Manchester City boss, Pep Guardiola, has confessed he was fortunate to keep his job after what he described as a “bad season” in 2024/25.

Guardiola, who led City to a flying start in the new Premier League campaign with a 4-0 win over Wolves, admitted his relationship with the club’s hierarchy saved him from dismissal last season.

“I’m really pleased to sit here after a bad season,” Guardiola told TNT Sports. “If I didn’t have my chairman and sporting director like I have, I would have been sacked, definitely. Because the results were really, really poor.”

Naija News reports that Manchester City disappointingly ended last season, finishing third in the Premier League, losing the FA Cup final to Crystal Palace, crashing out of the EFL Cup in the fourth round, and suffering a Champions League round-of-16 exit to Real Madrid.

Meanwhile, Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has revealed that the club’s attacking midfielder, Cole Palmer, was absent from the starting eleven in their 5-1 triumph at West Ham because the England international was not fully fit and felt discomfort during the warm-up.

“Cole, in the last four or five days, he was not 100 per cent,” Maresca explained. “Today, he tried in the warm-up, but he felt something, so we preferred not to take any risks. We will see in the next hours if it’s something important or not.”

In Palmer’s absence, 18-year-old Brazilian star Estevao Willian was handed a starting spot, while goals from Joao Pedro, Pedro Neto, Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, and Trevoh Chalobah ensured Chelsea overturned an early Lucas Paqueta strike to secure their first win of the season.

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