Man City gear up for another season finale run

LONDON: Man City’s 3-0 Premier League victory at Chelsea, hard on the heels of a League Cup final triumph over Arsenal and an FA Cup thrashing of Liverpool, suggests Pep Guardiola’s men are embarking on another of their devastating late-season runs.

Although Sunday’s win followed league draws against struggling West Ham United and Nottingham Forest, City’s second-half dismantling of Chelsea and their recent cup exploits will send a shiver down the spines of table-toppers Arsenal.

The Gunners unexpectedly lost 2-1 at home to Bournemouth on Saturday and although the Londoners remain six points clear, second-placed City have a game in hand and will host Arsenal next weekend.

After seeing his side sweep Chelsea aside with three goals nL1N40V05L in 17 second-half minutes by Nico O’Reilly, Marc Guehi and Jeremy Doku, Guardiola sought to downplay suggestions that his side had all the wind behind them.

“Well, we have done a good three games but the best team in England so far is Arsenal, the best team in Europe so far is Arsenal,” the Spaniard said.

“To win (against) Arsenal once is so difficult – 49 games, they lost three in all competitions – imagine twice in the (space) of three weeks or one month,” he said, referring to City’s 2-0 League Cup win over the Gunners.

But, Guardiola also said things could change quickly. “The momentum shifts, like this,” he said, clicking his fingers. “In one second, it shifts.”

A look at the history books shows why Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal players have reasons to worry.

City have won 29 of their last 32 top-flight matches in the month of April under Guardiola and have lost only once during that period.

In the 2018/19 season, they won their last 14 league matches to pip Liverpool to the title. Three years later they won seven of the last nine games, including a comeback win against Aston Villa on the last day of the season, to clinch the title again. And in the 2023/24 campaign, City won all their final nine matches to retain their crown.

Asked to explain City’s ability to go on runs of form in the crucial stages, Guardiola joked it was to do with the arrival of spring sunshine after the bleak, rainy winter of northern England.

“The mood is better, you are feeling the end of the season,” he said before praising the track record of the club’s hierarchy in signing players with the mentality to win.

“I push them, they push me,” Guardiola said.

By contrast, Chelsea coach Liam Rosenior said his priority was to address his young team’s tendency to crumble after conceding goals in matches when they had looked competitive, including Sunday’s encounter when they edged the first half.

“It’s something we have to address, because it’s happened too many times in games where we have been in games against top teams,” he told reporters.

Chelsea’s poor run of form – they have now lost their last three league games in a row and were hammered 8-2 on aggregate in the Champions League by Paris St Germain last month – has raised questions about the club’s strategy of not acquiring more experienced players.

“We’ve had, even over the last week, lots of detailed conversations about what we need to look like moving forward from the summer window,” he said.