The serial-winning Catalan does not lose very often, but has still endured a number of harrowing days as a manager that he'd much rather forget
Before this season, Pep Guardiola might never have heard the chant 'You're getting sacked in the morning', but lately he has become very-well acquainted with it.
The Manchester City boss did not enjoy hearing it earlier in the season at Anfield, when he responded with a six-finger salute to signify the amount of Premier League titles he has won. But during Sunday's humiliating defeat at Arsenal, the manager kept his fingers to himself – and with good reason. The Gunners' fans and players would likely have responded by showing him their hands and all five fingers, one for each goal the Gunners had put past his frazzled side.
It was only the second time in his entire managerial career that a Guardiola team had conceded five goals, and the first occasion that they had done so in a stadium with fans in it. The Catalan brushed off the rare scoreline by declaring, "it can happen to me too, I'm not unique".
A sign of Guardiola's brilliance has been the fact that his sides so rarely lose at all, let alone by heavy scorelines, even if, as he admitted, such large beatings are becoming increasingly more common for him amid City's disastrous title defence.
GOAL, then, takes a look at the most humiliating of all Guardiola's defeats as a coach, spanning his periods in charge of Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City:
Getty 6Barcelona 3-0 Bayern Munich (May 2015)
This was Guardiola's first game back at Camp Nou in the opposing dugout, as he came up against former team-mate and friend Luis Enrique. His Bayern side went into the game reeling from a deep injury crisis, and Robert Lewandowski had to wear a face mask after recently injuring his nose.
Facing a Barcelona attack of Messi, Suarez and Neymar that was firing on all cylinders, Guardiola decided to go against his usual tendencies by trying to keep it tight and make it back to Munich with the Champions League semi-final still alive. The plan was going well, too, until Messi broke the deadlock in the 78th minute. That opened the floodgates, and moments later the Argentine span around Jerome Boateng and left him on his backside to score the second, before Neymar added the third deep in added time.
It left Bayern with an unsurmountable deficit for the second leg, and although they regained some credibility by winning 3-2, Barca advanced to the final, where they beat Juventus to complete the treble, Luis Enrique emulating Guardiola's achievement from six years earlier.
AdvertisementGetty5Barcelona 4-0 Man City (October 2016)
Guardiola's first Champions League campaign at City threw up what should have been an emotional return to his former club, yet it was far from a happy occasion.
In the pre-match press conference, the coach went on a rant against Barca's then-president Josep Maria Bartomeu after being accused of trying to sign Messi for City. He then sprung a surprise before kick off by sensationally leaving Sergio Aguero out of his line-up, and things started to go wrong as soon as the game kicked off.
Messi gave Barca a first-half lead after Fernandinho fell over in the penalty area, before Claudio Bravo, who had signed from Barca the previous summer, was sent off for handling outside the area after giving the ball straight to Suarez. Barca took full advantage of the 10 men, as Messi completed his hat-trick before Neymar rounded off a sorry evening for the former Blaugrana captain and legendary coach.
Getty Images Sport4Man City 0-4 Tottenham (November 2024)
The wheels were just starting to come off City's season after four defeats in a row in all competitions, but there was hope that the team would be able to regroup after the November international break and find their feet. Guardiola had also raised morale around the club by agreeing a new contract days before the visit of Tottenham.
And yet he must have been looking for escape clauses as he watched his side be cut down by Spurs. Birthday-boy James Maddison struck twice – with the help of shoddy City defending – to put the visitors in dreamland in the first half, and they never looked back. Pedro Porro added a third after half-time, and when Timo Werner savaged Kyle Walker to lay on the fourth goal for Brennan Johnson, Guardiola's heaviest-ever home defeat as a manager was confirmed.
Getty Images Sport3Liverpool 3-0 Man City (April 2018)
This was the season in which the brilliant rivalry between Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, which would go onto define a half-decade of English football, truly began. Liverpool had earlier become the first team to beat City all season in their formidable charge towards the Premier League title, winning an epic game at Anfield 4-3. Neutrals were therefore delighted when the two teams were paired together in the Champions League quarter-final, with the first leg taking place on Merseyside.
City's bus was besieged before kick off amid a scorching Anfield atmosphere, and the Reds blew their visitors away on the pitch too, as Mohamed Salah, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sadio Mane all netted inside the opening 31 minutes. Guardiola looked on in disbelief as his side had no response for the remaining hour or so, or in the second leg at the Etihad Stadium, which they lost 2-1 despite playing far better.