As the final whistle blew at the Etihad on Saturday afternoon, there was a strange hush over the stands. A silence that spoke of endings and what migh...
As the final whistle blew at the Etihad on Saturday afternoon, there was a strange hush over the stands. A silence that spoke of endings and what might have been. Pep Guardiola, having already waved goodbye to any faint hope of chasing down Arsenal for the Premier League title on Tuesday, signed off his ten year reign with a 2. 1 defeat to Aston Villa. It was not the script anyone wrote for the Catalan genius. But then, football has never been a fan of sentiment.Unai Emery's side arrived with a clear plan. They sat in a low block, compact and disciplined, forcing City to play through a congested middle. For all their possession, the home side lacked the sharpness of old. There was no quickness in transition, no burst of clinical finishing when it mattered most. Villa, by contrast, were ruthless on the break. They punished every small mistake and showed a level of tactical flexibility that Guardiola himself would have admired. One team played with the freedom of nothing to lose. The other played like a side that had already lost something vital.And so the farewell matches for the man who changed English football's DNA. Ten years, multiple titles, and a legacy that will be debated for decades. But let's not get misty eyed just yet. The final bow at the Etihad was a damp squib on the pitch. City fans will ask themselves: did we run out of steam just when it mattered Villa, on the other hand, look like a side that believes they can rattle anyone on their day. In the words of the terraces, they absolutely turned up when it counted. Guardiola walked off alone, hands in pockets, leaving the next man a very hard act to follow.
