{"id":435692,"date":"2026-05-19T22:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T22:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/435692\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T22:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T22:20:10","slug":"arsenal-crowned-epl-champions-for-first-time-in-22-years-after-manchester-city-draw-with-bournemouth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/435692\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal crowned EPL champions for first time in 22 years after Manchester City draw with Bournemouth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, just 48 hours after completing a domestic cup double with victory over Chelsea in the FA Cup final, City were rocked by widespread reports that manager Pep Guardiola will depart after a decade in charge<\/a> at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Victory at Wembley on Sunday secured a 20th trophy of Guardiola\u2019s glorious reign.<\/p>\n

But he cannot add to his six Premier League titles when Aston Villa visit the Etihad next week for what is expected to be his final match in charge.<\/p>\n

Guardiola had warned that fatigue could cost City against a highly motivated Bournemouth, who still have Champions League qualification in their sights for next season.<\/p>\n

As it stands, Bournemouth will be in the Europa League after ensuring they will finish no lower than seventh.<\/p>\n

Sixth could be good enough for a place in the Champions League if Aston Villa finish fifth and win the Europa League final.<\/p>\n

City fans forlornly chanted \u201cOne more year, Guardiola\u201d in the early stages at the Vitality Stadium in a bid to convince their decorated coach to see out the final season of his contract.<\/p>\n

But if the travelling fans hoped City\u2019s players would be inspired to give Guardiola a glorious goodbye, they were left sorely disappointed.<\/p>\n

Antoine Semenyo had the ball in the net on his return to Bournemouth but was flagged offside in City\u2019s best moment of a flat first half.<\/p>\n

The home side suddenly sprang to life to open the scoring in the 39th minute.<\/p>\n

Eli Junior Kroupi curled a brilliant strike into the top corner to set a new record of 13 goals in a debut Premier League season for a teenager.<\/p>\n

Nico O\u2019Reilly wasted City\u2019s best chance of a lifeline when he was denied by Djordje Petrovic just seconds into the second half.<\/p>\n

Guardiola watched on pensively as his side\u2019s title challenge fizzled out with a whimper.<\/p>\n

After winning what was billed a title decider against Arsenal last month, City put the destiny of the title back in their rivals\u2019 hands by drawing 3-3 at Everton.<\/p>\n

Guardiola looks set to depart having failed to win the league for two consecutive seasons for the first time in his coaching career.<\/p>\n

Rayan and David Brooks hit the post as Bournemouth should have secured victory in Andoni Iraola\u2019s final home game in charge.<\/p>\n

Erling Haaland\u2019s equaliser deep into stoppage time came too little, too late to save City\u2019s title challenge.<\/p>\n

But it was a big goal for Liverpool, who now have a three-point cushion over Bournemouth and a goal difference advantage of six heading into the final day battle to secure a top-five finish and Champions League football.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yesterday, just 48 hours after completing a domestic cup double with victory over Chelsea in the FA Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4727,222983,74,6030,49537,23259,31100,2199,13114,40671,8532,156507,1888,2082,305,14236,78,14731,17774,111,139,69,14730,213,165,2044,5273,3608,102,1530],"class_list":["post-435692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-4727","tag-22year","tag-after","tag-again","tag-arsenal","tag-bournemouth","tag-champions","tag-city","tag-crowned","tag-draw","tag-ended","tag-epl","tag-first","tag-for","tag-have","tag-held","tag-in","tag-league","tag-manchester","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-premier","tag-sports","tag-their","tag-time","tag-wait","tag-were","tag-with","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}