Guardiola poised to resume trophy collecting

Pep Guardiola’s trophy gathering was put on hold last season but the Spaniard gets the chance to resume populating his mantelpiece when his Manchester City side face Arsenal in the League Cup final on Sunday.

The Spaniard won 11 major trophies with Barcelona and seven more with Bayern Munich so his failure to mark his debut season with Manchester City with anything tangible was a surprise.

This season, however, Guardiola’s blueprint for success has fully infiltrated his City squad to such an extent that only a few days ago an unprecedented quadruple seemed possible.

Third-tier Wigan Athletic ended that hope with a stunning 1-0 victory in the FA Cup fifth round on Monday -- becoming only the third team to beat City in any competition this season.

That setback served as a wake-up call for runaway Premier League leaders City who will start as firm favourites to beat Arsenal at Wembley and win the League Cup for the third time in five seasons having triumphed twice under Manuel Pellegrini.

Their progress to Wembley has not been straightforward and they needed penalty shootouts to dispose of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leicester City.

They will be wary too of an Arsenal side who, despite their lack of a credible title challenge in recent years, have made a habit of rising to the occasion in big one-off finals.

They have won their last three Wembley finals, all in the FA Cup, against Hull City (2014), Aston Villa (2015) and Chelsea last year when they were also underdogs.

The League Cup is the only domestic trophy to elude Arsene Wenger in his near 22-year reign in north London and the Gunners have to go back to 1993 for the last time they won it.

INTENSE SPECULATION

Wenger has often treated the League Cup as an excuse to experiment, concentrating on the so-called bigger prizes, but Sunday’s showdown with City offers the Frenchman the chance to shove the words of his critics back down their throats.

His side are languishing in the sixth place in the Premier League, eight points off the Champions League places, and they were knocked out of the FA Cup by second-tier Nottingham Forest.

The Europa League could also offer salvation this season but a League Cup trophy, especially against City, would help create calmer waters over the final months of the season when Wenger’s future is again likely to be a matter of intense speculation.

Former midfielder Ray Parlour, who played in Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday in the 1993 final, said Sunday’s showpiece is a huge game for both clubs.

“At the end of your career people ask you what did you win, not how much money you earned,” Parlour told Sky Sports.

“Every single player wants another medal in the cabinet.”

Both sides are expected to start with their back-up goalkeepers on Sunday with Wenger keeping faith with Colombian David Ospina who has played throughout the competition.

Guardiola is also likely to use Claudio Bravo, his Cup goalie this year, rather than Ederson.

He will also be without Fabian Delph who is suspended after his red card against Wigan.

Arsenal, who were in action against Ostersunds on Thursday in the Europa League, are without Alexandre Lacazette who has undergone knee surgery but midfielder Aaron Ramsey should have recovered from a groin injury in time to face City.

source: news agency

De Bruyne the engine driving Man City's trophy charge

LONDON: There have been moments this season when Pep Guardiola, the orchestrator of Manchester City’s landmark season, has been left open-mouthed by the excellence of his on-field conductor Kevin De Bruyne.

“I have no words...” spluttered the City manager after watching De Bruyne engineer the 4-1 destruction of Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur in December.

Guardiola explained then that it was the Belgian’s work ethic, chasing around tirelessly like “a player in the Conference (minor) league” as much as his sheer brilliance on the ball that was so striking.

De Bruyne, he felt, was shining his light on the path that the rest of City’s young armada of talent needed to take. His positivity, selflessness and industry demonstrated the way forward. The Guardiola way and now the City way.

Which was why the manager sounded so enthused when commenting on the five-year contract extension that De Bruyne signed on Monday. Asked how delighted he felt by this news, the Spaniard just smiled: “You cannot imagine...”

Twenty-four hours after he had put pen to paper, the League Cup semi-final second leg at Bristol City illustrated De Bruyne’s worth perfectly.

Though the home side’s late equaliser could only be a consolation with the tie already lost, the 26-year-old made it seem a personal affront, driving back downfield in the 96th minute to score and make it 3-2.

It capped yet another of those complete performances that makes De Bruyne an unassailable favourite to win the footballer of the year honours in England this season.

Yet it also left awed observers wondering if a man who has run his heart out in all of City’s 24 league matches this season could maintain such energy levels over the rest of a sapping campaign as City still targetted four trophies.

“I‘m trying to, hopefully,” he told reporters after the Bristol City match when asked if he could feature on all four fronts, adding wryly: “Otherwise I will fall down...”

For the moment, though, with City preparing for another potentially tricky visit to a Championship (second-tier) side, this time Cardiff City in the fourth round of the FA Cup, on Sunday, he reckoned he and his team were “managing really well”.

Guardiola, who has overseen City’s commanding 12-point lead in the League as well as piloting them to a League Cup final date against Arsenal on Feb. 25, keeps saying the ‘quadruple’, capped by a Champions League triumph, is “an illusion”.

In truth, a coach who once won six trophies in a year with Barcelona must know anything is possible yet he will need De Bruyne, the man he hails for “making us a better club”, to be operating at the stellar level he has made look almost routine.

De Bruyne, who still shows no signs of offering anything but his familiar study in perpetual motion, rules out nothing himself.

“Obviously we want to try and win all four, because we want to win every game,” he shrugged. “But it’s a hard task...”



source: news agency

Sanchez future uncertain as United, City circle

London: Arsene Wenger admitted today that Alexis Sanchez's future is up in the air as Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola stayed tight-lipped over potential moves for the forward during the January transfer window.

Guardiola's bid to buy Sanchez collapsed at the end of the summer transfer window and City were favourites to land him this time around but the club are apparently unwilling to meet Arsenal's reported 35 million ($48 million, 39 million euros) asking price.

Mourinho's United are understood to have thrown their hat into the ring, bidding around 25 million to trump City's 20 million offer as they seek to bolster their forward options and deny their bitter rivals.

When asked if United were interested in signing the 29- year-old Chilean international, who is out of contract at the end of the season, Wenger said "nothing is really concrete at the moment".

Questioned as to whether there was any truth in the rumour, the Arsenal manager was coy.

"You conclude that," he said. "You could say that at the moment... it's not that I don't want to inform you, I don't want to give you wrong information and at the moment I must say nothing is decided one way or the other."

Wenger admitted a bidding war could help Arsenal but said that was not the current situation.

In later press conferences on Friday, neither Guardiola nor Mourinho gave much away over a potential move for the Arsenal man.

Guardiola said his focus was on maintaining City's fine form when they travel to Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday.

"I understand completely why you ask this question (about Sanchez), it's your job," said Guardiola. "But you know my answer.

I am focused on Liverpool."

Mourinho, who described Sanchez as a "phenomenal player", said: "I don't know if it's ethical or correct to be speaking about players of other clubs."

"Sanchez is an Arsenal player," he added. "Probably this weekend he is going to defend Arsenal colours so I don't think it's correct to say things about Alexis Sanchez."

Arsenal boss Wenger said Sanchez would only be allowed to leave if they could get a new signing over the line -- the club have been linked with young Bordeaux forward Malcom.

"Of course I want a quick resolution," he told reporters at Arsenal's north London training base.
"Is he (Sanchez) replaceable in the way that we find exactly the same player? Certainly not, but there's always a way to find a different balance.

"Alexis is an exceptional football player, he's a world- class player and if that happens (and he leaves) we have to find a different balance in the team."

Theo Walcott is another Arsenal player poised to leave this month, with Everton manager Sam Allardyce revealing on Friday that they are hopeful of sealing a permanent deal.

Source: News Agency

Guardiola and Kane win December Premier League awards

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola was named December's Premier League manager of the month for a record fourth consecutive time, while Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane equalled Steven Gerrard's tally with his sixth player of the month award.

Kane scored eight goals in six matches last month, including back-to-back hat-tricks against Burnley and Southampton, to finish 2017 with a record tally of 39 Premier League goals.

The 24-year-old is now level with former Liverpool and England midfielder Gerrard with six player of the month awards, the most for any player in the competition's history.

Kane claimed the prize ahead of seven other nominees - Chelsea's Marcos Alonso, West Ham United's Marko Arnautovic, Liverpool duo Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah, Jesse Lingard of Manchester United, Leicester City's Riyad Mahrez and Manchester City's Nicolas Otamendi.

Guardiola's team remains unbeaten and 15 points clear at the top of the league standings.

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte had been the only previous coach to win the award three times in a row during Chelsea's title winning campaign last season.

To win the December prize, Guardiola topped a six-man shortlist that also included Conte, Everton's Sam Allardyce, Roy Hodgson of Crystal Palace, Liverpool's Juergen Klopp and Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino.

Source: News Agency