Manchester City manager repeated Arsene Wenger’s famous opinion that securing a Champions League berth in the Premier League is like a trophy
Pep Guardiola described Manchester City’s qualification for next season’s Champions League as being “like a title”, following a 2-0 victory over Fulham on the Premier League’s final day. The win secured a third-place finish for City, ensuring a positive end to a challenging campaign marked by injuries and poor form by their stratospheric standards.
Ilkay Gundogan opened the scoring with a spectacular overhead kick in the 21st minute, and Erling Haaland doubled the lead from the penalty spot in the second half after Gundogan was fouled in the box.
Reflecting on their season and being able to qualify for the Champions League, Guardiola repeated Arsene Wenger’s famous opinion.
“It’s like a title because of the obstacles. When you continue [a run of poor form], you finish 10th, 11th, 12th or 13th. I promise you, that is the destiny of all the teams in the Premier League when they are in November, December or January and cannot fight for the Premier League, like we have done for many years.
“We continued [fighting]. Playing good or bad it doesn’t matter, we were there and at the end we did it, we finished third.”
Guardiola’s side finished three points behind Arsenal and 13 behind champions Liverpool, although no other team in the league except the champions won more games than the Sky Blues. It’s a considerable achievement given their dreadful run of form at the end of last year, when they lost six and won only one in nine Premier League games to spectacularly crash out of the title race.
“We were not miles away from Arsenal, but the distance to Liverpool is huge,” said Guardiola. “We have to improve and hopefully we can do it.”
Speaking further on their positive end to the season, Guardiola said: “I am going to celebrate. It was a relief what these players have done. To qualify for the Champions League is like a title. It’s simple as that, it’s like a title.”
