The Premier League title race exploded into life last weekend as Aston Villa beat leaders Arsenal to narrow the gap at the top of the league table to just two points.
And who does Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta see in his rear view mirror? His former boss Pep Guardiola, Manchester City’s record breaking head coach.
Now 54, the Catalan master has won it all with a brilliant managerial career at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and in Manchester. His team had a rare season off in 2024/25 but the Sky Blues are clicking through the gears and are beginning to look like they are ready to open up the trophy cabinet again.
Guardiola is one of the best managers of all time with a glittering array of awards, as one of only two managers to win the continental treble (domestic league and cup and the Champions League) twice, latterly with the Sky Blues in 2023. Making his name as an elite manager at his beloved Barcelona, he holds the record for the most consecutive league games won in La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Premier League and, at Barca in 2009/10, he finished the season with a record six trophies.
He has been credited with an evolution in European football, with an emphasis on possession based football, dictating the pace of play, tiring out the opposition and pressing in the final third when opponents are in possession. And it’s worked pretty well. In nine seasons at Manchester City, Guardiola has won six Premier League titles, four EFL trophies, two FA Cups and a Champions League.
And he’s not quite finished yet.
The Challengers
There are plenty of coaches in the English top flight hoping to knock Pep off his perch, as Arne Slot at Liverpool did last year. And the prime candidate is Arsenal’s Arteta who has led the Gunners to three consecutive second placed finishes, and the SBOTOP Premier League 2026 betting odds say this could well be his year. Arteta has a deeper squad than previously and a rock solid defence…usually.
The former Arsenal player worked with Guardiola at Manchester City before joining the Gunners in 2019 and, while one FA Cup and two Community Shields is a modest return, his team is improving year on year. Now Arteta needs to win a big one.
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has already collected plenty of trophies in his managerial career and he has delivered European football to the Villans, as well as guiding them to third place in the current league table, and just three points behind leaders Arsenal after their impressive victory on Saturday. Emery, a master tactician and a talented motivator, made his name in the dugout at Sevilla where he delivered three consecutive Europa League titles before being snapped up by Paris Saint-Germain, where he won Ligue 1 and the Coupe de France. After an unsuccessful year with Arsenal, Emery returned to Spain where he won yet another Europa League title, this time with Villarreal. He said, after Saturday’s famous victory, that Villa are not title contenders and he may well be right, but they are the team to watch right now.
Crystal Palace won their first major trophy last May when they beat Manchester City in the FA Cup final and manager Oliver Glasner then guided them to a Community Shield win over Liverpool three months later. Take a look at the Premier League table now and you’ll see the Eagles flying high up in fourth place after they won their London Derby clash with Fulham on Sunday.
The Austrian boss won his first title at Eintracht Frankfurt, the German Eagles, where he picked up a Europa League win in 2022 and he has already been monitored by some of the English top flights’ so called ‘bigger clubs’. But whey would Glasner swap his trophy collecting club for one with less recent success and more pressure?
Enzo Maresca has one such job at Chelsea and, with a billion plus valued squad, he certainly is expected to deliver, though the Blues’ Premier League 2026 results have been inconsistent of late and they have dropped below Crystal Palace to fifth place. Much like Arteta, Maresca was tutored by the master Guardiola when he worked with him at the Etihad in 2022, and that earned him the top job at Leicester City where he won promotion from the Championship in 2024.
Chelsea came calling and Maresca answered, and he delivered some stability and two pieces of silverware in his first season. The 2025 Europa Conference League and the FIFA Club World Cup have been bagged and Maresca’s growing team looks capable of winning more…they just need to be more consistent.
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