Erling Haaland left no doubt about the mood in Manchester City\u2019s camp after the final match of the season. Arsenal\u2019s draw clinched the league \u2014 their first in 22 years \u2014 and City have now failed to win the Premier League for a second successive season, a first in the Guardiola era at the Etihad.<\/p>\n
City did secure the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup during 2025\u201326, but those successes could not erase the sting of missing out on the league. Haaland scored his side\u2019s only goal in stoppage time, converting in the 95th minute, yet that late strike only underscored how narrowly City fell short.<\/p>\n
Soon after the final whistle, Haaland spoke to City Studios and set out the standards he expects going forward. \u201cIn the end, every game in the Premier League is difficult. We tried. It wasn\u2019t enough,\u201d he said. He added: \u201cThe whole club should use this as motivation now. We should be angry, we should feel a fire inside our belly because it\u2019s not good enough. It\u2019s gone two years now. It feels like forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to do everything we can, everyone that will be here next season, to win the league.\u201d<\/p>\n
The runners-up finish is an improvement on last season\u2019s third place, but it remains below the club\u2019s ambitions. Under Guardiola, City previously secured the English crown six times, only falling short once between 2017\u201318 and 2023\u201324. That record has made these back-to-back disappointments particularly jarring.<\/p>\n
City\u2019s challenge briefly looked salvageable in April when a nine-point deficit to Arsenal disappeared over 11 days, but dropped points at Everton and Bournemouth ultimately sealed their fate. The failure to reclaim the title follows a catastrophic 2024\u201325 campaign and raises questions about a squad in transition.<\/p>\n
Those questions are heightened by reports that Guardiola will leave after a decade in charge, signaling an end of an era at the club. Former Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca is the frontrunner to replace him. The challenge for any incoming coach is substantial, with Bernardo Silva expected to depart this summer and Rodri possibly linked with Real Madrid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Haaland urged his teammates to use this disappointment as motivation to reclaim the Premier League..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13949,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,172],"tags":[1505,988],"class_list":["post-13950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","category-epl","tag-accountability","tag-bernardo-silva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}