Pep Guardiola's considers Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel as "one of the few" managers he still learns from.
Guardiola's Manchester City play host to Tuchel and the Blues on Saturday in the standout match of the weekend's Premier League schedule.
City head into the game with a 10-point lead over second-placed Chelsea – only four times before have the Premier League leaders had a bigger lead over their nearest challengers after 21 matches.
On each of those occasions, the team with the lead has gone on to win the title, and victory over Chelsea could see City end the weekend with a 13-point advantage as long as Liverpool do not beat Brentford.
City will certainly be considered favourites given the impressive job they did on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in September, only winning 1-0 but outplaying Tuchel's side practically throughout.
Despite that wobble from Chelsea and the fact City have a healthy lead at the summit, Guardiola still counts Tuchel among the few rivals he looks to for inspiration.
"He's so creative, one of the few managers I learn constantly from, to become a better manager myself," Guardiola told reporters.
"Excellent in all departments. I enjoy since he was in Mainz and Borussia Dortmund, always I enjoy watching his teams and the way he's playing, the approach.
"I think he's dignified and he makes world of football better. When you find a manager who always wants to be positive in the way they play, it's good."
Earlier in the day, Tuchel revealed his regret at Chelsea going too defensive in their clash with City at Stamford Bridge.
City were the far greater threat, attempting three times as many shots as Chelsea (15 to five), who did not test Ederson once.
Chelsea accumulated just 11 touches in the opposition's box compared to City's 34, while the visitors' 1.47 expected goals (xG) suggested Tuchel's side were somewhat fortunate to concede just once.
Tuchel's comments would hint at Chelsea turning up in Manchester with a more positive approach, and that appears to be what Guardiola is preparing for.
"I can't imagine what is going to happen. If he didn't like how they played at home, they play different away," he said.
"Seeing the Liverpool game and both Tottenham games, I saw Chelsea as completely different at Tottenham than they played at Stamford Bridge.
"I don't know if the plan was like this, or they couldn't do it. With this quote, I presume the approach that Chelsea will have tomorrow.
"Every game is completely different, [our] performance was really good, minimising the Champions of Europe when all players were fit and there.
"It was really exceptional. In that moment we were below them, knowing the difficulties if we didn't get the points. Our commitment with and without the ball was exceptional.
"We won unfortunately with a small margin, we couldn't score much more. We had three one-on-one situations, but the victory was nice.
"[Saturday] will be completely different. We learned from that, like how we can be better especially in attack, [so] they will change, like their manager said, their approach. They know they need points to be still there [in the title race]."
The debate around coronavirus-enforced postponements reared its head again after Burnley had their game with Leicester City called off, but Guardiola – who confirmed his side have had more positive COVID-19 cases – did not want to get into it.
"It's a Premier League decision," he said. "I don't get involved. COVID is all around the world. The situation is there, in the next two or three months it will still be there, hopefully it will decrease step by step."
On City's cases, he added: "Some people are coming, some are positive again. When you test once, twice negative, then you come back, otherwise you stay at home.
"It happened in the last two-three months affecting all the clubs. We have some new cases, they want privacy so I can't say who."
Dujon Sterling urges Rangers to change mentality after poor run
Dujon Sterling has called for a mentality change from Rangers for the season’s finale after a string of poor performances.
The goalless draw at Dundee on Wednesday night in their game in hand left Philippe Clement’s side three points behind cinch Premiership leaders Celtic with five post-split fixtures remaining, which includes a trip to Parkhead.
The loss of a valuable two points which swings the title further towards Celtic came after their first ever defeat against Ross County on Sunday and a 3-3 draw against the Hoops at Ibrox, where they had to come from behind twice to salvage a point.
Now the Light Blues need to focus on Sunday’s Scottish Gas Scottish Cup semi-final against Hearts at Hampden Park and Sterling, who signed from Chelsea last summer, was brutally honest about the current state of affairs at the Govan club who now have two wins in eight in all competition and he is looking for rapid change.
Asked about possibly owing a performance on Sunday to Clement, who put up a stout defence of his players after the Dundee disappointment, and the fans who booed the players off in angry frustration, utility player Sterling said: “We owe ourselves a performance as well because we have been s*** the past three games.
“We need to re-set and do it for the fans as well because they have come home and away, backing us, singing for 90, 95, 100 minutes and we owe it to them.
“Obviously the results have been disappointing in the past two weeks and I know they have seen it before over the past years. Hopefully we can change that but we will see.
“We are fighting for a title and the way we are playing is as if we are not playing for anything, like the season is dead and it is a dead rubber game.
“Somehow it has got to switch. I don’t have the words to do it or know how to do it. It is a team thing, not just one person and not just the gaffer.
“We just have to have that belief that we can (come back). We had the togetherness, we had the belief. We still have the togetherness but I don’t know if the belief is there.
” I think everyone has to switch their minds that we can have that belief that we can do this. It is not good enough on our part. We have a lot of work to do and we need to re-set.
“We need to get our heads in the game, switch our mentality because for now, it is not going in the right direction.
“There is still a lot of games to be played and there’s still things to fight for.
“Of course anything can happen. We have five games left, five cup finals and hopefully the fans can push us to get through them.
“The dressing room is down at the minute. But we dust this one off, get back to the training ground and review it, park it and focus on the semi-final.”
I saw only one team – Rodri bemoans Real Madrid’s tactics after City’s Euro exit
Rodri claims he “saw only one team” trying to win as he bemoaned Real Madrid’s tactics following Manchester City’s heartbreaking Champions League quarter-final loss.
City’s European title defence ended in agonising fashion at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday as the Spanish giants prevailed 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw on the night meant the tie ended 4-4 on aggregate.
It was a clash the holders completely dominated, racking up 33 attempts on goal to the visitors’ eight, but Real defended deep to frustrate them and ultimately ended their hopes of a second successive treble.
City midfielder Rodri said: “To be honest, I saw only one team. In terms of defending, they defended (well). They knew how to suffer and we know how tough Real Madrid are.
“But in my opinion we should go through with that amount of chances but this is the trick of this competition. They know how to play it. We congratulate them.
“We gave everything, there is nothing to regret. This is football sometimes. This shows how difficult it is to win it, as we did last season. It was very frustrating and sometimes it is difficult to explain.”
City’s exit from the competition they won with a Rodri goal in Istanbul last year, coupled with Arsenal’s loss to Bayern Munich, means there are no English semi-finalists for the first time since 2020.
City had to chase the tie after Rodrgyo pounced to put Real ahead after 12 minutes.
They created a plethora of chances in a storming response, with Erling Haaland going the closest in the first half when he headed against the bar.
Further opportunities came and went after the break and it was not until the 76th minute that Kevin De Bruyne finally broke through to net a deserved equaliser.
But De Bruyne spurned a good chance to win it when he fired over soon after and, with extra-time failing to separate the sides, it came down to spot-kicks.
Ederson saved from Luka Modric but Bernardo Silva’s attempted Panenka was too easy for Andriy Lunin, who also denied Mateo Kovavic as Real went through.
The Premier League leaders now have little time to pick themselves up before heading to Wembley for an FA Cup semi-final with Chelsea on Saturday.
Rodri said: “We will have to digest the loss but we will have to wake up, stand up. We still have two more competitions to play for.
“We need the mentality (to be) positive, to find any ambition that right now is difficult to find. Tomorrow we will find it and go against Chelsea, try to be in another final and fight for the Premier League.”
City will need to assess key pair Haaland and De Bruyne who, along with Manuel Akanji, were substituted before the penalty shoot-out.
Haaland was removed at the end of the regulation 90 minutes with the influential De Bruyne leaving the action in the second period of extra-time.
Manager Pep Guardiola said: “Erling and Kevin asked me to go out – they could not continue, like Manu. The game we were playing, they were amazing, but they could not continue.”
Q&A – How Man City and Arsenal exits could impact Premier League’s European race
The prospect of five English clubs competing in next season’s Champions League is hanging by a thread after Manchester City and Arsenal were knocked out of the continent’s premier club competition on Wednesday night.
Here, the PA news agency explains the situation.
Why is there an extra place?
From this season, the two countries who collectively perform best in this season’s men’s European club competitions will each gain a European Performance Spot (EPS) for one of their clubs in the following season’s Champions League, which will feature a 36-team league phase from 2024-25 replacing the familiar eight groups of four.
For each of the best-performing countries, the EPS goes to the highest-finishing club in those countries who have not already qualified for the Champions League via their domestic performance. In England’s case, that would be the team finishing fifth – currently Tottenham.
How do the rankings look at the moment?
The rankings – known as the association club coefficient – are led this season by Italy. Germany were already ahead of England in the race for the second spot heading into the quarter-final second legs, but the exits of City and Arsenal – coupled with Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund making progress – have widened the gap.
Last Friday – after the Europa League and Conference League first legs had been played – Germany had 16.785 points compared to England’s 16.750, a gap of 0.035. On Thursday morning the gap had grown to 0.767, with Germany on 17.642 and England on 16.875.
How are the points worked out?
Teams gain points for wins (two) and draws (one) from the start of the group phase in all three of UEFA’s men’s club competitions. Teams also earn points for participation in the Champions League group phase and for making progress beyond certain rounds in all three competitions.
The association coefficient is calculated by working out an average score – dividing the total number of points the clubs win by the number of clubs representing that country in Europe. So in England’s case any points won by the Premier League representatives are divided by eight.
Can England still do it?
In theory yes. West Ham and Liverpool could still meet in the Europa League final if they can overturn first-leg deficits to Bayer Leverkusen and Atalanta respectively on Thursday night, and Aston Villa could still go all the way in the Conference League. That, coupled with the remaining German teams stumbling, means there is still very slim hope.
But Germany certainly have the edge and could even end up with six teams in next season’s Champions League. If Dortmund finish fifth in the Bundesliga but win the Champions League, it would be the second of those achievements which would secure them their Champions League place for 2024-25. The EPS would then be awarded to whoever finishes sixth – currently Eintracht Frankfurt.
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