Bournemouth 1 Manchester City 1 – Arsenal champions as Kroupi ends Guardiola hopes of final title

Arsenal have been crowned Premier League champions after Bournemouth ended Manchester City’s challenge and denied Pep Guardiola the chance of a final title as Manchester City manager.

Guardiola, who The Athletic and other organisations reported on Monday is to leave the club at the end of the season, said the news had “zero” effect on his side’s preparations when he spoke briefly before the game to Sky Sports, who did not ask if he was departing.

City had to win to take the race to the final day and in a lively start, Antoine Semenyo finished a fine move only to be ruled offside. The flag was also up when Evanilson met a low cross seven yards out for Bournemouth but managed to knock it over the bar.

Bournemouth took the lead on 39 minutes when teenager Eli Junior Kroupi curled a shot past a rooted Gianluigi Donnarumma from just inside the box. City responded strongly after the break and Djordje Petrovic saved Nico O’Reilly’s shot from close range.

David Brooks almost added a second for Bournemouth when he hit the post and Erling Haaland crashed in an equaliser in stoppage time but a draw was not enough.

The result means Arsenal are champions for the first time in 22 years.

Bournemouth are now three points behind Liverpool and a guaranteed place in next season’s Champions League heading into the final day of the season on Sunday.

Here The Athletic’s Sam Lee and Thom Harris break down the key moments.

Why did City’s title challenge fail?

This always looked like a tough game even before Monday’s big news broke. Bournemouth have been on a long unbeaten run that may have contained a lot of draws, but a draw would have been enough for them to clinch European football, and enough to ruin City’s title hopes once and for all.

City needed nothing but a win, but came here looking flat even as they won the FA Cup final on Saturday. Bournemouth, by contrast, had had 10 days to prepare. City would have had a decent amount of hope that they could win the title on the final day if they had got the job done here, but that was always a big if.

Ultimately their title challenge fell apart not just because of this result, but the flaws in the team throughout the season that cost them points in too many games.

City fans may argue about which game was the most disappointing — was it the draw against Chelsea or Brighton at the start of January when leading 1-0? The 2-2 draw at home to Nottingham Forest in March. The 2-2 at Spurs having led 2-0? The 1-1 at West Ham? The 3-3 at Everton?

The truth is that when there is such a list, you cannot really expect to win the league, and that is without mentioning desperately poor defeats at home to Spurs and away to Manchester United. Due to Arsenal’s relative lack of quality compared to previous title winners, there was always a chance for City to get themselves back to the top, and they certainly pushed, but ultimately they did not quite have enough over the course of the whole season.

Sam Lee

Did Kroupi expose City’s fatal flaw?

It is telling that Bournemouth’s opening goal — Eli Junior Kroupi’s clinical curled finish that ultimately took the title away from City — stemmed from the exact kind of move that Guardiola’s side have struggled to contain across the past two years.

As the Premier League has tended towards man-to-man pressing and breathless athleticism in midfield, Iraola’s Bournemouth have stamped their authority over chaotic, end-to-end games with conviction in their fast attacks.

It was no different this evening, as Bournemouth set off the moment Alex Scott received the ball in midfield. He swivelled, and found four players steaming towards the City goal, slipping through the relentless Adrien Truffert, who, at full-tilt, had the presence of mind to pull the ball back.

Kroupi celebrates in spectacular style (Getty Images)

Kroupi’s finish was ruthless, capping off the type of pitch-sweeping move that has frequently scythed through City in an era of the Premier League in which they have failed to exact the same control with possession at their feet. If this is to be his final Premier League trip, Guardiola may be glad to see the back of this kind of frenetic, unpredictable game.

Thom Harris

How did Guardiola try to change it?

Pep Guardiola doesn’t usually do triple subs. If anything, the City boss has made a reputation over the last 10 years as a manager who will leave his team be in a search for rhythm, rather than chop and change for a spark.

But this wasn’t any old game, and with City desperate for a goal to cling onto the title race with 30 minutes left to play, Guardiola turned to his bench to throw on Phil Foden, Rayan Cherki and Savinho in one of the most radical switch-ups of his City career.

It was a risk. Particularly given Bournemouth’s physicality in midfield, a trio of Cherki, Foden and Rodri in the centre left City light. It inspired an immediate surge from Bournemouth, who dominated in the ten minutes that followed, hitting the post through Rayan who looked as if he blocked the original shot from going in.

Guardiola tried to shake his team up (Photo: Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)

City gradually wrestled back control — until a flurry in the final five minutes where the home side could easily have added a second — but for all Savinho shimmied and darted out wide, and as silky as Cherki looked on the ball, the final pass was just missing on an evening when the season slipped away.

What did Guardiola say?

We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference.

What next for City?

Sunday, May 24: Aston Villa (Home), Premier League, 4pm UK, 11am ET