Manchester City have won the English Premier League title for the third season in a row after second-placed Arsenal were defeated 1-0.

City were confirmed as champions for the fifth time in six seasons on Saturday without even having to kick a ball.

Arsenal, who enjoyed an eight-point lead over City as recently as mid-March, needed at least a point to stay mathematically in the hunt, but went down 1-0 to Nottingham Forest.

City hold an unassailable four-point lead, with Arsenal having only one game remaining.

It is City’s seventh league crown since they were bought by Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan in 2008 and they are now just two wins away from completing a treble only previously achieved by Manchester United in 1999.

City will face Manchester United in the FA Cup final on June 3 and a week later take on Inter Milan in the Champions League final — starting as big favourites in both games.

While Arsenal have threatened to knock City off their perch this season, it all proved an illusion in the end as Pep Guardiola’s side again showed they were relentless in the run-in.

City’s latest title is the fifth in Guardiola’s seven years at the club and owes as much to the club’s end-of-season streak of 11 straight victories as it does to an implosion by Arsenal, just when a first league title since 2004 was in sight.

Arsenal led by eight points on April 1 but have since won only two of eight games.

A win at the City Ground likely would have delayed the inevitable but Nottingham Forest’s Taiwo Awoniyi’s 19th-minute goal brought an end to the title race with City still having three games to play.

The victory also ensured Nottingham Forest were safe from relegation in their first season back in the top flight since 1999.

Source: Al Jazeera 

BDST: 1133 HRS, MAY 21, 2023
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