Pep Guardiola revels in Man City masterstroke as Unai Emery left to regret blunder

Even in title deciders, even in Champions League finals, it is hard to recall Pep Guardiola losing as much control as he did during a game only about minor Premier League placings.

Of course, qualification for the Champions League is important on several levels, not least financially, but it is now a matter of fierce personal pride for Guardiola.

And that is why he went into utter delirium when Matheus Nunes met Jeremy Doku’s cross . That is why he has never interacted with the crowd as much as he did during this match.

That is why he will be congratulating himself for sending on Doku, whose contribution might have gone a long way towards securing Champions League football for City next season.

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It will be especially satisfying as, for a good while, Villa look just as likely a bet for a Champions League spot, even though they only had a Marcus Rashford penalty to show for their efforts. It was a penalty award .

But whatever your take on John Brooks’ decision to send on-field referee Craig Pawson to the screen, the Ruben Dias intervention on Jacob Ramsey’s run that eventually gave Villa a penalty was typical of City’s defending throughout the entire season. Ill-judged and clumsy.

Dias has been nowhere near his best in this campaign and his struggles have symbolised a collective malaise at the back. Marcus Rashford calmly converted the spot-kick, having missed a very presentable chance to open the scoring in the opening second of the game, his left-footed strike returning to Stefan Ortega’s clutches from an upright.

And City capitalised on that escape, thanks to a goal that was produced by the pace of Omar Marmoush, who darted past Matty Cash before pulling a pass into the danger area. And after the pass took a diversion, Bernardo Silva met it with a decent enough strike but Emi Martinez should probably still have kept it out.

Guardiola’s celebrations were animated, although not as animated as his protests after the penalty had been awarded and the yellow card was the least he deserved for his ranting at fourth official Matthew Donohoue.

Along with an ill-advised replay of the Dias offence on the big screen, Guardiola’s anger at least gave the Etihad atmosphere some sort of edge but the players did not seem overly fired up. The City manager’s call for a cup final mentality both on the pitch and in the stands seemed to mainly fall on deaf ears.

And in truth, although the stakes were relatively high, this did not have a crunch-game feel to it. Villa were not at their best and City were scratching for any sort of fluency. They did produce a flurry of corners early in the second half but all were defended with some degree of comfort.

And while he was on the field, Rashford was the most dangerous player on show and demonstrated a work-rate that would have raised some eyebrows across the city of Manchester. But for some reason, Unai Emery again hooked Rashford and, without his counter-attacking threat, Villa did not look as dangerous.

That gave City a lift and, sure enough, Doku’s pace and vision and a composed Nunes finish sent Pep into a joyous frenzy. He enjoyed this, that is for sure.

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