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London, UK | THE INDEPENDENT | Manchester City have been crowned Premier League champions for the third year in succession. Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat away at Nottingham Forest means City now have an unassailable lead with three matches left to play.
It’s the fifth time in six season Man City have won the Premier League and represents the 12th major honour of Pep Guardiola’s time in charge of the Club – and they now have an opportunity to win a 13th when they face face Manchester United in the FA Cup final at Wembley on June 3.
That match will be followed by a UEFA Champions League final against Inter on June 10, the second time in three seasons Man City have appeared in the final of Europe’s elite knock-out competition.
In 35 matches so far this season, Man City have won 27 and scored 92 goals, collecting 85 points.
City are only the fifth club in the history of English football to win three top-flight titles in a row after Huddersfield Town (1924-1926), Arsenal (1933-1935), Liverpool (1982-1984) and Manchester United (1999-2001 & 2007-2009).
City will now start the 2023/24 campaign with the tantalising prospect of becoming the first in history to win the English top-flight four years in succession.
This success means there is now 119 years between the Club’s first major trophy win (the 1904 FA Cup) and their last, which represents the second longest gap between wins in English football behind Liverpool’s 121 years (1901-2022).
Man City’s season has been defined by the collective quality of the entire City squad, however, there have been several notable individual landmarks along the way.
Erling Haaland has scored the most goals in a single Premier League season with 36, surpassing the previous record of 34 when he scored in the win over West Ham United at the Etihad in May
The Norwegian became the quickest player to 20 Premier League goals ever, taking just 14 appearances to hit that figure.
Kevin De Bruyne became the quickest player to 100 Premier League assists in the April. He reached a century in just 237 games, 56 games faster than previous quickest Cesc Fabregas, who took 293 games.
City’s squad has met the demands of a unique campaign in which the players not only competed in 60 fixtures across four club competitions, but in which 16 of them also represented their respective countries at last winter’s FIFA World Cup.
And the first-team crown also concludes a hat-trick of accomplishments for City, whose Academy sides had already been named Premier League 2 and Under-18s Premier League champions. This is the third time in as many seasons that all three championships have been won by Manchester City.
“Everyone at Manchester City would like to send their congratulations to Pep, his backroom staff and all the players on yet another remarkable achievement for the football club.”
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SOURCE: Man City. com
