Manchester City handed major domestic treble blow as Premier League ignore fixture swap plea

The Blues face Crystal Palace (H) on Wednesday May 13 and travel to Bournemouth (A) on Tuesday May 19 as they look to go perfect between now and the end of the Premier League campaign.

However, as reported by Mirror Sport’s John Cross, the Premier League have ignored Manchester City’s request to interchange the above fixtures, meaning Guardiola’s side will play four times in the last 12 days of the season.

Executives at the Etihad Stadium must have entered the plea knowing it was a long shot to begin with, having dealt with gruelling fixture calendars over the course of Guardiola’s illustrious spell managing at the club.

What does this mean for Man City and Guardiola?

City have a fairly deep squad, certainly helped by their January signings of Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi and the recent returns of Nathan Ake and John Stones from injuries to strengthen their backline.

Rodri, Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol remain unfit but what is important to note is that Guardiola has a core group of starters – most of whom have started every game in the last month – who will also arguably play most of the remaining minutes of this term.

Tijjani Reijnders, Phil Foden, Savinho, Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez and Rico Lewis have hardly kicked a ball in 2026, with James Trafford benefitting from Manchester City’s successful runs in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup.

However, Guardiola will be managing workload and fatigue in the camp by making changes as and when he needs to, having admitted that his players were shattered after their 2-1 win over Arsenal – only to name a nearly unchanged lineup a few days later against Burnley at Turf Moor.