Pep Guardiola has stated that winning the FA Cup will not be enough to salvage Manchester City’s disastrous season, despite reaching the final on the same day Liverpool lost their reign as Premier League champions.
Guardiola’s side had been crowned English champions for the previous four seasons, but their poor form for much of this season gave Liverpool the opportunity to win a record-equalling 20th top-flight title.
Liverpool’s crowning achievement was secured with a 5-1 thrashing of Tottenham, which ended nearly exactly when the full-time whistle blew at Wembley Stadium, signalling City’s 2-0 win against Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup semifinals.
Rico Lewis scored after only 109 seconds, and Josko Gvardiol extended City’s lead in the second half.
City will meet Crystal Palace in their third consecutive FA Cup final on May 17.
Guardiola’s fourth-place club is also on track to qualify for the Champions League with a top-five finish in the Premier League.
When asked if winning the FA Cup and qualifying for the Champions League would constitute a “successful” campaign, the Spaniard replied, “No, and I have said that many times.
“This season has not been good. We are a thousand million points behind Liverpool, so come on, this season has not been good.
“Look at the Champions League. How many games did we win? One or two? And we have always been a machine in that.
“We cannot confuse the fact that the season has been good if we finish in the top five and qualify for the Champions League.
“The club has to take the decisions, the right ones, for next season to be better.”
Man City are 21 points behind Liverpool in the league and one point clear of Chelsea and Forest, who also have a game in hand, in the race for the top five places.
“Being in another final speaks so highly about the volume of generation of players and this club. And we are very pleased we are in the final,” said Guardiola, who has won the FA Cup twice in his City reign.
“But the season is defined by the Premier League and being consistent, and this season that couldn’t happen.
“The most important thing is qualification for the Champions League, and we have to be calm now and recover.”
Man City will be favourites in the final after routing Palace 5-2 at the Etihad Stadium earlier in April.
However, Guardiola was impressed by Palace’s 3-0 win over Aston Villa in the semi-final on Saturday and warned against overconfidence.
“We have four finals to play and then an unbelievable game against Palace, and we saw yesterday how good they are,” he said.
