Man City and Liverpool get final say as Premier League rivals sack manager after one win in five

Manchester City’s 4-1 victory over West Ham United on Saturday afternoon appears to have been the final straw for Julen Lopetegui, with widespread reports the Spaniard has been sacked.

The Irons have cancelled a planned press conference that was due to be held on Wednesday afternoon, with ex-Chelsea and Brighton boss Graham Potter the leading contender to take over at the London Stadium. Lopetegui eased the pressure on himself with a 2-1 home win over Wolves at the start of December but since that game they have only beaten Southampton while drawing with Bournemouth and Brighton.

In their last two games, they have been hammered 5-0 at home to Liverpool before their convincing defeat at the Etihad Stadium last weekend. There were indications that Lopetegui would be given the chance to save his job in Friday’s third-round FA Cup clash at Aston Villa but that is no longer the case. The board at the London Stadium did not expect a huge points haul against Liverpool and City, but an aggregate score of 9-1 has led to the decision to sack him.

Pep has ‘a lot of respect’ for Lopetegui

Ahead of Saturday’s Premier League win, Guardiola expressed his respect for his fellow Spaniard. He said: "I have a lot of respect for Julen Lopetegui, I know him quite well and the quality of the players are there. But in this period, we are incredibly focussed on us.”

Guardiola has previously revealed his friendship with the former Spain head coach, as he said back in 2018 when the Spaniard was sacked by Real Madrid: "I would like to call him in the next days. I'm so disappointed, but I know what football is. I'm sorry for Julen because he's a friend of mine, he's an exceptional person. We played together at Barcelona, and have an amazing relationship.

"But, it is what it is football. Nobody can escape that. When you have bad results you will not continue in places like Barcelona, Madrid. You win matches in a row, or you won't have the chance to continue. In football and life you will have another chance. And Julen will find another chance, another place and he will show again his value, like he did in Porto and the Spanish national team.”

Managers react to Man City 4-1 West Ham

After Saturday’s win, Guardiola said: We saw in many years our level and we are not at our level. We won, I am so happy and it helps us. But you judge results, (when) our performance was not good. I’m so happy for the guys, and the work ethic, but in the first minutes deserved to be 0-1, 0-2 and we were lucky with the first goal. We are a strong team (when) we run a lot and have the composure, but now we don’t have it. I’m very pleased for the result but you cannot ask me if the old City is back. If you saw the game, we are not. You saw many times during the years what we have done with the opponents.”

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Lopetegui reacted: “It is not easy to explain the match. We deserved more in my opinion. A lot of little details worked against us. Not only did we not take advantage of two clear situations – we have to do better – but after they scored one goal we were very unlucky. We had a very clear situation with Summerville on (Manuel) Akanji. It was not a foul but the referee said foul. It was an unfair situation. We did very good things and positive things, but in the end it was not enough.”