Manchester City on Sunday retained the English Premier League title in style, holding their nerve to come from behind and thrash Brighton & Hove Albion to hold off a charging Liverpool after a nail-biting campaign.
Pep Guardiola’s team won 4-1 at Brighton to finish with 98 points — the second-highest total in Premier League history — as Liverpool beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 at Anfield to finish a single, agonizing point adrift.
City, who strung together 14 league wins at the end of the season, are the first side to retain the title since their bitter rivals Manchester United managed the feat in 2008-2009 and they remain on course for the first domestic treble in English soccer history, but Guardiola’s team did not have it all their own way as they won a fourth English title in eight seasons and the sixth in the club’s history.
Photo: Reuters
A day of drama on England’s south coast was in keeping with an astonishing season in which the lead switched hands time after time.
Liverpool drew first blood on Sunday, with Sadio Mane striking in the 17th minute to put them mathematically top of the table and on course for their first English top-flight title since 1989-1990, before the Premier League era even started.
City fans’ nerves were shredded even further when Glenn Murray put Brighton in front from a corner in the 27th minute, drawing a huge roar at Anfield, but those cheers were quickly muted, with Guardiola’s side level just 83 seconds later, Sergio Aguero staying onside and keeping his cool to finish after a brilliant ball from David Silva.
Ten minutes later, the unmarked Aymeric Laporte rose to head in Riyad Mahrez’s corner to complete the turnaround for City, before second-half goals from Mahrez and Ilkay Gundogan put the result beyond doubt.
“We have to say congratulations to Liverpool and thank you so much — they pushed us to increase our standards,” Guardiola told Sky Sports. “It’s incredible, 98 points, to go back-to-back. We made the standard higher last season and Liverpool helped us — to win this title we had to win 14 in a row. We couldn’t lose one point.”
“It’s the toughest title we have won in all my career, by far,” added the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach.
City jetted back north to celebrate with about 10,000 of their fans at the Etihad Stadium late into the evening, with supporters singing along to Wonderwall by Oasis.
Players took it in turns to hoist the Premier League trophy, with club captain Vincent Kompany and Guardiola last to lift it, together.
“I’m so, so proud,” said Kompany as the party got underway at 10:45pm. “This team is amazing. We’re able to fill this place at this time of night. Thank you so much.”
City finished a record 19 points clear of Manchester United last season, but this has been a totally different campaign.
Guardiola’s side had to dig deep to see off the relentless challenge of Liverpool, who lost just one Premier League game all season.
The outcome was cruel on Liverpool, who are second behind only United in the all-time list of English champions with 18 titles.
Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp praised City, but vowed his side would be back.
“City got the points they have because we were there,” Klopp told the BBC. “They have 198 points in two years, that’s special. We made such big steps. It’s only the first step. Always after a good year we lost key players [in the past], but we won’t [this time] so we’ll be there again.”
Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah shared the Premier League Golden Boot award with teammate Mane and Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang after all three scored 22 goals.
Also on Sunday, it was Burnley 1, Arsenal 3; Crystal Palace 5, AFC Bournemouth 3; Fulham 0, Newcastle United 4; Leicester City 0, Chelsea 0; Manchester United 0, Cardiff City 2; Southampton 1, Huddersfield Town 1; Tottenham Hotspur 2, Everton 2; and Watford 1, West Ham United 4.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was