With echoes of 2012, and both raucousness and relief, Manchester City celebrate an eighth English title.
A day that for so long looked like it would bring the most anguished frustration so suddenly became a scene of celebration. It didn’t go as late as that day against Queens Park Rangers, but it did have the same 3-2 final score, from even more a flurry.
On 69 minutes, Philippe Coutinho scored to make it 2-0 to Aston Villa, as Pep Guardiola looked to Ilkay Gundogan rather than Jack Grealish to come on. On 76 minutes, the German had hit his first. By 81 minutes, he’d hit a second and City’s third, to swing the title back to Manchester again.
Aston Villa, who had tried to do their part, couldn’t do enough.
Three goals in five minutes gave Guardiola a fourth title in five years at City. It also meant the club coincidentally pulled clear of Villa’s seven historic titles, to go fifth on their own in the all-time rankings.
That will add an extra bit of satisfaction to a day of so much edge – the home fans similarly singing the Steven Gerrard ‘Demba Ba song’ – since the travelling supporters had been goading City fans with inflatable European Cups to remind them they had actually won the competition.
Guardiola has saved the season in that regard.
It wasn’t what it might have been, but was the core objective of another title, and the Catalan will know that four titles in five years looks a lot better than what would have been three in six.
That is real domination, as City hit a huge 93 points, to properly reflect their status as the most lavishly funded sporting project in history.
That, and all the questions over sportswashing, should not be overlooked amid the euphoria of victory. It was just similarly impossible to escape the pure sporting drama.
City side did what everyone expected although in the most unpredictable and histrionic way. They did offer a final day for the ages.
The element that really elevates the drama of such afternoons – or makes it excruciating, depending on your perspective – is just how visibly and drastically the psychology swings on key moments. There can’t be a day in football, in terms of what happens on the actual pitch, that is more about the emotional responses of the players.
It is a day of suddenly shifting mood, the feel of a stadium going with the action.
Take what happened in the 24th minute here. At the exact same moment as Sadio Mane was equalising for Liverpool, Phil Foden was putting the ball narrowly wide of stand-in Martin Olsen’s goal.
it felt like it should have happened in split screen, and certainly split the first half in terms of impetus.
Gundogan scored twice in a stunning conclusion to the game
Up until then, there had been a wind behind City. They’d come out in rousing fashion, and to a raucous atmosphere. That was only further charged by the news quickly coming through that Neto had opened the scoring for Wolves at Anfield, and the energy of it all seemed to be getting to a hugely indecisive-looking Olsen.
He didn’t know whether to come or go, and often got it wrong. Olsen looked there to be tested, but that was the thing.
The longer City went without a proper chance, the more it was their crowd who were tested, with that starting to transmit to the pitch.
That Foden shot was a case in point. Going wide rather than bringing anything out of Olsen, it saw the goalkeeper become more composed, while Guardiola and his players became more agitated.
Coutinho doubled Villa’s lead to help his former club
