City Watch: Blues slip up as Arsenal crowned champions

In a season defining week, Manchester City faced both Chelsea in the FA Cup Final and Bournemouth in a bid to keep their Premier League title hopes alive.

There’s been so much news since my last column, so I’ll have to keep the games as brief as possible, I’m sure most will have watched them anyway!

First up was our FA Cup Final against Chelsea, City’s record breaking fourth in a row. 

With the London club struggling this season having recently sacked their manager Liam Rosenior, it seemed like a perfect opportunity for Pep to claim his third FA Cup crown.

The man in charge was Calum McFarlane, who had managed Chelsea earlier on in the season and drew 1-1 with City at the Etihad. 

Some were predicting a whitewash, but that was further from the truth.

In a tight and scrappy affair with some very controversial VAR moments, Antoine Semenyo provided the only goal with a wonderful flick from Erling Haaland’s cross in the second half to give City a 1-0 win at Wembley.

With the news about Pep Guardiola potentially leaving the club at the end of the season breaking during Arsenals win against Burnley on Monday night, that may be his last trophy with City, and after an incredible 20 in ten years, what a decade it’s been.

I’ve had a feeling that Pep would be hanging it up at the end of the season for a while, and despite the fact the club haven’t confirmed anything as of yet, it feels like a natural ending point for him.

I don’t want to discuss Pep too much with so much going on this week, especially as nothing has been confirmed yet. 

If it turns out that our Spanish manager decides to leave, I’ll leave next weeks column free to discuss what a fantastic decade we’ve had.

After Arsenal’s win against Burnley on Monday, City travelled to Bournemouth knowing they had to win to keep their title hopes alive.

The Cherries have been magnificent this season and are within touching distance of European football, potentially even a Champions League spot, so we knew this game was going to be tough.

Our worst fears came true towards the end of the first half, with Junior Kroupi scoring to give Bournemouth the lead and effectively handing Arsenal the title. 

City were unable to break through the lines in the second half, only scoring a late goal in the second half deep into injury time to level the game, but it wasn’t enough.

With the Blues failing to win, Arsenal were confirmed as Champions, and I won’t be too bitter, so congratulations in a title that has been a long time coming.

Now we play a waiting game until Villa on Sunday in our final game of the season as to whether Pep will leave the club. 

Like I say, I’d love to talk about his achievements now, but I’m hanging onto a little hope that he might stay one more year, especially now we won’t be winning the title.

I’m not too frustrated at the result of the season, it’s been an incredible rebuild year with a domestic cup double and taking the Gunners all the way in the title race.

Let’s see what the next week brings and enjoy the final game of the season on Sunday, when we will definitely wave goodbye to John Stones and Bernardo Silva.