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De Bruyne relief for City after Pep pays for ill-judged gamble

Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne lifted from the ground after picking up an ankle injury during Saturday's FA Cup semi-final defeat to Chelsea at Wembley. Photo: Ian Walton/PA Expand

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Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne lifted from the ground after picking up an ankle injury during Saturday's FA Cup semi-final defeat to Chelsea at Wembley. Photo: Ian Walton/PA

Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne lifted from the ground after picking up an ankle injury during Saturday's FA Cup semi-final defeat to Chelsea at Wembley. Photo: Ian Walton/PA

Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne lifted from the ground after picking up an ankle injury during Saturday's FA Cup semi-final defeat to Chelsea at Wembley. Photo: Ian Walton/PA

Jim White, Mike McGrath and James Ducker

An initial assessment on Kevin De Bruyne’s ankle injury has shown no significant damage, and has raised hopes of him playing in Manchester City’s run-in.

De Bruyne was substituted just three minutes into the second half of City’s 1-0 FA Cup semi-final defeat to Chelsea on Saturday that ended their dream of an unprecedented quadruple. The 29-year-old suffered severe swelling to his right ankle, which twisted after he got his boot caught momentarily in the turf. There were fears of ligament damage, but it is thought the injury is not long-term.

His injury will continue to be assessed as the swelling goes down. He may have been rested for Aston Villa in the Premier League on Wednesday regardless, and it will be determined in the next days whether he has a chance for Sunday’s Carabao Cup final. De Bruyne was caught slamming a wall in frustration by the tunnel camera at Wembley as he returned to the dressing room.

Guardiola’s post-match analysis of why his side lost included an intriguing observation: “With Phil (Foden) and (Ilkay) Gundogan we improved.” He could say that again.

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The arrival of the two midfielders from the bench added a zest and sparkle to his team’s play that had been absent from a first half that largely consisted of sauntering up blind alleys.

True, even with the pair’s arrival City did not manage to break through Chelsea’s magnificently obdurate defence. But their quick-witted drive and application suggested that had they played for the whole game the dynamic would surely have been very different.

These, after all, are two of the most in-form players in the country.

Guardiola, however, has a plan. Throughout a truncated, concentrated season, he has studiously husbanded his resources.

He has a squad, rather than a team, and rotation is a crucial component of his armoury. Faced with a challenge on four fronts, it is a policy which results suggest has worked well. Or at least it has up to now. But as every competition reaches its business end, and the opposition become inevitably more significant, a system which presupposes that all 25 members of the first-team squad are of equal merit is tested to its limit. And, maybe, beyond it.

Guardiola made eight changes to the side who, by beating Borussia Dortmund, had taken City to the Champions League semi-final for the first time under his stewardship. Here he was boldly challenging the oldest of managerial

maxims: never change a winning team. Yet when he was asked whether the tinkering signified that he did not address the FA Cup with appropriate attention, he bristled, accusing the reporter of being wise after the event.

“Say before the game, say Pep doesn’t pay attention,” he said. “Say before, but don’t say after because we lose a game. These guys for 10 months, 11 months fight every game, like never before I’ve seen. (Then) we lose a game against a top side, and now we don’t pay attention or don’t care for this competition? We’re respectful of the FA Cup, we came here to win.”

But it was not mere post-rationalisation to suggest the risk of playing Ferran Torres and Raheem Sterling was sizeable. Few studying the team-sheets could understand why players so in form had been left out.

Together with Riyad Mahrez, who watched the entire game from the bench, Foden and Gundogan have been magnificent this season. To replace them with players, like Torres and Sterling, whose contribution latterly has been significantly less elevated, seemed contrary. Especially since Guardiola’s stated reason for changing his side – the midweek Aston Villa fixture – seemed bizarre.

The Premier League title is effectively won, so if his leading lights need careful management, give them a rest in that one. And the FA Cup semi-final was important. Because English football history insists that for serial trophy accumulation to be granted the definite article the FA Cup has to be won. Liverpool won a treble in 2001, not the Treble.

For Guardiola, it can now only be a matter of regret that, even if he wins the three other trophies, he cannot now add a historic multiple to his CV.

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