Leader of the Premier League for a good part of the season, Arsenal ended up offering the title of champion of England to Manchester City. The Gunners, who dreamed of a first coronation since 2004, were beaten on Saturday May 20 on the lawn of Nottingham Forest (0-1). While they have one game left to play in this 2022-2023 season, they can no longer fall behind the Citizens by four points.
Pep Guardiola’s team will therefore be able to celebrate their title on Saturday evening when Manchester City must face Chelsea at home on Sunday May 21. Already qualified for the Champions League final after a resounding success against Real Madrid on Wednesday in the semi-final second leg (4-0), the Citizens will certainly remember this week for a long time, which they therefore end with a third coronation. in a row in the Premier League.
In recent weeks, thanks to a frantic pace in the league – City have won eleven in a row in the Premier League since February – the Mancunians had put pressure on Arsenal. The Gunners, leaders from the 3rd to the 34th day, gave in by first dropping a few points before sinking against Brighton (0-3) last week and Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
In search of a historic treble
Manchester City’s victory against Arsenal on April 26 (4-1) seemed to confirm the trend and the cross dynamics between the two teams. At the end of the season, Pep Guardiola’s armada was far too strong for the Gunners to resist. Manchester City have three more games to play and, if the Citizens approach them seriously, they could finish this exercise with 94 points.
It wouldn’t be as good as in 2017-2018 (100 points) and 2018-2019 (98 points), because the Mancunian team slowed down slightly on the return from the World Cup, but that will not take away the fact that Manchester City is once again having an exceptional season. Guardiola’s team thus won a third consecutive title, something no team had managed to do since Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United between 2007 and 2009.
Despite the title already won, the season is far from over for Manchester City. First, we said it, because the Citizens still have three games to play in the league, against Chelsea on Sunday, then against Brighton and Brentford. But also and above all because the club is still on the way to the Premier League-FA Cup-Champions League treble, which only one English club has achieved: Ferguson’s Manchester United in 1999.
In the Cup, Manchester City will face their Mancunian rival on June 3 at Wembley (London). Before, a week later, to find Inter Milan in the final of the Champions League, in Istanbul (Turkey). Two meetings that City will approach as huge favourites, given their current performance.
“Now players can visualize it. We have one game left to win in each competition. We’re close to doing it, and we’ll try, but let me win the first two first…”, whispered Guardiola at a press conference on Wednesday after the victory against Real. City only have to win two to achieve this famous hat-trick. But before these last two deadlines so important for the Spanish coach and the whole club, the Citizens will be able to celebrate their title, Sunday, at home against Chelsea.