Bournemouth 1 Man City 1
Arsenal are the Premier League champions. I feel like that’s the best place to start but there was a match played tonight and as always I’m going to give it the attention it deserves, I thought Bournemouth were the better team in the first half looking far sharper than a City side which had just won the FA cup on Saturday so it was understandable that they’d be slightly off Bournemouth’s physical level. Bournemouth did eventually take the lead late in the second half as Truffert was played in down the left-hand-side pulling the ball back to Junior Kroupi who fired a beauty past a stationary Donnarumma to give Bournemouth the lead in the 39th minute. With a title to fight for you’d think that City would come flying out of the traps in the second half but they looked shattered as the half went on with Bournemouth substitute David Brooks having two guilt-edged chances to kill the game late on along with Evanilson with neither finding that second goal for Bournemouth, it looked like the title was done until three minutes into added time where the ball was bouncing around the box eventually falling to Erling Haaland who thundered a shot off the post and in to give City at least some hope of bringing the title race to the last day. Unfortunately for City it was too little too late as Arsenal were crowned champions of England for the first time in 22 years.
City just didn’t have enough in the tank for the final push. It was never going to be an easy City win tonight given that this was Iraola’s last home game in charge of Bournemouth and that they haven’t been beaten since January but I was surprised by the team selection tonight, starting Mateo Kovacic ahead of Rayan Cherki in a must-win game following benching the Frenchman in the FA cup final is really strange to me given that he’s been by far Cities most creative player this season. In saying that Pep did give him 40 minutes in the second half where he was anonymous along with Foden with Savinho being the only player that came on and made an impact for City on that left-hand-side, there was a lot of bad performances out there for City whether that’s Semenyo, Rodri, Doku, Kovacic, Silva etc and you can understand it given their schedule over the last month. Saying that I also would have expected some more fight given this was the penultimate game of the season but you have to give massive credit to Bournemouth who did beat Arsenal at the Emirates last month and as we know certainly are no pushovers, the Premier League this season was one step too far for Man City but its there’s no shame in taking home two trophies.
A nasty dagger at the end for Bournemouth’s Champions League hopes. That Haaland goal at the end means that Bournemouth cannot finish 5th ahead of Liverpool but all hope is not lost yet for the Cherries, if they finish 6th and Aston Villa win the Europa League along with finishing 5th then 6th place would be a Champions League position. This would take Villa losing on Sunday to City then Liverpool would have to beat Brentford for that to happen, it’s definitely a possibility but nonetheless they have certainly qualified for Europe which is an amazing success given the fact they lost nearly their whole defence last summer. Onto the game I thought Bournemouth were largely the better side tonight and should have been home and dry if Brooks had of taken even one of those guilt-edged chances late on, again I was so impressed with Alex Scott in the midfield who has to be going to the World Cup in the summer given his form this season. The goal from Junior Kroupi is immaculate and perfectly sums up the season he’s had for Bournemouth which has oozed class throughout, then you have Truffert who was my man-of-the-match tonight galivanting up and down that left-hand-side assisting Kroupi brilliantly in the first half. It’s such a shame Iraola is leaving as I’d love to see him mange this side in Europe, I wonder where he’ll go in the summer?
Pep Guardiola will be leaving City at the end of the season. The news came out last night after the Arsenal game which had some people shocked but if you’ve listening to the news surrounding City you’ll have known for some time that Marseca will be taking over from Guardiola at the end of the season, I might do a separate piece on Guardiola’s time in the Premier League but for now he’s going to leave a massive void in the league in terms of the character he brings in press conferences, on the side-line etc where we’ve seen him so animated in his 10 years in the league. I think he’s leaving this City team in a really strong position to continue to challenge for major honours under Marseca with the likes of Haaland, Cherki, O’Reilly, Guehi, Doku etc all either in their primes or close so there’s going to be no collapse like we’ve seen in the past when long-term managers leave their position, of course he would have loved to go out with a domestic treble but I’m sure most City fans would have taken this season before a ball was kicked. His last game as City boss will be on Sunday against Aston Villa where no doubt there will be a big celebration of his time at City at the Etihad, where will he go next?
Speaking of managers leaving, where will Iraola go? I’m such a fan of this Bournemouth team under Iraola which is why I’m so disappointed he’s leaving when he’s just guided them into Europe for the first time in their history, after losing the likes of Huijsen, Kerkez, Zabarnyi, Outarra in the summer along with Semenyo in January most teams would be fighting relegation but Bournemouth just continue to defy the odds and reach higher points year after year. You have to put this down to Andoni Iraola and the recruitment team at Bournemouth who managed to replace their whole defence along with their best player leaving in January, the perfect example of this is Junior Kroupi who has excelled in his first season in the Premier League becoming the highest scoring teenager in their debut season in the league with 13 goals which is unbelievable considering he’s not even playing as a striker like Evanilson. Who ever does get Iraola in the summer will get a brilliant manager and I’m fascinated to see where he goes next.