What a strange set of emotions Manchester City fans, players and staff will wake up with on Sunday morning.
Those back in Manchester will be gearing up for a bus-top parade around the city, an opportunity to celebrate the magnificent achievement of winning four Premier League titles in a row, a feat that was enjoyed long into the night just six days ago.
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And yet there is the sickening feeling of not just losing a final, but one that was a Manchester derby. Of not just losing a Manchester derby, but a final. There is no escaping that gut-wrench, especially against this Manchester United team, one of which so little was expected on the day by so many.
This is why Pep Guardiola did not want a parade this weekend; in case City lost this FA Cup final. He wanted a mini one last Sunday, after full time at home against West Ham, with the players supposed to take their league trophy from the Etihad Stadium to the Mayfield Depot down the road — scene of a few big City parties over the years.
And that was going to happen until the middle of last week, when logistical complaints put paid to it. In the end, the parade plans were confirmed on Monday. The show will go on.
Guardiola and his players, then, will have to pick themselves up. They kept their runners-up medals on as they watched United lift the FA Cup today and the manager addressed each and every one of them as they waited.
“(I said) ‘Come on’. We talked and hugged each other and said that now we are sad but we celebrate the incredible achievement we have done and then come back, it’s as simple as that,” he explained. “In football and life, you win and lose. It’s the way that we lose — it’s what we have to do. In the second half, we didn’t give up.”
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Perhaps it was that unusual blend of emotions that cost City in the end, too, even if Guardiola blamed his own decisions. “I think my game plan in the first half was not good,” he said, explaining that he had one too many players at the back, leaving the team short on the edge of the United penalty area.
He did say that, even with that in mind, City got to the byline a few times and created like they often do. And that would have been fine, had they kept the back door closed. The problem was that they did not, and the main cause was a simple mistake.
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They happen in football and, on Saturday, they happened to two stars of City’s title run-in.
Stefan Ortega basically secured the Premier League trophy with his save to deny Son Heung-min at 1-0 late in the penultimate league match against Tottenham Hotspur, but this time he came racing out, without announcing himself, meaning that Josko Gvardiol presented Alejandro Garnacho with an open goal to make it 1-0.
City’s reactions to that moment were decisive. They were rattled, and the evidence was in how quickly they tried to put things right. They rushed passes and their attempts to win the ball back, only succeeding in presenting more space for United to break into.
That is how the second goal happened: as City attacked, crashing the box in search of an equaliser, they were too hasty. Guardiola wants his teams to be compact with and without the ball, ensuring that their lines are close together as they advance up the pitch, so that if an attack does falter, they have enough men in position to win possession back.
This time, they had players strung out across the United half, nobody in position to immediately challenge for the loose ball, and Erik ten Hag’s men exploited that brilliantly on the break. Bruno Fernandes’ vision and Kyle Walker’s slow reaction were especially pivotal.
Some have suggested that City’s title celebrations lasting into Monday morning might have caused early sluggishness, although they did the same last year, celebrating their FA Cup final victory heavily a week before winning the Champions League one.
“No, completely the opposite,” Guardiola said, dismissing the idea. “They were focused, and how we reacted in the second half was really good.”
This match may be painted as a Ten Hag tactical masterclass and he will take a lot of pride in the victory if it does indeed prove to be his last match as United manager, but it was not hugely different to previous derbies.
United sat back in numbers and broke very well, which suits them and is no criticism. Think of Marcus Rashford’s early opener at the Etihad Stadium in March; they do that very well, and it is what Guardiola wants his team to be wary of every time they play United, no matter how much the neighbours may be struggling otherwise.
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Maybe that is why the City manager went with a safer approach from the start at Wembley. He wasted no time in changing that at half-time, bringing on Jeremy Doku for Mateo Kovacic, immediately giving his side that extra body. He also introduced Manuel Akanji, who was unlucky not to start in the first place, for Nathan Ake, and then Julian Alvarez 11 minutes later.
Alvarez came on for Kevin De Bruyne, who was extremely wasteful, but it might be the Argentinian’s cameo that helps explain the difference between this match and, say, the last three meetings between the teams, even including last year’s FA Cup final.
In the two previous derbies this season, which City won, there were periods where United’s deep defending frustrated them, just as it did here.
In March, Phil Foden crashed in a 56th-minute equaliser just as it looked like City might be running out of ideas. At Old Trafford in October, City won a penalty just before the half-hour. At Wembley last year, Ilkay Gundogan made it 1-0 after 12 seconds, changing the game immediately, and then at the start of the second half he made it 2-1, staving off any United comeback.
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On Saturday, Alvarez missed a huge chance just as the City onslaught was ramping up. In the past, they have enjoyed momentum-shifting moments. This time, it swung the other way.
The story of the day for City, then, was that they erred in the big moments, and too many of their players will have regrets about their contributions — a rare feeling.
And yet they will be shoved onto a bus tomorrow to revel in all the good stuff they have done across the course of another impressive campaign.
The fact that Guardiola had to be asked if this defeat takes the shine off things says a lot.
“The feeling when you lose the final is that you are disappointed,” he said, “but we celebrated good this week the journey in the Premier League. If we won 91 points, it is because we won a lot of points and the journey was really, really good.
“But it’s what I said, we have to be so proud and celebrate what we have done.”
(Top photo: Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)
