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Key events
Half-time quiz
What do these footballers have in common? The first person to email the correct answer wins an imaginary prize.
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Nick Henry
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Julian Darby
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Michael Hughes
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Dean Holdsworth
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Harry Kewell
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Gilberto Silva
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Eden Hazard
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Jay Rodriguez
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Willian
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Caglar Soyuncu
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Taiwo Awoniyi
Half-time reading
Half time: Bournemouth 1-0 Manchester City
You can’t smell solid sterling silver, but if you could Arsenal’s nostrils would be going ten to the dozen right now. They could be 45 minutes away from the Premier League title after Eli Junior Kroupi’s majestic goal gave Bournemouth a half-time lead against Manchester City.
City dominated possession without seriously testing Dorde Petrovic. Unless they win this game, Arsenal will be champions – and Bournemouth will qualify for Europe for the first time.
45+1 min Two minutes of added time. Guehi is down after a bit of a wrestling match with Evanilson. He’ll be okay.
45 min Semenyo shoots straight at Petrovic from the edge of the area.
43 min No reply to speak on from City. They’ve dominated possession throughout the half but are crying out for the wit, invention and personality of Rayan Cherki.
Truffert gallopsed down the left and screwed an excellent pass back towards the unmarked Kroupi on the edge of the area. He opened his body, used Khusanov as a screen and whipped a majestic curler into the far corner. He is outrageously good for a teenager, and his goal has moved Arsenal even closer to the Premier League title.
GREAT GOAL! Bournemouth 1-0 Man City (Kroupi 39)
Eli Junior Kroupi puts Bournemouth ahead with a beauty!
38 min “Regarding the Man City away strip currently being sported,” begins Ian Copestake. “Its designers Puma state, and I kid you not, that it’s ‘all-over, tonal raindrop pattern cascades across the gunmetal-grey background to evoke the city’s overcast skies and wet weather’.”
Target market, Ian, target market. If they’d ripped off the Joy Division Unknown Pleasures cover I’d be all over it.
37 min Tyler Adams is booked for sarcasm. He applauded when the referee gave a foul against Erling Haaland for a challenge on James Hill.
How do you prove sarcasm?
35 min The referee Anthony Taylor has a stern word – several – with one of the Bournemouth backroom staff. Not sure why.
34 min It’s still a high-class game. Sadly, a lot of that class is being demonstrated without the ball, so it remains a match of few chances.
33 min “I have no claim of being a soothsayer,” writes Jones from Nairobi, “but methinks that should Arsenal get the monkey off their back this season by winning the damn thing, they are likely to dominate for the foreseeable future. Don’t you think Pep has spied that possibility and walked away at an opportune moment, leaving the business of rebuilding to the poor guy who’s got to fill his enormous boots?”
I’m not sure about that. I assume he’s just shattered after a decade at City. Ordinarily he’d embrace the challenge, as he did when Liverpool won the league at a canter in 2019-20, and he has helpdd his successor enormously by starting the rebuild this season. Not all great managers bother to do that.
28 min Silva’s outswinging corner finds the head of Rodri, and Evanilson stoops to head clear just in front of the goalline. I think that would have gone in, though it’s hard to be sure as the header was moving quite slowly. Haaland then smashes a shot from a tight angle that hits somebody – either a defender or Petrovic – and goes behind for another corner.
27 min A cross from Doku deflects off Smith and flashes into the side netting. Petrovic had it covered.
26 min Nah, it’s never too early, not when there’s so much at stake.
25 min It’s too early for the as-it-stands table, right?
22 min There haven’t been many chances but this is a high-class game between two extremely good sides. I envy the supporters of whichever club Andoni Iraola joins this summer.
21 min “I definitely want City to win the league but I almost changed my mind when I saw that strip on the photo at the top of the blog,” writes Richard Hirst. “In what world do people get paid good money for coming up with kits like that?”
I’m not sure we’re the target market, Richard.
19 min Some classy hold-up play from Kroupi allows Bournemouth some respite after another extended period of City possession. He is so accomplished for a teenager.
15 min: What a miss by Evanilson!
A one touch, zig-zag move from Bournemouth ends with Tavernier fizzing a low cross that is somehow lifted over the bar from six yards by Evanilson.
I think the flag went up against Evanilson, though on the replay it looked really close. I guess we’ll never know, because he clodhopped it over the bar. The build-up was lovely.
14 min After a long spell of City possession, Khusanov whacks a long-range shot into orbit.
14 min “It would be impossibly churlish to deny Pep Guardiola every plaudit going; let’s put aside all the other stuff as he departs the stage,” writes Charles Antkai. “Of course he’s on everybody’s list of top managers of all time – citation probably not needed. As for this evening, in a spirit of generosity from an Arsenal fan, I hope he bows out in his penultimate game by thrashing Bournemouth, and I mean that in the spirit of Luciano Pavarotti in his immortal interview with Bobby Charlton.”
12 min: Semenyo has a goal disallowed He ran onto a through pass from Haaland and beat Petrovic with his left foot. VAR confirms the decision. There wasn’t a huge amount in it but Semenyo started his run a split-second too soon.
11 min The game is starting to settle into the expected pattern of City possession and Bournemouth transition.
8 min There’s an excellent pace to the game, with both teams showing plenty of intent in possession. More please!
5 min: Chance for City Semenyo gets to the byline and cuts the ball back sharply towards Doku on the edge of the area. He dummies a defender but shoots too close to Petrovic with his left foot.
3 min A fast start from Bournemouth, who are hounding City all over the pitch. City play through the press and Kovacic’s pass almost puts Haaland through on goal. It was James Hill, I think, who made a vital interception.
1 min City get the match under way on a chilly evening on the south coast.
A reminder of tonight’s teams
Bournemouth (4-2-3-1) Petrovic; Smith, Hill, Senesi, Truffert; Adams, Scott; Rayan, Kroupi, Tavernier; Evanilson.
Subs: Cook, Brooks, Gannon-Doak, Diakite, Kluivert, Adli, Unal, Toth, Mandas.
Man City (poss 4-3-3) Donnarumma; Nunes, Khusanov, Guehi, O’Reilly; Bernardo, Rodri, Kovacic; Semenyo, Haaland, Doku.
Subs: Trafford, Dias, Reijnders, Stones, Marmoush, Cherki, Gvardiol, Savinho, Foden.
Referee Anthony Taylor.
Andoni Iraola’s pre-match thoughts
It will be an emotional night, but probably after the game. The game is so difficult – there is so much to prepare for and our focus is all on that.
For us it’s massive. We want to play in Europe next season; we know we are close but we are not quite there. We will give our best and let’s see it’s enough.
[Mikel Arteta] will be supporting us today. I understand everything around the game, but I want to win because it’s massive for us.
Arteta and Iraola were childhood friends who were born three months and six miles apart.
Pep Guardiola’s pre-match interview
Sky Sports, who are covering the game in England, say it would not be fair to ask him about his future until after the game.
This is a tough, tough opponent. We have to win this game and then see what happens. This is the last effort. Two games, tonight and on Sunday.
How many games are Bournemouth unbeaten? [16] It speaks for itself.
[Have the overnight reports had any effect on City’s preparation for this game?] Zero.
There’s another big game at Stamford Bridge, where Spurs will effectively ensure survival if they get a point against Chelsea. That game kicks off at 8.15pm, and you can follow it with Simon Burnton.
Jamie Jackson
“What are your dreams, what are your dreams?” To comprehend what drove Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, his interaction with autograph hunters in January 2025 after an 8-0 FA Cup win over Salford City is instructive.
The group comprises all younger people apart from one man who tells him: “I used to be a chef.” Guardiola’s reply cuts to the quick and reads as a mantra heard surely by the 85 players he used in 10 Premier League seasons. “Continue to do it. Prepare better,” he says.
This ethos of improvement and perfection-seeking swept Guardiola’s City to the 2023 treble, the 2018 title with a record 100 points as part of a domestic treble, and to a historic four consecutive championships, the last of these a year after the winning Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup, when fatigue might have caused decline.
“The irony of Man City’s dentist’s appointment in Bournemouth today,” says Peter Oh, “is that it’s Arsenal who could come out of it with a crown.”
Breaking news: Southampton kicked out of Championship playoffs
Southampton have been expelled from the Championship playoff final and docked four points after being found guilty of spying on Middlesbrough.
An independent disciplinary commission handed down the punishment after the English Football League charged Southampton with a breach of its regulations.
It means Middlesbrough, who were beaten by Southampton in the semi-finals, will face Hull for a place in the Premier League. The final remains scheduled for Saturday at Wembley. Southampton have the right to appeal and the commission aims to resolve any appeal by the end of Wednesday.
Ben Fisher
“I just thought it was fake news,” says the Bournemouth defender James Hill, casting his mind back to the time Barcelona sent a scout to watch him play for Fleetwood. The game in question was a League One defeat by Burton and although the then 19-year-old was highly regarded, there were a few double-takes when the request to attend landed. “‘No, that can’t be right.’ And then afterwards someone told me they did come to the game: ‘Oh, incredible.’”
At that point Hill, who at the age of 16 became Fleetwood’s youngest player, was fresh from making his England Under-20 debut and a couple of months later an under-21 call-up followed, though a knee injury prevented him from joining Marc Guéhi, Morgan Gibbs-White, Cole Palmer and co. “I remember being on the phone to Lee Carsley,” he says. “‘I’m sorry, but I’m in the scanner at the moment, I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it judging from the pain I’m in.’”
Premier League clubs and others across Europe noted an athletic and powerful centre-back with dozens of games under his belt, and Bournemouth acted, paying Fleetwood £1.2m, eclipsing the £1m the club received for Jamie Vardy. Leicester laughed when Fleetwood insisted on an England clause in the deal for Vardy and Fleetwood inserted one when Hill joined Bournemouth, too. Hill is being monitored by England and it is impossible not to be impressed by the progress of the 24-year-old.
Pep Guardiola on Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth
They don’t let you breathe. When a team is so intense, always when fatigue comes due to the amount of games, they can reduce this tempo a little bit, but with 10 days to prepare, I expect an intense team.
Team news
Tyler Adams replaces Ryan Christie in the Bournemouth midfield. That’s the only change from the team that won at Fulham ten days ago.
Pep Guardiola makes two changes to his FA Cup-winning side: Gianluigi Donnarumma and Mateo Kovacic replace James Trafford and Omar Marhoush. That probably means a switch to 4-3-3.
Bournemouth (4-2-3-1) Petrovic; Smith, Hill, Senesi, Truffert; Adams, Scott; Rayan, Kroupi, Tavernier; Evanilson.
Subs: Cook, Brooks, Gannon-Doak, Diakite, Kluivert, Adli, Unal, Toth, Mandas.
Man City (poss 4-3-3) Donnarumma; Nunes, Khusanov, Guehi, O’Reilly; Bernardo, Rodri, Kovacic; Semenyo, Haaland, Doku.
Subs: Trafford, Dias, Reijnders, Stones, Marmoush, Cherki, Gvardiol, Savinho, Foden.
Referee Anthony Taylor.
Antoine Semenyo on his return to Bournemouth
It’ll be emotional for sure. It’s good to be back and to see everyone, but we’ve got a job to do.
I know how tough it will be against Bournemouth but we’ve got a gameplan and hopefully it works.
“Riddle corner,” begins Peter Oh. “What is the most popular summer fruit among Arsenal fans? Cherries!”
There’s got to be a Müller Corner gag in there somewhere.
City line up Maresca as Guardiola replacement
Pep Guardiola has informed Manchester City’s players that he will leave the club after Sunday’s final Premier League game of the season against Aston Villa.
The manager felt obliged to update his squad after news of his departure broke on Monday night, taking him by surprise while he was preparing for Tuesday’s match at Bournemouth.
Guardiola had hoped to keep his decision to leave City private for longer, so as not to provide a distraction. City need to beat Bournemouth to take the title race to the last day after Arsenal moved five points clear by defeating Burnley.
Guardiola is leaving after 10 years with a season remaining on his contract and City have identified Enzo Maresca as his replacement. Chelsea are in line for sizeable compensation for Maresca from City after the Italian’s acrimonious departure from Chelsea on New Year’s Day.
Preamble
Well that escalated quickly. This time yesterday, Pep Guardiola’s departure from Manchester City was but a tentative rumour. Now it is common knowledge, even if has yet to be officially confirmed. That should happen tonight when Guardola speaks either before or after City’s vital game at Bourbnemouth.
There’s still a chance Guardiola could leave English football with another treble on his CV. But if City are to take the title race to the last day, and test Arsenal’s nerve to the full, they need to overcome a Bournemouth side who are unbeaten in 16 Premier League games.
Bournemouth are also saying goodbye to arguably their greatest ever manager. Tonight is Andoni Iraola’s final home game, a chance to say goodbye in style: if Bournemouth get a point, they will qualify for Europe for the first time in their history.
Kick-off 7.30pm BST.
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