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Last updated on .From the section Man City
Manchester City have been crowned Premier League champions for a third consecutive season after title rivals Arsenal lost at Nottingham Forest.
The Gunners, who have been top for most of the campaign, are four points behind City with just one game left after being beaten 1-0 on Saturday.
Pep Guardiola’s side have won the title in five of their past six campaigns.
They also have a chance to claim the Treble, with FA Cup and Champions League finals next month.
Manchester United only, in 1998-99, have achieved that feat before – and it’s their derby rivals that City will face at Wembley on June 3, before facing Inter Milan a week later in Istanbul as they chase a maiden Champions League win.
City will then lift the trophy they play Chelsea on Sunday (4pm BST).
Captain Ilkay Gundogan – who has scored four goals in the last two league games – said: “The Premier League is without a doubt the most demanding and competitive league in the world, so that says everything about what an achievement this is.
“To have won this trophy three times in a row and five times in six years is incredible. That quality and consistency help encapsulate what Manchester City are all about and ensure that the club will continue to strive for success in the future.”
“It’s been a season I’ll never forget.”
City, champions for the club’s ninth time in history, were eight points behind Arsenal on 7 April, although they had played a game less than leaders Mikel Arteta at the time.
It is only the fourth time after at least 28 Premier League games that a team is no less than eight points clear and fails to win the title.
Only one team has ever managed 69 points with 10 games left – as Arsenal did – and failed to win the title. That was Liverpool in 2018/19, as they finished on 97 points, one behind City.
But City have won 11 league games in a row – trailing just two points out of a total of 42 – to overhaul Arsenal and clinch the title with three games to go.
“Arsenal pushed us to the limit,” said fullback Kyle Walker. “They’ve been fantastic and given them all the credit but I think we’ve just had an incredible run and we’ve managed to finish where we are today. They’ve had a few hiccups and we’ve managed to capitalize on that.
“It’s the players we have. We’re a bunch of guys who have achieved so much over the years and we understand the standards we’ve set.”
City are only the fifth club to win three consecutive top-flight titles in England, after Huddersfield Town (1924-26), Arsenal (1933-35), Liverpool (1982-84) and Manchester United, who did it twice under Sir Alex Ferguson ( 1999-2001 and 2007-2009).
It is also the third time that Guardiola has managed to win three league titles in a row, following this in La Liga with Barcelona in 2009-11 and in the Bundesliga in 2014-16 with Bayern Munich.
City’s Premier League dominance of five titles in six seasons was last achieved by Manchester United between 1996 and 2001 – a period in which they also won the Treble of the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League.
United also won seven titles in nine seasons between 1993-2001; as well as five titles in seven seasons between 2007-2013 – so City’s current dominance is not unprecedented.
Before that, Liverpool had similar periods of league success in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Haaland’s firepower
City complete their league campaign with away games against Brighton and Brentford, before resuming their Treble bid.
Their push for that feat has been driven in part by Erling Haaland’s remarkable goalscoring record since the attacker joined from Borussia Dortmund last summer.
The 22-year-old Norwegian has scored 52 goals in 48 appearances in all competitions, including a record 36 goals in 33 Premier League appearances.
Haaland is only the second player in top-flight English history to score more than 50 times in all competitions – and the first to do so in 95 years.
He broke the Premier League record for goals in a season with his 35th at the start of March, giving Andy Cole and Alan Shearer – whose tally of 34 goals had been scored in a 42-match campaign – one ahead.
The title win comes three months later City were sued by the Premier League with more than 100 breaches of its financial rules after a four-year investigation. The charges cover the period 2009-2018, since its acquisition in 2008 by the Abu Dhabi United Group, led by billionaire Sheikh Mansour, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family.
They are accused of effectively falsifying their accounts and artificially inflating sponsorship and commercial deals over a number of years so they can spend more but remain within UEFA and Premier League rules.
City said they were “surprised by the allegations” but welcomed the “review of this case by an independent commission to consider their case impartially”, which City said was supported by an “extensive body of irrefutable evidence”.
City, who have always denied financial misconduct, said they “look forward to seeing this matter put to an end once and for all”.
The club has been referred to an independent committee, which can impose penalties ranging from a fine and points deduction to exclusion from the Premier League. It is not known how long the process will take.
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