Arsenal spent 248 days at the top of the Premier League this season, yet there was never really a time when it felt like Manchester City were not the favourites to lift the trophy.
Pep Guardiola’s side claimed the crown for a third year in a row and the fifth in the last six years, once again putting together one of those relentless winning runs that gives an air of inevitability to their eventual success.
City have been in plenty of tight title races over the years. Twice they have pipped Liverpool by a single point, one of those occasions coming last year when Ilkay Gundogan’s late goals to come from behind against Aston Villa brought back memories of Sergio Aguero, QPR, and all that in 2012.
The winning moment!
— Manchester City (@ManCity)
There was nothing like that feeling of drama this time. City have finished the season with an five-point cushion over Arsenal, having won the title without kicking a ball with three games to spare when the Gunners lost 1-0 to relegation-battling Nottingham Forest.
Even when City were eight points behind at the end of March, most observers outside of north London foresaw Pep Guardiola’s men grinding down their rivals mentally and physically, and so it proved.
An unbeaten run that stretched to 25 games in all competitions before the final day defeat to Brentford had City fans believing the league title is just the first part of a treble which can be completed over the next two weeks.
It seems bizarre to think now that right up until the World Cup questions were being asked as to whether Erling Haaland, who finished the Premier League season with 36 goals from 35 league appearances, actually made Guardiola’s side worse as they sacrificed a midfielder to accommodate him.
Instead, the Norwegian has added a ruthlessness to City, a killer instinct to a side that can still pass you to death if they so wish, but who can now also shift the ball from their own box to the back of the opposition’s net in the space of a few seconds.
