Arsenal’s Gameweek 36 defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion means that Manchester City can seal the 2022/23 Premier League title this coming weekend.
A win over Chelsea on Sunday would see Pep Guardiola’s troops over the line, while they will be crowned champions without kicking a ball if Arsenal slip up at Nottingham Forest a day earlier.
The problem for Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers is that City have a ‘double’ in Gameweek 37, with a trip to Brighton still to come.
Should the title be already in the bag, will Guardiola rest his big players with an upcoming cup final (or two) in mind? Or will he prefer to build “rhythm” going into those key early-June dates? Rotation can happen at the best of times when it comes to Pep, of course, but there are some names like Erling Haaland (£12.4m) and Ruben Dias (£6.0m) who are more immune to it than others.
Using Transfermarkt as well as our own Members Area, we take a look back at what Guardiola has done after the title has been won in previous seasons and canvas your opinions on the subject.
2021/22
There’s actually not much to report on from last season, as the title not only went to the last day but also the final 15 minutes as City pegged back a two-goal deficit to beat Aston Villa 3-2 and see themselves over the line.
In a cautionary tale ahead of this Wednesday’s rematch with Real Madrid, Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva were the two attackers who lasted 120 minutes in the crushing semi-final defeat last season – and they were duly benched in the next league match against Newcastle.
2020/21
City won the title with three games to spare in 2020/21 and did it without kicking a ball, thanks to their cross-city rivals’ 2-1 home defeat to Leicester City on May 11.
In the very next league game, against Newcastle United, Guardiola made five changes and sent out a side that contained Scott Carson, Eric Garcia, Nathan Ake and Ferran Torres, four players who were very much back-ups at the time:
“Everyone wants him [Scott Carson] to play because he is an important part of the group and the locker room. Everybody loves him so much and we wanted to let him play and be part of the success. I asked if he was ready to play and he said, ‘yes of course’.
“Our job is to do the best selection as possible and the guys playing today deserve to play.
“We are going to enjoy it. We will play the three games with one eye on the final of the Champions League.” – Pep Guardiola explaining his team selection in the Gameweek 36 clash with Newcastle United
Gameweek 38 was back to full strength, with a Champions League final against Chelsea following six days after it.
Nine of the starting line-up that Guardiola sent out against Everton in Gameweek 38 kept their places for that final, with only Fernandinho and Gabriel Jesus of the final-day XI taken out for Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan in Porto; the City boss accused of ‘over-thinking’ by going striker-less and without a midfield anchor against Thomas Tuchel’s Blues.
Pretty much everyone of note got two starts in the final three post-title games, with no-one starting all three (Kevin De Bruyne was injury-affected, hence just the one start):
Above: Appearance information of Manchester City players in the final three Gameweeks of 2020/21
2019/20
11 months, 27 days agoWill the sun come up tomorrow?