• England international an unused substitute in FA Cup final
• Guardiola lauds ‘incredible’ progress of Jérémy Doku

Pep Guardiola has insisted Jack ­Grealish will bounce back from a ­disappointing season that ended with him left as an unused ­substitute in Manchester City’s last three matches, including the FA Cup final defeat against Manchester United on Saturday.

Grealish started only 20 Premier League games and scored three goals, though his campaign was disrupted by a dead leg and a groin problem. Jérémy Doku started ahead of the winger in City’s 3-1 victory against West Ham that sealed the Premier League title and with Guardiola’s side 2-0 behind at half-time against Manchester United at Wembley, the manager ignored Grealish again and brought on the Belgian instead.

• Ten Hag says if club don’t want him he’ll ‘go to win trophies’
• Defeated Pep Guardiola admits: ‘The gameplan was not good’

Erik ten Hag says he will join another club and keep winning trophies if Manchester United press ahead with plans to sack him after their shock 2-1 triumph over Manchester City in the FA Cup final.

Along with delivering what may be viewed as a final parting shot before he learns of his fate, Ten Hag was unable to offer any clarity on what the future holds for him. Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the minority owner who controls United’s football policy, had earlier refused to say whether the victory over City would be enough for the Dutchman to stay.

Guardiola picked an odd-looking team and the striker personified a hungover performance from the champions

Before kick-off at a lovely soft sunlit Wembley Stadium, Manchester City’s fans turned their backs and engaged in a mass Cup final Poznan. At the final whistle there was a strange, optical echo of that moment. Here we had an anti-Poznan, the Poznan of departures, as the backs of the blue shirts were once again turned, this time heading towards the stairs and out along the gloomy grey Wembley concourses.

Fans never stick around at the end of a losing final. Many did so here just long enough to applaud the City players after what is still a champion season. And this always was a weird, through-the-looking-glass FA Cup final. It ended with the leaky-roof billion-dollar underdogs beating the remarkably efficient government outreach project, which is some way short of culture clubs and crazy gangs but we work with what we have.

Erik ten Hag may be heading for the exit, but United’s FA Cup final display was the blueprint for how they should be playing

They were still out there an hour later, catching the last few rays of evening sunshine, wringing out this moment for every last drop of joy in it. Everyone wanted a go with the trophy. Some simply hoisted it like a kettlebell. Some hugged it close like a child. There was a time when Manchester United would win these finals, pose for photos and disappear back up the M6. Not now. Everyone knows how precious these moments are, how rarely they can come along, how closely they need to be treasured.

And at the end of this Red Devil redemption, Erik ten Hag sought out the two men responsible. In fact many men had authored this triumph, from the brutal Bruno Fernandes to the indomitable Lisandro Martínez to the inspired André Onana. But Ten Hag wanted a few moments alone with Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo. Ballers; cup final scorers; Wembley heroes; teenagers. Ten Hag clasped them around the ears, ruffled their hair, beamed at them like a proud dad about to go off to war.

It was, quite simply, the finest Manchester United result since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013. The bar has been lowered, the trophies drying up but this was a day for their fans to celebrate wildly – and not only because they stopped Manchester City from making yet more history.

Another Premier League and FA Cup Double had been on for Pep Guardiola and his all-conquering team to follow the one from last season and nobody gave United a prayer. The bookmakers had them at 8-1 to win. Erik ten Hag’s time as manager is up after the most traumatic of seasons; eighth in the league their lowest finish since 1989‑90, chaos at virtually every turn. And yet United refused to yield.

Man City’s success under ex-Barça manager Pep Guardiola mirrors the reinvention of the booming city centre, but its roots lie in decades-old civic connections

The eyes of the world were yesterday, for the second year running, on an FA Cup final fought out between Manchester’s two football clubs, their fans festooning Wembley in United red and City sky blue.

Manchester City parade through the streets on Sunday to celebrate their historic record of winning four Premier League titles in a row. But the inevitable accusation will follow that their manager, Pep Guardiola’s sixth league title (although not a second league and Cup double) proves that football’s underdog has become its apex predator thanks to the club’s takeover by Abu Dhabi United Group.

• Live updates from the 3pm BST kick-off at Wembley
• Any comments? Feel free to email Barry

If Erik ten Hag is sacked after today’s final, Manchester United fans will be gutted to learn that Wayne Rooney will not be available to replace him. Despite his disastrous 15-match spell in charge of Birmingham City earlier this season, United’s former striker and record goalscorer has just been appointed head coach at Championship club Plymouth Argyle.

“To be the first team to do the double Double … the first team to win four in a row, the first team since Manchester United to do the treble: we keep knocking down these hurdles and this is another that we need to knock down,” says the Manchester City captain. Words: Jamie Jackson.

• Manager does not take success ‘for granted’ before United final
• Win would seal league and Cup Double in consecutive seasons

Pep Guardiola has warned Manchester City’s players that complacency could be their downfall if they presume the club’s success will last forever because such attitudes have cost others in the past.

City face Manchester United in the FA Cup final on Saturday with the aim of becoming the first club in history to do the league and FA Cup Double in consecutive seasons. If City defeat their most bitter rivals at Wembley it would be the 18th trophy of Guardiola’s eight-year tenure. In the same period United have won three.

• ‘The manager pushes you every day’, says defender
• City looking to clinch Double against Manchester United

Kyle Walker believes Manchester City can win a fifth consecutive Premier League title, though the captain is conscious of the need to “recharge mentally” before next season.

Pep Guardiola’s side claimed a historic fourth championship in four seasons by beating West Ham on the season’s final day. This followed last term’s treble and City will become the first English club to achieve the double Double if they beat Manchester United in Saturday’s FA Cup final. Walker was asked about the prospect of defending the Premier League title next season.

The teenager only wanted a place in the Manchester United squad at the start of the season, now he can expect to start the FA Cup final and go to Euro 2024

Kobbie Mainoo conducts a conversation like he addresses the ball in Manchester United’s midfield: with a cool maturity that has been the calling card of a breakthrough season that may end in FA Cup glory and a place on England’s Euro 2024-bound plane.

After making his debut at 17 in a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Charlton in January 2023, Mainoo played twice more for a season’s total of 87 minutes before, inked in for a starting berth by Erik ten Hag this term, he went down in a summer friendly at Houston’s NRG Stadium when Real Madrid’s Rodrygo fell on him and caused an ankle injury that required surgery.

Forward’s stellar form has led to individual and club titles this season as he looks to clinch the Double

‘To be world class you have to win games; he’s winning games,” Pep Guardiola said of Phil Foden after he inspired the comeback to defeat Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium in March. It was the local lad doing the damage against City’s most bitter rivals and he will be aiming to do it all again on Saturday to cap off his finest season.

A year ago Foden was readying himself for an identical FA Cup final but with one simple difference. On that occasion he had barely taken his seat on the bench when Ilkay Gündogan volleyed City into the lead after 12 seconds. The England international was eventually called upon to replace Kevin De Bruyne with 14 minutes remaining to see things through rather than be the main man.

Despite protestations, winning a fourth consecutive Premier League had long been at forefront of Manchester City minds

“No team has ever won four consecutive Premier League titles … Yet.” In the past fortnight Pep Guardiola referenced how the four-peat was the motivation of his post-treble Manchester City, insisting this entered their consciousness only in the spring. But the aforementioned slogan, printed in capitals and large black font, was the de facto motto from October, when first displayed in the first-team meeting room.

So when stating last week before the pivotal trip to Tottenham that “we didn’t think about” making history until recently when this ignited “something in our brain”, Guardiola was using the media to remind his players they were 180 tantalising minutes from becoming, surely, the greatest team in English football history.

Our photo editor Jonny Weeks trawled through more than 100,000 pictures to select his favourite images and the most unforgettable moments

The Premier League season started ominously as Erling Haaland took just four minutes to get his goalscoring campaign under way when Manchester City beat Burnley in the opening match. Elsewhere, Luton’s first top-flight game for 31 years ended in defeat at Brighton and Ange Postecoglou claimed manager of the month (as he would do again in September and October) as Tottenham made a fast start to the season.

Three players are awarded perfect 10s for their contributions to the club’s record-breaking fourth successive top-flight triumph

The 6ft 2in goalkeeper was Rodri-like in his laser-directed passing and if he coughed up a single goal-costing error it vanished from this observer’s mind. His season ended with the eye-socket injury sustained in last Tuesday’s vital 2-0 win at Tottenham so missed Sunday’s 3-1 championship-clinching victory over West Ham. 9

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair and Troy Townsend as Manchester City go top of the Premier League ahead of the final round of fixtures

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On the podcast today; the Premier League finale. Manchester City claim their fourth consecutive title with Phil Foden doing the business again with a goal after just 79 seconds. What does the success mean for a club facing 115 Premier League charges?

A seventh title in 10 years is proof of how incredible wealth has eroded any sense of competitive balance in the Premier League

Once more, without feeling. The sun rose on Sunday morning, the Earth completed one full rotation around its axis, and Manchester City won the Premier League title, just as they did in 2012 and 2014, and 2018 and 2019, and 2021 and 2022 and 2023. One more trophy in the glass case, one more silhouette to add to the mural. The greatest saga in English football has been recast as church liturgy, its rhythms hardened into routine, and here Arsenal were simply the latest team to succumb to the myth that there was ever a race to be won.

For City there is of course a glorious familiarity to these rituals now, a muscle memory in those trophy‑bearing limbs, the arms that lift it and the legs that earn it. Of course there is the full‑scale invasion at full-time, which proceeds in contempt of the multiple big-screen warnings forbidding it, because by now it has become a sort of tradition. There are City fans in the lower North Stand who can boast more appearances on the Etihad Stadium pitch than Kalvin Phillips.

• Manager’s contract will expire at the end of next season
• Catalan has won six Premier League titles in the last seven years

Pep Guardiola admitted next season may be his last as Manchester City manager after the club made history as the first team since the inception of the Football League in 1888 to claim four consecutive titles, following a 3‑1 victory against West Ham.

Guardiola, who was close to tears when talking about Jürgen Klopp’s departure as Liverpool manager, he also revealed that he initially struggled for motivation following the ­treble triumph last season that was confirmed by winning the ­Champions League final in Turkey.

Pep Guardiola had predicted that he and Manchester City would suffer; it would be emotional, the nerves stretched taut because this is how it is supposed to go on the final day of the Premier League season when so much is at stake.

It had been that way in 2022 when City needed to beat Aston Villa here in the last game. They were 2-0 down with 15 minutes to play, flirting aggressively with disaster before the Ilkay Gündogan-inspired comeback for 3-2. City have previous for doing things the hard way. But did anybody truly believe that the occasion would get the better of them?

• Updates from the 4pm BST kick-off at the Etihad Stadium
• Live scoreboard | Guardiola’s plan to inspire players
• Follow Arsenal v Everton live with Daniel Harris
• Keep up to date with the rest of the action with our clockwatch

“As a Liverpool fan, all I want is for Arsenal to score early and for the Hammers to be resolute in defense for at least the first half,” writes Joe Pearson. “Then City can crush all our neutrals’ dreams with a devastating second half rout. For myself, I’m watching Klopp’s Last Rodeo, but I’ll be checking in with you to know when it’s all over.”

It’s odd that, in Europe’s other big leagues, the leaders are often overtaken on the final day. Never seems to happen in England though. Even 1988-89 was slightly different because the top two were playing each other (although Arsenal still needed a miracle). In the 1990s and early 2000s, in particular, it happened all the time in Italy, Germany and Spain. Maybe today’s the day for good old English jeopardy to strike back.

Fans review the season with one game to play: the stars, the flops and the moments that made them smile

• Part one: Arsenal to Fulham

Back at Wembley winning a trophy, and we’ve made it back to the Champions League, so it’s pretty good. It was a season of two halves really. At New Year we were flying, then came the injuries and then came the dip. The manager has given everything, again, and today will be an outpouring of love and thanks to him. In Germany he is known as a Menschenfanger, a people catcher, someone who has a positive effect on those around him. For us, he’s been a dream catcher, too. He gave us belief and he gave us the best of times. He made us happy. 8/10.

Champions have become less guardiolista to allow Haaland to flourish and it is telling the best player of late has been Gvardiol

Familiarity inevitably breeds, if not contempt, then at least discernment. When Leicester won the Premier League what mattered was not how they had done it but merely that it had been done.

You could talk about the performances of N’Golo Kanté, Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, pontificate about how Claudio Ranieri had developed Nigel Pearson’s side or dwell on the significance of the discovery of Richard III’s body under a car park, but fundamentally all that mattered was that they had defied the laws of football finance and logic and that they had done it. But as Manchester City edge towards a sixth title in seven years, the manner of the win feels important.

A core of players have seen all or most of Pep Guardiola’s Etihad tenure and are on the verge of a sixth title winner’s medal

It takes a lot for Pep Guardiola to trust unconditionally, so staying the course with the Manchester City manager is not a straightforward business. Despite the constant trophies gleaming in the Etihad cabinet, decorated players have come and gone – but six have the chance of securing a sixth Premier League title alongside Guardiola on Sunday afternoon.

Ederson, Kyle Walker, John Stones, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden have set the tone for much of the club’s success. A victory over West Ham will guarantee each a sixth winner’s medal, putting them on par with David Beckham and Phil Neville. De Bruyne was already a City first-teamer when Guardiola arrived in Manchester in 2016, while Foden was making headway in the academy. The other four were carefully selected by the club’s hierarchy and Guardiola.