Kyle Walker has admitted that beating Arsenal to lift his first piece of silverware with Manchester City "would be a fantastic feeling".
The England international, who has strong ties with the Gunners' arch rivals Tottenham Hotspur, is expected to start Sunday's EFL Cup final at Wembley.
Victory against Arsenal will be made all the sweeter for Walker due to his Tottenham connection, but the full-back insists that he has no regrets leaving the Lilywhites for pastures new last summer.
"Spurs is a club which belongs to my heart and to get one over on their bitter rivals, and mine for a long time, would be a fantastic feeling. But it's a game of football and anything can happen in 90 minutes," he told Sky Sports News. "They've made some excellent signings in January which we need to be careful of, and we need to just say: 'Let the best team win'.
"Spurs will always have a place in my heart, they gave me a chance to play Premier League football and I'll be forever indebted to them. But it was something I needed to do for myself, the manager told me of his plans for the season and I wanted to be a part of it. Working under Pep Guardiola, a chance like that doesn't come along too often.
"That's no disrespect to Mauricio Pochettino, but the people that Pep has worked with grow as players. Every game I see something and think 'how have you done that?' Playing behind Kevin De Bruyne you wonder what he's seen when he makes a pass and it just comes off but it's not only him, there's a number of special players here. I think that's put us where we are in the league, and coming into the cup final too.
"Tottenham were in a fantastic position when I left, they'd finished second twice, and people might ask why I left then and it was kind of a gamble, but it has paid off now. I gambled when I left QPR to go to Aston Villa half-way through the season when we were winning every Championship game, and that paid off. You just get a sense inside you and you have to go."
Walker spent seven years in North London prior to leaving for Man City in 2017, racking up 229 appearances in that time.
Daniel Lewis
