Manchester City headed into the weekend knowing that a victory over Chelsea on Sunday would be enough to secure the title, but as it turned down, they didn’t even need to play to seal their triumph as Arsenal’s slip-up against Nottingham Forest on Saturday meant the Gunners could no longer climb back into top spot.
Manchester City, who still have three games left to play, will lift the Premier League trophy on Sunday.
Pep Guardiola has now won five Premier League titles since moving to England, while this is the seventh time that City have got their hands on the trophy.
Despite entering the season as favourites to win the title, City looked destined for a top-four battle for the vast majority of the first half of the campaign as Arsenal started to run riot.
The Gunners were top of the standings, albeit having played more games, up until the 32nd round of fixtures, when a 4-1 defeat at the hands of City changed the narrative of the title race and ultimately delivered a seventh title to the Etihad.
City are only the fifth club in the history of English football to win three top-flight titles in a row after Huddersfield Town (1924-1926), Arsenal (1933-1935), Liverpool (1982-1984) and Manchester United (1999-2001 & 2007-2009).
City will now start the 2023/24 campaign with the tantalising prospect of becoming the first in history to win the English top-flight four years in succession.
This success means there it is now 119 years between the Club’s first major trophy win (the 1904 FA Cup) and our last, which represents the second longest gap between wins in English football behind Liverpool’s 121 years (1901-2022).
Our season has been defined by the collective quality of the entire City squad, however, there have been several notable individual landmarks along the way.
Erling Haaland has scored the most goals in a single Premier League season with 36, surpassing the previous record of 34 when he scored in the win over West Ham United at the Etihad in May
The Norwegian became the quickest player to 20 Premier League goals ever, taking just 14 appearances to hit that figure.
Kevin De Bruyne became the quickest player to 100 Premier League assists in the April. He reached a century in just 237 games, 56 games faster than previous quickest Cesc Fabregas, who took 293 games.
“As a manager, I feel part of something,” said Guardiola before the weekend in an attempt to share the praise. “Not confused, I never think it belongs to me. I’m part of that, we cannot deny.
“Without the incredible decisions of the sporting director, board, the players are the most important thing. Being close to winning it again, in our hands, after last weekend, I’m really pleased.”
