Manchester City
Maresca’s Manchester City: a projected XI and tactical outline
Maresca faces Guardiola’s successor challenge at Man City, adjusting tactics around a changing squad
Pep Guardiola’s decade at Manchester City has ended and Enzo Maresca steps into a complex job. Emulation of Guardiola is borderline impossible and the squad Maresca inherits lacks many of the previous stalwarts. Subtle changes will be necessary if City are to avoid a dip in 2026–27.
Maresca favours a 4-3-3 base but in possession his teams often shift into a 3-2-2-3 to create a box midfield. Wingers keep width while one fullback joins the midfield pivot and the other inverts to form a back three. At Chelsea Maresca allowed Enzo Fernández to operate between the lines and arrive in the box. His sides used strict positional play in possession, though he later adopted a more direct and vertical approach with a different squad. Out of possession his teams do not press strictly man-to-man but work with high intensity and aim to trap opponents wide.
A realistic Maresca XI based on the current squad:
GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma — City’s purchase of Donnarumma signalled Guardiola’s tactical shift, and even though the Italian wasn’t exactly outstanding in his debut campaign, Maresca will likely retain the supreme shot-stopper as his No. 1.
RB: Tino Livramento — Matheus Nunes improved at right back, but the Portuguese midfielder remains the weak link in City’s defence. Livramento would offer athleticism Maresca values.
CB: Abdukodir Khusanov — After a difficult start to his Premier League career Khusanov has settled. He is an excellent recovery defender and has the physical tools to improve as a passer.
CB: Joško Gvardiol — With John Stones gone there will be competition at centre back. Marc Guéhi arrived in January, but Gvardiol remains a level above for the left-sided role.
LB: Nico O’Reilly — O’Reilly developed as a midfielder and could suit an inverted role where his attacking instincts show.
CM: Rodri — Stalwarts are leaving and there is no guarantee Rodri will remain beyond the summer. If he stays he will aim to recover from a difficult 2025–26 season and return closer to his Ballon d’Or-winning best.
CM: Elliot Anderson — Anderson could provide the box-crashing presence City seek and is considered more reliable defensively.
RW: Antoine Semenyo — Semenyo’s output can vary, but his goal threat and versatility were clear in his time at Bournemouth and in Manchester.
AM: Rayan Cherki — Cherki is a rare creative talent and would test any manager’s balance between structure and freedom.
LW: Antoine Semenyo could be deployed in multiple attacking roles if required, giving Maresca options across the front line.
This XI and shape aim to reflect Maresca’s known principles and the specific traits of the current squad, recognising that transfer activity and injuries will influence the final picture.
Arsenal
Premier League 2025/26: Goal of the Season nominees and how the winner is decided
Public voting closes May 27 for the Premier League Goal of the Season; panel will join fan choices..
The Premier League Goal of the Season shortlist is set and the award will be decided this week after a public vote is combined with the views of an expert panel. Fans can cast their ballot on the Premier League official website until 12 p.m. BST (7 a.m. ET, 4 a.m. PT) on Wednesday, May 27.
Past winners show the prize is not reserved for household names. Sofiane Boufal took the 2016–17 honour and Julio Enciso won in 2022–23. The most recent recipient was Manchester City’s Omar Marmoush, who had only arrived in England a few months earlier. Three former Premier League Goal of the Season winners — Son, Salah and Alejandro Garnacho — went on to claim the FIFA Puskás Award as the world’s most beautiful goal that year.
All but one of the strikes on the shortlist were official Goal of the Month winners during the campaign. There is no official Goal of the Month for May, but West Ham’s Taty Castellanos serves as the month’s representative in the season award. Striking the bouncing ball early caught the goalkeeper unaware and produced a sublime moment, although it was only a consolation and did not keep the Hammers in the Premier League.
The list also includes Kaoru Mitoma, who positioned himself at the far post and struck a near-perfect volley. Tottenham’s February Goal of the Month came from Dominic Solanke, an improvised scorpion kick that turned a poor cross into an excellent finish. Emiliano Buendía’s October goal for Aston Villa versus Tottenham began with a phenomenal pass from Matty Cash and a superb touch and layoff from Lucas Digne before the precision finish.
William Osula produced a last-minute winner to down Manchester United and then scored five more in his next eight league appearances to end the campaign strongly. Tyler Adams combined vision and execution to spot Sunderland goalkeeper Robin Roefs off his line and deliver a long-range chip. Martín Zubimendi’s September goal against Nottingham Forest stood out among his five Premier League strikes for the season. Dominik Szoboszlai closed out a perfect August for Liverpool with an inch-perfect free kick to snatch a late winner over eventual champions Arsenal.
Voter preferences will be weighted with the expert panel’s selections to determine the final winner.
Analytics & Stats
Ten Years in Numbers: Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City Record
Pep Guardiola finished ten years at Manchester City with 423 wins from 593 matches and 20 trophies..
Pep Guardiola brought his decade-long Manchester City tenure to a close as the 2025/26 season ended. He managed 593 matches, winning 423 for a 71% win rate, drawing 77 and losing 93. The final defeat was a home loss to Aston Villa.
His reign began on Aug. 8, 2016, with a 2–1 victory against Sunderland. Sergio Agüero scored after four minutes and a Paddy McNair own goal three minutes from time sealed the first win. Guardiola’s 593rd match also overtook a long-standing club appearance record, surpassing Les McDowall’s 592 matches as manager from 1950–1963.
Across competitions Guardiola’s record reads: Premier League 380 played, 269 wins (71%); Champions League 107 played, 66 wins (62%); FA Cup 54 played, 46 wins (85%); Carabao/EFL Cup 39 played, 33 wins (85%); UEFA Super Cup 1 played, 1 win (100%); Club World Cup 6 played, 5 wins (83%); Community Shield 6 played, 3 wins (50%). The totals match the 593 games and 423 wins.
In the Premier League Guardiola’s City finished third in 2016–17, then made history in 2017–18 by winning 32 of 38 matches and becoming the first side to reach 100 points. City again won 32 matches in 2018–19, finishing on 98 points. The last two seasons under Guardiola were the club’s weakest in Premier League points during his tenure, with 71 points in 2024–25 and 77 in 2025–26.
City scored 1,462 goals and conceded 557 during the decade. Jermain Defoe was the first opposition scorer faced and Ollie Watkins the last. Sergio Agüero became City’s all-time top scorer during the period, surpassing Eric Brook’s long-standing record in 2017 and finishing on 260 goals. Erling Haaland is the highest scorer under Guardiola with 162 goals in four seasons.
Manchester City’s historic trophy haul changed markedly. Four pre-2016 league titles grew by six under Guardiola. The club had five FA Cups before 2016; Guardiola added three. He more than doubled the Carabao Cup total with five further wins. European success arrived once with the 2022–23 Champions League. In total Guardiola won 20 trophies in 10 years compared with 18 in the rest of the club’s prior history.
Liverpool
Klopp Included in Manchester City’s Artwork Marking Guardiola’s Ten Years
Manchester City included Jurgen Klopp in a commemorative poster for Pep Guardiola’s ten-year spells.
Manchester City elected to place Jürgen Klopp within a large poster celebrating Pep Guardiola’s decade at the club. The image, shared on X prior to kickoff, was presented as a detailed montage of Guardiola and the players who defined this period, with the club inviting supporters to “pinch and zoom to catch every detail.”
The artwork contains portraits of Guardiola and many City figures from the last ten years, including Vincent Kompany, Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden, Erling Haaland, Fernandinho and Rodri. The only person shown who is not connected to the Sky Blues was Klopp.
Klopp’s Liverpool teams were the most obvious challengers to City during the period covered. The 2018–19 title race saw City complete 14 straight wins to finish on 98 points while Liverpool won their final nine matches to finish on 97. That 97 remains the highest total recorded by a side that did not win the title and sits as the fourth highest points tally in the history of English league football. A year later Liverpool were champions with 99 points, and 2021–22 produced another close duel in which both clubs exceeded 90 points and City again edged the contest.
The public recognition underlined the mutual impact the two teams had on each other. Klopp has reflected on the relationship, noting in 2024 that “for a rivalry, we don’t need to be disrespectful.” Guardiola also paid tribute, saying, “We cannot define our period here without him … without Liverpool. Impossible.”
Andy Robertson carried the same theme into his final Liverpool appearance, pausing after the 1–1 draw with Brentford at Anfield to acknowledge City. “Pep Guardiola pushed us to completely new limits,” Robertson said live on Sky Sports. “I think both will agree with that. And, probably, we should have won more Premier Leagues if it wasn’t for that man. What a servant to Manchester City, and I wish him all the best.”
Klopp has not returned to management since leaving Liverpool two years ago and now works in a Head of Global Soccer role for Red Bull. Guardiola is set to move into an ambassadorial and technical advisory role for the City Football Group. “As a coach I’m not completely finished. I haven’t reached retirement age.”
