Pep Guardiola's 7️⃣ seasons at Man City ... ranked | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola celebrates his seventh anniversary as Manchester City manager on Monday.

During his time in Manchester, the 52-year-old has won 12 major honours and changed the face of English football.

Here are his seven seasons … ranked.

7️⃣ The difficult first season

When Guardiola first arrived on these shores, many wondered whether he’d be able to adapt to the English game.

And as his side struggled through the 2016/17 campaign, those questions had seemingly been vindicated.

City actually won all of Guardiola’s first 10 matches in charge but some patchy form in autumn and winter put paid to their title hopes, and they were knocked out of the Champions League by Monaco in the round of 16.

That was compounded by defeat to Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-final, but a late rally saw City finish third in the Premier League, 15 points behind champions Chelsea.

6️⃣ Trailing in Liverpool’s wake

The only other season of Guardiola’s tenure in which City didn’t win the Premier League title was in 2019/20.

The reigning champions made a decent start, but early-season defeats to Norwich and Wolves put big dents in their hopes of retaining the title.

And then a 3-1 defeat at Anfield effectively ended the title race in November, with Liverpool going nine points clear at the top of the table.

The Covid-19 pandemic then threw the season into disarray and by the time City met Liverpool again, the Reds had already been crowned champions.

A Champions League elimination at the hands of Lyon added salt to the wounds but at least City didn’t end the season empty handed, having beaten Aston Villa in February’s EFL Cup final.

5️⃣ Champions again

City made far from the ideal start to the 2020/21 season, and a 2-0 defeat away to Tottenham in November left them 9th in the table.

But an incredible 15-match winning run (which included a 4-1 victory away at Liverpool) saw them streak to the top of the league, and the third Premier League title of Guardiola’s tenure was ultimately secured, alongside another EFL Cup.

However, despite overcoming Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain en route to the club’s first ever Champions League final, the season ended on a low note when City were beaten by Chelsea in Porto.

4️⃣ Fighting ’til the end

City began the 2021/22 Premier League season with a defeat away at Tottenham. It proved to be one of just three league matches they would lose in the whole campaign.

A 12-match winning streak between November and January saw them pull away at the top of the table, but with quadruple-chasing Liverpool in hot pursuit, the title race ended up going right to the wire.

All City had to do was overcome Aston Villa on the final day and they would be champions again, but when they went 2-0 down to a Philippe Coutinho goal with 20 minutes to go, it looked like the title was heading to Liverpool.

But then two goals from İlkay Gündoğan either side of Rodri’s equaliser completed a dramatic comeback inside five minutes, and Guardiola lifted the Premier League title for a fourth time.

3️⃣ The Centurions

After his disappointing first season at the helm, City made a big splash in the 2017 summer transfer market, signing goalkeeper Ederson, three new full-backs and Bernardo Silva from Monaco.

It was a smart spending spree which set them up to dominate the league, and that was what they did.

Guardiola’s first trophy in English football was secured when City overcame Arsenal in the EFL Cup final, and his first Premier League title was clinched with matches to spare (although they did blow the opportunity to win the league by beating rivals Manchester United).

And on the final day, a brilliant late Gabriel Jesus winner away at Southampton cemented City’s place in history as they became the first and, so far, only Premier League team to achieve a 100-point season.

2️⃣ The domestic treble

City didn’t score quite as many points the following year, but what they achieved was arguably more impressive.

The turning point was a 2-1 win over Liverpool in January 2019. Had City lost that game, they would have been 10 points behind Jürgen Klopp’s side, but their win closed the gap at the top to four points, and it was game on.

And even after they appeared to have blown it with a defeat at Newcastle later that month, Guardiola’s side embarked on a 14-match winning streak which ultimately saw them pip Liverpool to the title by a single point with a 4-1 victory at Brighton on the final day.

That season’s Champions League campaign ended in heartbreak at the hands of Spurs, but City won the EFL Cup before finishing their season with a 6-0 thrashing of Watford in the FA Cup final to complete an unprecedented and, so far, unmatched English domestic treble.

1️⃣ The Treble

Of all the trophies won by Guardiola during his time in England, one had proved painfully elusive. In 2023, that finally changed.

City showed that they meant business with the summer signing of Erling Haaland and though the Norwegian striker chipped in with a record-breaking 52 goals in all competitions, the season was not without its ups and downs.

Guardiola publicly lambasted his team for their lack of desire following a 4-2 win over Tottenham in January, before a 1-0 defeat away at Spurs in the return fixture dealt a significant blow to City’s title hopes.

But City went on to win 14 of their next 15 matches in the league, overtaking title rivals Arsenal (whom they did the double over) in the process and eventually becoming only the third team in Premier League history to win the title three years in a row.

The double was then secured with two brilliant Gündoğan volleys to beat rivals Manchester United in the FA Cup final, and having overcome Real Madrid in emphatic fashion in the Champions League semi-final, a date with destiny awaited in Istanbul.

City’s clash with Inter in the final was a nervy affair but Rodri’s goal in the second half proved to be the winner, and City won the Champions League for the first time ever, with Guardiola also getting his hands on the trophy for the first time since 2011.

Centurions, domestic treble winners and European champions. That’s quite the legacy.