MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Puffing on a cigar, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola celebrated his team's fourth English Premier League title in five seasons after a parade through the streets on Monday.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester City scored three goals in five minutes to turn around a tense and dramatic season finale and clinch a sixth Premier League title in 11 seasons, rallying to beat Aston Villa 3-2 and hold off Liverpool's challenge on Sunday.
Manchester City winning the Premier League title hardly comes as a shock. After all, this is a sixth league championship in 11 seasons for one of the world's richest clubs, placing it among the most dominant periods in the history of the English game.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester City's defensive problems appear to have improved ahead of the final round of the English Premier League on Sunday, when the team requires a victory over Aston Villa to guarantee retaining the title.
LONDON (AP) — Manchester City's Premier League title defense is having a jittery conclusion.
Pep Guardiola's defending champions recovered from two goals down at West Ham to draw 2-2 on Sunday and move four points clear of Liverpool with a game remaining for City.
WOLVERHAMPTON, England (AP) — Kevin De Bruyne produced a string of devastating finishes in scoring four of Manchester City's goals in a 5-1 win at Wolverhampton to restore its three-point lead over Liverpool in the Premier League title race on Wednesday.
The heir to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. A future Ballon d’Or winner. The man to lead Manchester City to that elusive Champions League title.
Erling Haaland is being depicted as these things — and many more — now that the striker is seemingly on his way to the English Premier League champions in a blockbuster move.
LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp laughed off some barbs from counterpart Pep Guardiola that have inflamed the Premier League title race, saying Monday they were heat-of-the-moment comments likely fueled by Manchester City’s painful elimination from the Champions League.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester City will have to cope without injured defenders Rúben Dias, Kyle Walker and John Stones for the final three matches of the Premier League title run-in.
Dias came off at halftime of City's 5-0 rout of Newcastle on Sunday with a hamstring problem and had to be replaced by the 37-year-old Fernandinho, who is leaving at the end of the season.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Pep Guardiola has become irritated over Liverpool's stature and he wants everyone to know it.
After seeing his Manchester City side go three points clear of Liverpool, Guardiola launched an outburst that gives this title rivalry a more spiky edge with three games remaining.
A look at what’s happening in European soccer on Sunday:
ENGLAND
Manchester City can go three points clear at the top of the Premier League by beating Newcastle. It's a meeting of the team that has benefited from Abu Dhabi funding for 14 years against the visitor that has started to see investment flow from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund since last year.
It’s an image that has come to define Pep Guardiola on his biggest nights in the Champions League with Manchester City.
That one of him leaning back, knees bent, hands covering his face in anguish.
A look at what’s happening in the Champions League on Wednesday:
REAL MADRID vs. MANCHESTER CITY (3-4)
Manchester City will look to fend off another Real Madrid comeback to return to the Champions League final and keep alive its hopes of winning the competition for the first time.
LONDON (AP) — It’s still advantage Manchester City in the English Premier League title race after the league leader and Liverpool won tricky away matches at in-form teams on Saturday.
First up was Liverpool, which won at Newcastle 1-0 despite resting several players, and was briefly atop the table.
LEEDS, England (AP) — Manchester City remained the front-runner in the English Premier League title race after winning at Leeds 4-0 on Saturday.
Liverpool won at Newcastle 1-0 in an early kickoff to keep the pressure on City, which responded.
MADRID (AP) — Real Madrid was holding on to the positives after coming close to being routed by Manchester City but staying alive in the Champions League semifinals.
Madrid lost 4-3 in the first leg in England on Tuesday, but it was one of those defeats that allowed for some celebration.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — It was the coolest of penalties at the end of one of the wildest matches in Champions League history.
With his cheekily dispatched “Panenka,” Karim Benzema might just have kept Real Madrid's chances alive against Manchester City in the semifinals.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — The match ball clutched by Gabriel Jesus as he left Manchester City’s stadium following his first Premier League hat trick was covered in messages from teammates.
Among them was “Vamos Pele,” which — though clearly tongue in cheek — must have felt good for a native of Brazil.
It's still advantage Manchester City in the Premier League title race.
Three second-half goals earned City a 3-0 win over Brighton on Wednesday, lifting Pep Guardiola's team back into first place after being ousted — only for 24 hours as it turned out — by title rival Liverpool.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester City scored three times in the second half to reclaim top spot in the Premier League with a 3-0 victory over Brighton on Wednesday.
The scoreline did not tell the full story of a nervy contest at Etihad Stadium in which the champions were frustrated by Brighton before the break.
A look at what’s happening in European soccer on Wednesday:
ENGLAND
The defense of the Premier League title is still in Manchester City's hands as the champions host Brighton needing to reclaim top spot from Liverpool.
LONDON (AP) — American goalkeeper Zack Steffen blundered to gift Liverpool a goal in Manchester City's 3-2 loss in the FA Cup semifinals on Saturday.
City was already trailing 1-0 at Wembley when Steffen's allowed Sadio Mané to score Liverpool's second in a meeting of the English Premier League's top teams.
MADRID (AP) — In the end, it was Pep Guardiola getting the better of Diego Simeone in the battle of contrasting styles in the Champions League.
Atlético Madrid couldn’t find a spark for its struggling attack and was held to a 0-0 draw by Guardiola's Manchester City on Wednesday in a game that featured more heated exchanges and rough fouls than clear-cut chances and fluid play.
Few things get past Pep Guardiola, one of football's most meticulous coaches.
So imagine the Manchester City manager's surprise when he walked into a news conference on Tuesday and was told one of his senior players had just revealed he wanted to leave the club.
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Real Madrid consolidated its already commanding lead at the top of the Spanish league with a 2-0 win over Getafe on Saturday, ahead of a week in which it hopes to finish off Chelsea in the Champions League quarterfinals.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Ahead of their teams’ potential Premier League title decider on Sunday, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said his rivalry with Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool is the most intense he has experienced during his managerial career.
MADRID (AP) — Atlético Madrid wasn’t making any excuses for the overly defensive style it used in the first leg against Manchester City in the quarterfinals of the Championship League on Tuesday.
Coach Diego Simeone and his players were actually proudly defending it.
Diego Simeone was working in Argentina in the early years of his coaching career when he requested to attend some training sessions at Barcelona, led at the time by Pep Guardiola.
Barcelona was the pre-eminent club in world soccer, revolutionising the game between 2008-12 with its “tiki-taka” passing style favored by Guardiola and mastered by the likes of Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández.
Liverpool completed its 119-day mission to displace Manchester City from atop the English Premier League.
It lasted only a matter of hours.
The status quo was ultimately maintained in what is promising to be another gripping fight for the title between the two giants from northwest England after they beat relegation-threatened opponents on Saturday.
Manchester City and Liverpool just can’t be kept apart this season.
Engaged in yet another tight tussle for the Premier League title, the two rivals from northwest England must now squeeze an FA Cup semifinal meeting into their busy end-of-season schedules.
LONDON (AP) — Manchester City held a 13-point lead in the English Premier League two months ago. The next time the champions play, they could be in second place.
In the latest twist in the title race, City stumbled against Crystal Palace — again — by drawing 0-0 at an atmospheric Selhurst Park on Monday to give second-placed Liverpool further hope of reeling in Pep Guardiola’s team and reclaiming the biggest prize in English soccer.
LEEDS, England (AP) — New manager, similar ethos.
Don’t expect Leeds to look markedly different under the leadership of new American coach Jesse Marsch following his arrival at the struggling English Premier League club as the replacement for the fired Marcelo Bielsa.
To some, he was a luxury signing, adding unnecessary competition in a squad that had a more pressing concern elsewhere.
To others, his arrival was important in bringing, over time, a new dimension to the team’s attacking play.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester City defender Oleksandr Zinchenko will be available for their game at Everton on Saturday despite the Ukraine international's concerns for his home country.
The 25-year-old Zinchenko attended a demonstration in Manchester on Thursday night after Russia invaded Ukraine.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — No wonder Pep Guardiola once branded Tottenham the Harry Kane team. No wonder Manchester City pursued four rebuffed bids to sign him.
There he was — still in a Tottenham jersey — in the fifth minute of stoppage time on Saturday, putting the ball in the City net for a second time.
Given Joao Cancelo’s new-found importance to Manchester City, it seems incredible that the Portugal full back was deemed surplus to requirements for last season’s Champions League final.
Cancelo spent the entirety of the 1-0 loss to Chelsea in Porto on the bench, having dropped out of City’s team in the final months of the season following rocky defensive displays that ended up overshadowing his obvious attacking qualities.
NORWICH, England (AP) — Raheem Sterling scored a hat trick as Manchester City beat Norwich 4-0 to move 12 points clear in the English Premier League on Saturday.
Phil Foden also scored at Carrow Road as City extended its unbeaten run in the league to 15 games.
SOUTHAMPTON, England (AP) — Manchester City's long winning run in the Premier League ended at 12 matches on Saturday after a 1-1 draw at Southampton, which took points off the leaders for the second time this season.
For Pep Guardiola, the biggest challenge now will be convincing his Manchester City players the English Premier League title race is not over.
“My job is to take it out from the brain and heads of my players,” Guardiola said after City beat nearest rival Chelsea 1-0 on Saturday.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Kevin De Bruyne curled home a brilliant second-half goal to earn Manchester City a 1-0 win over Chelsea and a 13-point lead over its nearest rival in the Premier League on Saturday.
LONDON (AP) — Burnley's shortage of players due to coronavirus cases and injuries has led to its Premier League match against Leicester being postponed.
The league accepted Burnley's case that it didn't have enough squad members available — 13 outfield players and one goalkeeper — for Saturday's match.
A look at what’s happening in European soccer on Saturday:
ENGLAND
The first Premier League match of the day is the biggest: Leader Manchester City hosts second-placed Chelsea. The Blues trail by 10 points and hope to keep their title hopes alive against the defending champion.
SWINDON, England (AP) — Manchester City easily coped without seven coronavirus-infected players in eliminating fourth-tier club Swindon 4-1 to open the third round of the FA Cup on Friday.
City was still able to deploy a lineup packed with international players including the first three scorers — Bernardo Silva, Gabriel Jesus and Ilkay Gundogan,
A coronavirus outbreak at Manchester City put manager Pep Guardiola and seven players in isolation while four Serie A teams were ordered into quarantine and unable to play matches on Thursday.
City indicated it still plans to play its FA Cup match on Friday against Swindon with assistant coach Rodolfo Borrell stepping in after Guardiola tested positive.
ZURICH (AP) — Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola was joined by the coach who beat him in the 2021 Champions League final, Thomas Tuchel of Chelsea, on the FIFA shortlist Thursday to be named best in the world.
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Ferran Torres was presented as a Barcelona player on Monday, though the Spanish team isn’t able to register him yet.
Barcelona director of football Mateu Alemany said the club knew there was no room for Torres in the squad “in terms of salaries” when he was bought last week from Manchester City for an initial fee of 55 million euros ($62.2 million).