Manchester City take on Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday with both clubs edging towards the end of disappointing campaigns.
Early hopes of title challenges faded out long before the final reckoning and City are still not assured of a place in the top four and Champions League football next season.
But the issues of both clubs run much deeper. The Blues have turned to Pep Guardiola to cure theirs, while the Gunners are at civil war over the future of Arsene Wenger.
Goal's correspondents have been bringing you the latest from their clubs all season, but how do they assess the problems on the other side of the fence?
City reporter Sam Lee gives his verdict on Wenger and the Arsenal board, while Gunners man Chris Wheatley has his say on how Manuel Pellegrini has been treated at the Etihad...
| TIME FOR CHANGE AT ARSENAL |
By Sam Lee | Manchester City correspondent
Manchester City and Arsenal have had very similar seasons, with both clubs starting their Premier League campaigns well but eventually disappointing their fans. In the Champions League, City benefited from finishing top of their group and faced Dynamo Kiev in the last 16 while the Gunners were handed Barcelona.
But even though City went on to reach a European semi-final, their domestic form has frustrated many supporters almost to the level of their Arsenal counterparts. If it were not already known that Manuel Pellegrini is leaving the club, fans may be putting him under the same pressure that Arsene Wenger is now dealing with.
City, though, have ruthlessly pursued Pep Guardiola and can be confident of a bright future. Arsenal cannot be so content.
Many of their fans may have been convinced that this year was finally going to be the year, but surely few outside the Emirates Stadium expected Wenger's men to win the title. The expectation that signing Petr Cech alone would fix the issues that afflicted the club not just last season but over the course of the last decade sums up Wenger's shortcomings.
The Frenchman and his team have been making the same mistakes for years, ensuring each season more or less follows the same pattern: Premier League hopes raised, Champions League failure, Premier League hopes dashed. The FA Cup, at least, has provided some relief, but the overall picture is one of underachievement.
City, with a number of expensive signings yet to find their feet, have demonstrated that lavishing money on the first-team squad is not always the answer but their boardroom approach is far more ambitious than that of Arsenal.
The north London club's wealthy owners seem seem happy merely to collect Premier League and Champions League revenue. City's are striving for domestic domination.
The Blues have certainly underperformed in the league this season and, going by their form against the top sides, could yet lose their 11th game of the campaign when the Gunners come to town.
Both squads need major upheavals this summer if they are to fulfil expectations, but Guardiola has been hard at work identifying a number of problems to be solved.
Are there any guarantees Wenger will similarly face up to the issues in his squad, or indeed in his own approach?
| PEP ANNOUNCEMENT STRIPPED PELLEGRINI POWER |
**By Chris Wheatley | Arsenal correspondent
**
Arsenal have edged Manchester City in the Premier League for much of the season but the Gunners should take a leaf out of the ruthless Sheikh Mansour’s book at board level.
When Txiki Begiristain was appointed director of football at Manchester City in 2012, the eventual arrival of Pep Guardiola became an inevitability. This summer, he’ll arrive in the north west of England having taken Bayern Munich to a Champions League semi-final and secured three consecutive league titles.
Guardiola may have failed to replicate Jupp Heynckes' success in Europe but his record is still incredible. He has become part of a select group of elite European coaches thanks to his charismatic persona, tactical genius and attractive footballing philosophy.
It has been a different story for Arsene Wenger this season, who has been lambasted by many for outdated tactics, a failure to buy an outfield player in the summer transfer window and persistently selecting underperforming players. But he has not, to his credit, succumbed under the pressure over recent weeks. Despite recent protests at the Emirates Stadium, the majority of fans continue to back him and could be heard singing his name during the game against Norwich City.
The Frenchman has received full backing from Arsenal’s board of directors, including majority shareholder Stan Kroenke. Even Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who holds a 30 per cent stake in the club, has offered his support to the manager despite previously criticising his failure to strengthen the squad. Wenger looks set to stay at least until his contract expires next summer.
In comparison, the treatment of Manuel Pellegrini at City has been brutal. The Chilean has had Guardiola's impending arrival hanging over him ever since the club's mid-season announcement and Wenger believes the "power" Pellegrini once had diminished as soon as the appointment was revealed.
"Once they took Txiki Begiristain you could see what was coming," Wenger said. "He has always known that in the back of his mind I think. It is difficult because you have less power when the players know you are moving out."
That’s where the clear difference between Arsenal and City is evident. One team is prepared to make a change in the best interests of the club, not the manager. Despite Pellegrini’s loyalty and commitment to his team, he has been pushed out and replaced by arguably one of the best managers in world football.
Arsenal have had opportunities to do something similar over the past couple of years, but Jurgen Klopp, Carlo Ancelotti and Guardiola are no longer available to them due to the board’s persistence and faith in Wenger.
Even if City fail to qualify for next season's Champions League, Guardiola's allure will ensure they attract the world's best players. Arsenal, meanwhile, could fall even further behind on the back of a season in which they should have won their first Premier League title in over a decade.
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