If Arsenal win the Premier League title in 2025-26 — and everything points that way — it will mark the first season in five that Manchester City have not won it. That is not a failure. It is a footnote in one of the most extraordinary chapters in English football history. Under Pep Guardiola, City have won six Premier League titles, an FA Cup, multiple League Cups, and in 2022-23, the Champions League as part of a historic Treble. The sustained level of quality over a nine-year period has been unprecedented in English football. The legacy question is worth addressing now precisely because the era may be entering its final phase. Guardiola has spoken about his contract, his energy, and his desire to keep pushing. But managers of his intensity rarely stay indefinitely. What he has left City is a blueprint: how to build a possession-based system, how to recruit intelligently, how to develop tactical ideas across multiple seasons. The Rodri-Bernardo Silva axis. The inverted full-back concept. The goalkeeper as midfielder. These ideas have changed how football is played in England. Sunday's game at Chelsea is not about legacy. It is about three points. But the broader context is worth acknowledging. 📅 Sun 12 Apr, 07:30 UTC | Stamford Bridge 🏆 GW30 | Guardiola's Place in History