Manchester City cruised to a January Carling Cup semi-final meeting with neighbours Manchester United, overcoming Arsenal’s young League Cup selection.

Three second-half goals put paid to the challenge of Arsene Wenger’s side, something which did not please the French manager, who refused to shake City boss Mark Hughes’ hand at full-time.

City had much the better of a scrappy opening 45 minutes, fashioning the majority of the half’s few chances.

Emanuel Adebayor headed straight at Gunners’ keeper Lukasz Fabianski on six minutes and Carlos Tevez forced a more athletic save from the Polish custodian with a right-foot shot just after the half-hour mark.

While Craig Bellamy was also millimetres wide with a right-foot drive from a Shaun Wright-Phillips cross.

City broke the deadlock five minutes after the break as Tevez produced a moment of quality the game had lacked until then, cutting inside two defenders and lashing a right-foot drive past Fabianski’s left-hand into the top corner off crossbar and post.

If anything, City’s second was even better. As had happened in the build-up to the first goal, Arsenal gave possession away cheaply and Wright-Phillips took the ball past Mikel Silvestre before unleashing an unstoppable shot past the helpless Fabianski’s right-hand.

Fabianski the saved well from Bellamy before the Welsh winger leapt on some more careless Arsenal play, bursting through two challenges down the left flank and crossing low for substitute Vladimir Weiss to drive the ball in off the crossbar with his left-foot from eight yards – the Slovakian’s first senior goal for City.

Fran Mereida, who had scored a wonderful goal to help dispatch Liverpool in the previous round, struck the crossbar with a fine left-foot shot from the edge of the box.

But Arsenal were long-since well-beaten, Wenger storming off down the players’ tunnel at the final whistle before Hughes could make his way over to shake his hand.