Forget Pep, stats show I am the best

highest-scoring team for three seasons, to be always qualified for the Champions League and also win three trophies.”

City’s Premier League form has tailed off over the course of Pellegrini’s tenure: they picked up 89 points in his first season, when they were champions; 79 in his second campaign, when they were runners-up to Chelsea; and, if they win at Swansea, they will finish on 68 this season, most likely in fourth place.

Although they finished well behind champions Leicester after starting the season as title favourites, Pellegrini insists his final campaign has still been a success, though the club’s decision to confirm football’s worst-kept secret in February – that he was being replaced by Guardiola – did not help.

“Of course when you have that kind of news it’s impossible not to affect the team,” he said. “We lost three important league games after that.

“But it’s been a successful season for a lot of reasons. Firstly, because we won a trophy, secondly for the first time in the history of the club we reached the semi-finals of the Champions League, and thirdly because we have been in the Champions League qualifying places for 37 games. We deserve to be there after the last game.”

Three of the mainstays of Pellegrini’s reign – skipper Vincent Kompany, David Silva and Pablo Zabaleta – will miss his farewell game because of injury, but Yaya Toure is fit.