Pep Guardiola: The Only 4 Managers to End a Season Above The Spaniard

• Arsenal ended the season two points behind eventual title winners, Manchester City
• This was the second successive season Pep Guardiola pipped Mikel Arteta to the top
• Only four managers have ever managed to end the season ahead of the Man City boss

Arsenal’s shortcomings in the 2023/2024 title race came with a brutal stat for Mikel Arteta.

The Spaniard and his wards had another stellar campaign, which ended in disappointment after they fell two points short of Manchester City in the gruelling title race.

With a fourth successive Premier League title, Pep Guardiola asserted his dominance in English football, making history as the first manager to achieve this feat in the English top flight.

He also added another little-known stat to his name, which came at the expense of his protégé Arteta, according to the Premier League website.

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Credit needs to be given to the Arsenal manager, whose side improved tremendously from last season, where they ended the season with 84 points, five behind the Citizens.

Since taking charge of the Gunners on December 20, 2019, Arteta has slowly improved them from a team that was struggling to qualify for Europe to genuine title contenders.

However, despite all the strides he has made as a manager, a haunting statistic still lingers: he has never bettered Guardiola in terms of Premier League finishes.

Here is a breakdown of where Arsenal ended the season in comparison to Guardiola’s Manchester City since Arteta took charge of the Gunners:

This brutal stat makes Arteta only one of the tens of top football managers who have tried to get the better of Guardiola, with no success.

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The Arsenal boss should not kick himself too hard, however, as only four managers in history have finished the season ahead of Pep Guardiola.

Only 4 managers to finish EPL season ahead of Pep

Jose Mourinho: 2011/2012

The Special One lived up to his self-styled nickname in the 2011/2012 season when his Real Madrid side won the La Liga title at the expense of Guardiola’s Barcelona.

The Portuguese icon arrived in Madrid in 2010, tasked with knocking a dominant Barca off their perch. It took him two seasons, but he eventually beat the Spaniard to the title as the iconic rivalry between the managers persisted.

Barcelona ended the season nine points behind Mourinho’s Real Madrid, despite Lionel Messi getting a staggering 50 league goals that season.

Antonio Conte: 2016/2017

After delivering a third successive Bundesliga title, Guardiola moved from Bayern Munich to the Premier League in 2016.

According to Transfermarkt, his first season at Manchester City was a classic ‘baptism by fire’ as his side ended the season in third place, with Antonio Conte’s Chelsea claiming the title.

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This marked Guardiola’s first season as a manager where he ended the campaign without silverware.

Mauricio Pochettino: 2016/2017

Still, in the 2016/2017 Premier League season, Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur ended the season in second place with 86 points, eight ahead of the Citizens.

Despite the Argentine’s star-studded Spurs team failing to clinch the title, he achieved the unique feat of ending the season ahead of Guardiola.

This was the only time the Spaniard finished the season outside the top two in his managerial career.

Jurgen Klopp: 2019/2020

This list would not be complete without the most successful Liverpool manager in the Premier League era.

The German delivered Liverpool’s first Premier League title in nearly three decades in the 2019/2020 season by convincingly beating Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City by an 18-point margin.

4 managers who won PL, FA and League Cup

Sports Brief also reported on the managers who claimed all English titles: the Premier League, the FA Cup, and the League Cup.

Only four managers have managed this feat in Premier League history, with Guardiola and Klopp among the elite managers.