season.
The 21-year-old has scored eight goals and provided five assists in all competitions this campaign.
And he ranks sixth in his position for tackles with 88, the most among his team-mates by a sizeable margin.
O’Reilly is one of five City midfielders on 200+ points after 29 Gameweeks, with Antoine Semenyo (£4.5m), Rayan Cherki (£4.7m), Phil Foden (£4m) and Jeremy Doku (£4.5m) being the other double centurions.
Dream Team’s fourth-best defenderCredit: PA
Mathues Nunes (£4.8m) was the only other player to notch a double-digit haul at Wembley.
The Portuguese right-back added 13 points to his tally to jump up to fourth in the rankings among defenders, just above Marc Guehi (£4.1m), who was cup-tied for the final.
Nunes contributed to his side’s clean sheet and provided the cross for O’Reilly’s second goal for his tenth assist of 2025/26, the most among assets in his position.
He also ranks joint-seventh among defenders for bonus points with 29 to his name.
Here at Dream Team HQ we have repeatedly highlighted Nunes as an underrated performer but still gaffers seem strangely reluctant to back him.
He currently features in just 3.7% of teams, minuscule compared to Guehi’s ownership of 36.7%.
Gyokeres is likely to be a popular recruit over the breakCredit: Getty
While it was a miserable weekend for Arsenal, Dream Team bosses will be looking to Mikel Arteta’s regulars after the international break.
The North Londoners are one of just two teams with two fixtures to fulfil in Gameweek 30 (Liverpool are the other) while 11 sides won’t be in action at all.
Arsenal will face Southampton on the south coast in the FA Cup quarter-finals before flying to Lisbon to meet Sporting CP in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
Arteta may rest some of his key players against Saints but this double header should be the primary focus after the break.
Evidently, some gaffers have got a head start…
MOST POPULAR RECRUITS FOR GAMEWEEK 30
- Viktor Gyokeres (£4.7m)
- Eberechi Eze (£3.9m)
- Declan Rice (£5.4m)
- Bukayo Saka (£6.1m)
- William Saliba (£4.4m)
The deadline isn’t until 4th April and so there’s time for things to change and it seems unlikely that Eze will remain at number two as early reports suggest his calf injury may keep him sidelined beyond the break.
But it’s clear Arsenal players will be top priorities.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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