Some things never change. Among such is a Manchester City victory in the English Premier League during the Pep Guardiola era. Yesterday at the Etihad, Manchester City defeated West Ham 3-1 to win the English Premier League title for the fourth time in a row.
Some romantics hoped that the Cityzens would slip up against West Ham to allow Arsenal win their first title in 20 years. But such dreams had no chance of becoming a reality once the players stepped on the pitch.
As former Liverpool and Manchester United great, Michael Owen, put it: ‘Once it gets to the run up to the title, don’t ever bet on Man City slipping up because they don’t know how to falter.”
And so was it yesterday, with English Premier League Player of the Season, Phil Folden, continuing his golden run with a brace to put the Hammers to the sword as Guardiola and Manchester City created football history.
Not in 135 years, and 124 seasons, of league football has a club ever won four straight titles – in fact, only six times times has a team, including this City side, ever won three in succession.
But victory over West Ham, which featured a mildly anxious few minutes after the visitors pulled a goal back, saw City do precisely that, winning the Premier League for the sixth time in the last seven years in the process and holding off an impressive Arsenal effort.
The win also cemented Guardiola’s status as, surely, the greatest manager in football history as he won a league title for the 12th time in his 15-year managerial career with Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City.
City dispelled all expectations by Arsenal fans just 78 seconds into the game with the opening goal, Folden the executioner of a move that featured Kyle Walker and Bernardo Silva.
It soon became 2-0 after 18 minutes with Folden, again, pulling the trigger left-footed from 12 yards. West Ham’s Mohammed Kudus gave the neutrals hope of a change in the narrative when he connected with a James Ward-Prowse corner in the 42nd minute to pull one back.
But all hopes of a gallant comeback were dampened by Rodri in the 59th minute when he restored City’s two-goal advantage off a pass by De Bruyne. Thereafter, every other thing became academic as City fans celebrated another milestone in their clubs’ history.
To Arsenal fans, it was a cruel end to the season as their team had done everything that was expected of a champion yet fell short of taking the title. The Gunners became the second team to secure 89 points, after Liverpool (97 points) in the 2017/18 season, without winning the title.
