23-04-2025
'Different types of big games for City - but still big games'
Winning the FA Cup this season would mean a lot to Pep Guardiola. He mentioned after the last round that it is now seven semi-finals in a row and those have come at times when they have been playing in the latter stages of the Champions league and fighting for league titles as stressed the importance of winning four Carabao Cups in a row too. The cup competitions have always mattered to would be huge if City get to the final and win it, not least because last time they lost a derby to Manchester United with a relatively poor would be huge for them to get the chance to redeem themselves, but also to finish a difficult season well. We saw how important that is in the scenes after Tuesday's win over Aston relatively speaking, big games for City in years gone have been in terms of winning the is a different end goal, but the outcome is still celebrated. If they had scored that goal in the last minute to climb to first place, the celebrations would have been the are used to playing in these big games and the cup competitions come alongside that. You just want to finish the season well. Whatever has come before that, a good end to a season leaves you feeling really positive for the next are different types of big games for City - but they are still big games. They still want to achieve their objectives - it is just that the objectives are slightly Villa win is a real momentum-builder and they have all celebrated together. Guardiola has spent a lot of this season making the point about how good this team has been in years gone by - like reaching seven FA Cup semi-finals in a teams have not reached seven in their whole history so he has been more defiant in how he speaks about his wants to make sure that people understand where he is coming from, where the club is coming from, how good they have been in years gone by, and how he still believes in the believe this era at City is coming to an end, but the manager believes in his team and, as a consequence, I think he is finding it easy to make sure the players believe in themselves as would mean more to you - winning the FA Cup and the glory of lifting a trophy, or qualifying for the Champions League?Let us know here
Nedum Onuoha was speaking to BBC Sport's Nat Hayward
