The soccer calendar has been particularly quirky this year. There’s always an international break in March, but because this year’s edition involved World Cup qualifying play-offs, most games were scheduled for the Thursday and the Tuesday, which meant there was very little soccer played over the weekend; barely even a smattering of friendlies.

For a Saturday in early spring, it all felt very weird; it was a day for pacing the floors, wondering how on earth people who don’t like soccer fill the time. And with the Carabao Cup final falling the previous Sunday, and the FA Cup sixth round this weekend, that has meant a three-week hiatus in the title race. Which has been disorienting and, perhaps, not entirely to Arsenal’s benefit.

The Premier League dominates the landscape to the extent that the temptation is always to read everything in terms of what it might mean for the title. That’s not unreasonable, but the English system’s domestic Cups deserve respect in their own right. Manchester City’s victory in the Carabao Cup final was a tactical triumph for Pep Guardiola and was rapturously celebrated by fans who, after last season’s chastening, have perhaps remembered that no silverware should...