Manchester City’s bus left some of them behind. Once Pep Guardiola had clambered on board, wheels were quickly turning and off up north they went, a fourth consecutive FA Cup final and three full days off secured.
Two of the Treble heroes were still inside Wembley as City weaved a way out of north London, Nathan Ake and John Stones staying put. Travelling back to Manchester with the squad was not mandatory, a cluster of players leaving with packed luggage for their short holidays.
Kitted out as if doing the nonchalance bit at Paris Fashion Week, Rayan Cherki wheeled a suitcase so large that it could have been heading for a two-week all inclusive.
Just until Wednesday afternoon though, to rest and reset before the final three-and-a-half weeks that, remarkably, could end as one of the finest seasons in the history of English football. A domestic Treble is on the line. A fitting final act for Guardiola, if that were to come to pass.
His assistant, Pep Lijnders, wandered out whistling Just The Way You Are, presumably because the new terrace earworm about Antoine Semenyo and Cherki has stuck rather than enthusiasm at Milky re-entering the charts after all these years, but you never know. Either way, he looked pleased.
The hard work is to come. City heard that Arsenal went back top 15 minutes after they had squeezed past Southampton and could be six points behind by the time they kick off at Everton next Monday. There are five Premier League games and an FA Cup final to fit in, the tricky prospect of three matches in six days around the last week of the season growing ever more possible.
The likes of John Stones and Nathan Ake have not been regulars this season but were thrown in from the start for yesterday’s FA Cup semi-final comeback win over Southampton
Pep Guardiola faces the prospect of three matches in six days around the last week of the season but appears highly unlikely to rotate when it comes to the crunch
Even with that spectre looming, Guardiola appears highly unlikely to rotate when it comes to the crunch. He has his team now – and it was not the one that could not put Saints away in Saturday’s semi-final and required the cavalry, led by Jeremy Doku, to nudge them over the line.
The selection was a gamble of sorts. A gamble not in the quality available, any City side should swat away Championship opposition – no matter how dangerous they are proving and how long their unbeaten run is – but a gamble in that barely any of these players have featured recently.
Throw them together and you are handed a mishmash. Add to that the fact that there is not a Riyad Mahrez to bring off the bench or a Julian Alvarez to introduce. City are transitioning, the depth is not quite what it was in those truly great teams – of which there are barely any survivors.
The last six, the dash to the finish, will be the job of a select group now and everybody knows who they are, which is why City’s manager admitted on Friday to having some fairly glum faces among the squad at the moment. But did they do enough against Saints? The answer is no.
Guardiola has settled on his system, settled on who to trust, the only real dilemma is whether to pick Ruben Dias when he returns from injury. One of Abdukodir Khusanov or Marc Guehi would consider themselves exceptionally unfortunate if Dias came straight in.
It all suggests that City are in for another busy summer. With some Nottingham Forest players believing that Elliott Anderson is destined for the Etihad Stadium – the clubs still need to haggle over a fee and that will only take place in earnest once Forest’s safety is secured – and targets out wide and at right back, there will be a continued reshaping. Young Brazilian defender Vitor Reis, excelling on loan at Girona, is making noises about returning.
The likes of Tijjani Reijnders will be reduced to watching on from the sidelines between now and the end of May as City take this title fight down to the wire
That raises the prospect that stalwarts like Ake and Stones could have made their last starts in a City shirt on Saturday. Stones’ departure at the end of his contract, heavily signposted for months, is expected to be formally announced in the coming days, following Bernardo Silva’s recent news.
Ake has a year remaining but at 31, wants to be a regular. Then there is Omar Marmoush, Tijjani Reijnders, matchwinner Nico Gonzalez, all not getting a sniff. Rico Lewis rarely even makes the bench these days.
They will be reduced to watching on from the sidelines between now and the end of May as City take this title fight down to the wire with a league leader that should have raced so far clear that any end-of-season flurry would have been rendered meaningless.
First, the days off. A good idea by Guardiola. Once he was this maniacal coach who demanded players were constantly at the training ground, always training, but has mellowed in that regard as the beard grew a slightly whiter shade of grey.
He doesn’t see correlation between training loads and performance and so believes that steering clear of each other until Wednesday will reap rewards. We’re about to find out.
