Manchester City 1-2 Aston Villa: Guardiola ends Premier League tenure with bittersweet defeat

Aston Villa played spoil sport at Pep Guardiola's farewell party at the Etihad Stadium, coming from behind to claim a 2-1 win in the Spaniard's final match in charge of Manchester City. 

Having announced his departure last week after Arsenal had sealed up the Premier League title following City's draw with Bournemouth, Guardiola would have wanted to end on a high, but saw his side held back by the newly-crowned Europa League champions. 

Antoine Semenyo capitalised on some pedestrian defending from Andres Garcia to put City ahead in the 23rd minute, but Ollie Watkins' quickfire brace turned the game on its head.  

The Villa forward, fresh off his inclusion in England's World Cup squad, struck twice within 16 minutes of the restart to put City in a spot of bother, while stalwarts Bernardo Silva and John Stones were given guards of honour as they left the Etihad pitch for the final time. 

Leon Bailey struck the woodwork during a frenetic closing spell as Villa pursued their third, before Phil Foden controversially saw a 90th-minute leveller ruled out for offside by the barest of margins after a VAR review.

Nonetheless, the scenes after full-time belonged to Guardiola, Stones and Silva, with the three departing City icons, and Premier League greats, receiving a fitting send-off from the Etihad crowd. 

Data Debrief: City's time to say goodbye 

City will be a much-changed football club next season following the departure of Guardiola. In total, the Spaniard has taken charge of 593 matches with City, overtaking Les McDowall for the most games in charge of the Citizens in club history. 

Guardiola is the only manager to win four English top-flight titles in a row, doing so between 2020-21 and 2023-24, and the only manager to oversee a 100-point Premier League season (2017-18). 

But even he will admit that his side were under-par on Sunday, producing a marginally lower 1.25 expected goals (xG) to Villa's 1.67 xG. 

Watkins, meanwhile, will be keen to carry his good form into this summer's World Cup. The Villa frontman has impressively scored five goals and produced one assist in his last three league outings as Villa added to their Europa League heroics with a fourth-placed Premier League finish – their joint-best since 1992-93.