Heading into the 2022/23 Premier League season, Manchester City were widely seen as favourites to win the whole thing.
They’d just signed Erling Haaland, who we all knew was going to score goals at a ludicrous rate and fire City to even more silverware, but for the vast majority of the season, it did not look like things were heading in that direction.
However, with three games left to spare, City can sit back and celebrate their third successive title victory. Here’s how we got here.
Man City’s route to the Premier League title
City‘s acquisition of Haaland before the season got underway meant that, in the eyes of many, the title was already decided. City were the best team in England before they’d added this prolific behemoth up top, so how could they possibly lose?
Unsurprisingly, the goals started flowing in but the problem for City was at the other end of the pitch, where they were conceding goals at an alarming rate. They shipped three at Newcastle – something which we would later learn is not actually that bad – in the third game of the season and they couldn’t stop dropping points in the months surrounding the World Cup.
A 2-1 loss to Brentford on November 12 was soon followed by draws against relegation candidates Nottingham Forest and Everton and defeats to both Manchester United and Tottenham. While this form wasn’t exactly awful, it coincided with a rampant run of victories for a young Arsenal side who were relishing their status as the underdogs.
Mikel Arteta, the protegee of City boss Pep Guardiola, was overseeing a famous run to the top of the table which, as the Citizens started to falter, looked destined to lead to the unlikeliest of Premier League titles.
Some critics wasted little time in writing City off, but a tactical tweak from Guardiola, who introduced a 3-2-4-1 setup that took Tactics Twitter by storm, soon turned the tide as City won and won and won some more.
Looking like the kind of side most expected them to be, City ran riot and ramped the pressure right up on Arsenal, besting the Gunners 3-1 at the Emirates in February before eventually reclaiming top spot with a 4-1 victory in the return fixture two months later.
City simply did not slow down, but Arsenal’s momentum had already started to fade. They’d drawn three in a row before that second humbling, and a 3-0 loss to Brighton left City needing three points against a wounded Chelsea side to seal the title.
Guardiola wanted City to get the chance to seal immortality on home soil but, as it turned out, the Forest team who helped define so many of their problems early on actually came back to do City a favour as a 1-0 win over Arsenal on May 20 finally ensured the Gunners could no longer catch back up.
It’s a seventh title for City, a fifth for Guardiola and a third on the bounce for a City side who still have eyes on both the FA Cup and Champions League.
