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• Unai Emery toasts ‘champagne moment’ as Aston Villa book European adventure

  Unai Emery toasted Aston Villa’s “champagne moment” after they qualified for Europe for the first time since 2010.

  The manager has sparked a turnaround at Villa Park having been appointed in October, after the club sacked Steven Gerrard sitting three points above the relegation zone.

  Sunday’s 2-1 win over Brighton – who had already qualified for the Europa League – earned a Europa Conference League play-off spot after a seventh-placed finish in the Premier League.

  Douglas Luiz and Ollie Watkins scored to seal their return, despite Deniz Undav’s strike for Brighton.

  “Today is a champagne moment,” said Villa boss Emery.

  “When you are working and focusing week-to-week, you are not having a lot of days to celebrate something, 70 per cent of our time was spent working.

  “I want to celebrate with the club, players, friends, family and I want to enjoy what we have achieved.

  “It was not the first objective in this year, our progression has been fantastic. We did it and it’s very important to celebrate and be happy now, to enjoy the moment in our life.

  “We started thinking our progression was going well and some teams, they are not being consistent. When we won at Chelsea (a 2-0 win in April to move to ninth) we were with them and we were in 11th for a long time. It was the most difficult step going up.

  “When we were in the top 10 we started thinking about getting sixth or seventh. Brighton did a great season, they deserve to be in the Europa League.”

  Leon Bailey had already hit the bar before Luiz gave Villa an eight-minute lead, steering in Jacob Ramsey’s cross.

  Undav had a goal disallowed after Julio Enciso was offside in the build-up before Watkins scored his 15th of the season to make it 2-0, tapping in after Ramsey’s driving run.

  But Brighton hit back seven minutes before half-time when Undav collected Pascal Gross’ quick free-kick and finished past Emi Martinez – initially ruled offside before being overturned by VAR.

  Ramsey should have made it 3-1 after the break, only to lift over from five yards with the goal gaping, and Jason Steele saved Watkins’ header.

  Alexis Mac Allister drove wide but Brighton never tested Martinez as they finished their historic season with defeat.

  But the Seagulls have bettered last term’s finish of ninth to finish sixth – the highest in their history – to also reach Europe for the first time.

  At the end, a tearful Mac Allister, linked with Liverpool, left the pitch along with Caicedo for whom Brighton rejected a £70million offer from Arsenal in January and boss Roberto De Zerbi reiterated they could move on in the summer.

  He said: “It can be the last game of Alexis and Moises Caicedo. I’m really sorry because they are two great people and great players. But the policy of Brighton is like this.

  “It’s right they can leave, change team and play at a higher level. I don’t know but we are ready, we have to find other big players to play without Alexis and Moises.

  “I love them and they are two big, big players but when I speak about my players, they can play in a big European team. For Brighton, we can still improve.

  “We can bring other good players in and improve the same way. The Premier League will be tougher.

  “We had different motivation than Aston Villa, we played well, with honour, with respect for the Premier League, respect for ourselves, for our fans, our club.

  “Aston Villa deserved to qualify for the Conference League and we deserved to qualify for the Europa League.”

• Injury concerns for Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish ahead of FA Cup final

  Pep Guardiola admits he does not know if Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish will be fit for next weekend’s FA Cup final.

  Manchester City’s attacking duo, and defender Ruben Dias, missed the
  1-0 final-day defeat at Brentford through injury.

  The champions, who face Manchester United at Wembley on Saturday as they bid to complete the second leg of an historic Treble, were consigned to defeat by Ethan Pinnock’s late goal.

  With De Bruyne and Grealish missing completely and left on the bench, it was a scratch City side and those established stars who did play, like Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez, had little impact.

  But Guardiola said: “Congratulations to Brentford for the victory. It’s difficult to faze them, how quick they play, how aggressive they are in all departments.

  “I’m pretty sure we would have behaved a little bit different if we needed the points.

  “I don’t have any complaints of how we behaved, I said to the players just now ‘you won the title, enjoy two days with your families and then we will prepare for the first final’.

  “The guys who didn’t play who normally play were exhausted yesterday, mentally completely drained. They needed to rest to arrive with the right energy to face United.”

  When asked if the players who missed out would be fit for Wembley, Guardiola said: “I don’t know right now. Hopefully.

  “Ruben, Jack and Kevin couldn’t play. It is what it is. I think they will be ready but it’s hard to get ready in training. That’s why I had to see the players who played today.”

  Pinnock’s 85th-minute strike made Brentford the only team to do the double over City this season, and only the fifth since Guardiola took over in 2016.

  The Spaniard added: “They are the best team by far at set-pieces, they are exceptional. What Thomas Frank has done for years is amazing and the unity of his squad is there for all to see.

  “Hopefully we can do better and beat them like we did last season, so we have a target for next season already.”

  The Bees still needed a double save from goalkeeper David Raya to deny Cole Palmer at the death to end another impressive season on a high.

  They had a slim chance to qualify for the Europa Conference League, and although victories for Tottenham and Aston Villa ultimately scuppered that dream, they finished a creditable ninth.

  “Of course beating them twice means something, it means even more for the fans, they like that narrative and hopefully City win the Treble,” said Frank.

  “Ending ninth in the Premier League, getting 59 points – and maybe deserve to have even more – it’s incredible the journey we have been on.

  “What advice would I give United and Inter Milan? Well, I think we top performed in those two games.

  “They are the best offensive team in then world so you need to defend very well and we did, and we were very brave throughout the game. I loved that from my players.”

• Easy in the end for Manchester City – same again next season?

  Arsenal spent 248 days at the top of the Premier League this season, yet there was never really a time when it felt like Manchester City were not the favourites to lift the trophy.

  Pep Guardiola’s side claimed the crown for a third year in a row and the fifth in the last six years, once again putting together one of those relentless winning runs that gives an air of inevitability to their eventual success.

  City have been in plenty of tight title races over the years. Twice they have pipped Liverpool by a single point, one of those occasions coming last year when Ilkay Gundogan’s late goals to come from behind against Aston Villa brought back memories of Sergio Aguero, QPR, and all that in 2012.

  There was nothing like that feeling of drama this time. City have finished the season with an five-point cushion over Arsenal, having won the title without kicking a ball with three games to spare when the Gunners lost 1-0 to relegation-battling Nottingham Forest.

  Even when City were eight points behind at the end of March, most observers outside of north London foresaw Pep Guardiola’s men grinding down their rivals mentally and physically, and so it proved.

  An unbeaten run that stretched to 25 games in all competitions before the final day defeat to Brentford had City fans believing the league title is just the first part of a treble which can be completed over the next two weeks.

  It seems bizarre to think now that right up until the World Cup questions were being asked as to whether Erling Haaland, who finished the Premier League season with 36 goals from 35 league appearances, actually made Guardiola’s side worse as they sacrificed a midfielder to accommodate him.

  Instead, the Norwegian has added a ruthlessness to City, a killer instinct to a side that can still pass you to death if they so wish, but who can now also shift the ball from their own box to the back of the opposition’s net in the space of a few seconds.

   

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  And so City have become the first side to make it back-to-back-to-back titles since Manchester United between between 2006/07 and 2008/09. Can anybody stop them making it four in a row?

   

  Arsenal were not expected to be City’s primary challengers this season, but Mikel Arteta is well ahead of schedule in his project to make them contenders again. A lack of squad depth told in the end, but Arsenal built their challenge on a number of young talented players, and will surely come again.

  Behind that, Manchester United have shown improvement under Erik ten Hag and Newcastle have forced their way into the top four for the first time in 20 years.

  If Jurgen Klopp can get Liverpool’s midfield rebuild right this summer and Mauricio Pochettino can make sense of Chelsea’s undoubtedly talented but hugely unwieldy squad, next season promises an intense scrap for top four places.

  Yet it is hard to pick one of those sides and say with any real certainty they are on City’s level or all that close to it. The only cloud on City’s horizon is that of the 115 Premier League charges against them.

  Arsenal put together a superb first half of the season, on pace to match City’s Premier League record of 100 points at the midway point, but that only highlights the extent of their dip towards the end.

  Third-placed United have a trophy in the cabinet and the opportunity still to scupper City’s treble hopes in the FA Cup final, but Ten Hag’s men are  14 points adrift in the table, a gap that still feels like a chasm.

  Something radical needs to change this summer. Otherwise that old feeling of inevitability will quickly return.