Pep Guardiola and Manchester City, reflecting on a tough season, return to Wembley for an FA Cup final against Crystal Palace a year after their defeat to Manchester United. What began as a tactical blunder has spiraled into a disappointing season, prompting Guardiola to reconsider the team's focus. Erling Haaland stresses the importance of finishing the current season strong and preparing for the next. Although Guardiola acknowledges that an FA Cup win won't salvage the season, he sees it as a potential springboard for improvement in the following campaign.
Guardiola has, in part, changed his mind about what went wrong against United a year ago. He has come to think, for the first time in City's reign, that maybe the focus wasn't quite there.
We haven't been there fighting in the Premier League or the Champions League, and that's not good enough for a club like City." - Erling Haaland
Guardiola has been clear that beating Palace won't save their season -- the bar has been set too high for that -- but maybe it can provide some momentum ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.
It was in north London 12 months ago, in a 2-1 defeat to Manchester United in the FA Cup final, that Guardiola saw the first small signs of potential trouble ahead.
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