Championship Sunday, for Manchester City, will be all about saying goodbye to Pep Guardiola. Man City were eliminated from the Premier League title race on Tuesday night, via their score draw at AFC Bournemouth. So now their home match against Aston Villa is essentially dead rubber. Pep is on his way out, and Enzo Maresca is in line to replace him.
So this weekend will be all about recognizing Pep’s greatness, and celebrating all that he’s achieved.
Championship Sunday FYIs
Aston Villa at Manchester City
Kickoff: Sunday May 24, 4pm BST, Etihad Stadium, Manchester, UK
Standing:
Manchester City- clinched second place
Aston Villa- Clinched UEFA Champions League qualification in two ways, winning the Europa League title and finishing in the top five
Impact, Legacy of Pep Guardiola
During a UEFA Champions League Final preview call, hosted by CBS Sports and attended by The Sports Bank, TV Analyst and one of the game’s all-time greats, Thierry Henry, was asked about Pep who once coached him at FC Barcelona.
Henry was asked about Guardiola’s lasting impact on the UCL competition.
“Pep has been able succeed wherever he went, and obviously that involves the Champions League, because in any team that he coached he was in the Champions League,” Henry said.
“It’s the way he goes about the game, the intensity that he puts in his team…I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m just saying he invented something that wasn’t there.
“And just for that, and with what he has also won, and how he transmitted and how he transcended and inspired people.”
There are no other team news items to cover with City, as they have a fully fit squad. Shifting gears to Aston Villa, they won the Europa League title on Wednesday night, and also clinched a Champions League slot via their finish in the Premier League table.
we’ll see if Alysson passes a late fitness test or not, and makes the matchday squad.
However, Villa have nothing to play for in this one, so he likely won’t play.
Amadou Onana returned to action, in Villa’s 3-0 rout of SC Freiburg, playing 24 minutes. Maybe he plays all 90 minutes on Sunday? However, the real Villa news pertains to starting shotstopper Emi Martinez. He broke his finger in warmups, before the UEL Final.
However, he played through the pain for the entire game.
“What we achieved tonight was beautiful.” Martinez said to the media after the victory. “I feel proud and the feeling I keep growing match after match. Today I broke my finger during warmups, but I didn’t see it as a bad thing.
I’ve never broken a finger before and every time I tried to catch the ball, the finger would just slip away in the other direction. But, these are just things you have to go through.”
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, Ratings and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.