Manchester City added a fifth Premier League trophy to its decade of dominance on Tuesday following Manchester United’s loss to Leicester City, which put Man City out of reach of its crosstown rival. Its unassailable lead stands at 10 points with three matches still to play, giving Man City a third title in the last four years.
All three of those have come under Pep Guardiola, who pulls level on league title trophies with Premier League managerial legends Arsène Wenger and José Mourinho. As a whole, City now has seven English top-flight titles, drawing the club level with Aston Villa for fifth-most all-time.
Manchester City has enjoyed unprecedented success under Guardiola, winning the last four League Cups while also securing the FA Cup in 2019. Last week, City scored its 700th goal of Guardiola’s tenure in just 288 matches.
However, City’s journey to a title took a different approach this season. After seven straight seasons with at least 15 goals from Sergio Agüero, City has only one player in the Premier League’s top-10 goalscorers—central midfielder Ilkay Gündogan is the club’s unlikely leading scorer with 12 league goals.
Yet City’s depth and squad balance proved to be the difference in a season that featured a short offseason due to last season’s shutdown and postponement. Despite the impact of the pandemic, City had its highest summer transfer bill ($195 million) since 2017, adding Rúben Dias, Ferran Torres and Nathan Ake to the squad while offloading former standouts Leroy Sane, Nicolás Otamendi and club legend David Silva.
The squad additions helped City to overcome a horrid start to the season that saw it as low as 13th in the table in late November. By March, the club had set an English record with 21 consecutive victories in all competitions, including 15 straight Premier League wins to catapult to the top of the table.
With Agüero’s imminent departure at the end of this season, the last remaining member of the club’s first Premier League-winning team in 2011–12 will ride into the sunset with five league titles, the most by a non-European player in league history.
However, City’s business is far from done this season. Despite being denied the chance at a historic quadruple by Chelsea in the FA Cup semifinals, Man City is closer than ever to its first Champions League title. The club will face Chelsea in the Champions League final on May 29.
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