Doug McIntyre
Soccer Journalist
The ultimate day of probably the most thrilling Premier League title races in latest reminiscence did not disappoint.
Manchester Metropolis beat West Ham United 3-1 on Sunday to win an unprecedented fourth consecutive Prem crown. No different membership has claimed greater than three in a row the 136-year historical past of England’s vaunted prime division.
Arsenal got here from behind to prime Everton 2-1, ending second for the second straight yr. The Gunners completed with 89 factors, two fewer than Metropolis. Liverpool took third, the Reds ending up with 82 factors after a 2-0 victory over Wolverhampton in supervisor Jürgen Klopp’s last match.
Listed here are three fast ideas following Championship Sunday.
Man Metropolis takes care of enterprise to make historical past
After successful its game-in-hand final Tuesday away to Tottenham Hotspur and leapfrogging the Gunners atop the Prem standings, the Sky Blues knew {that a} win at dwelling towards West Ham could be sufficient to take a fourth straight title — and Metropolis’s eighth since 2012.
Arsenal had stayed on the Cityzens’ heels for weeks, a lot to the credit score of Mikel Arteta’s squad. However even earlier than Liverpool ran out of steam down the stretch, it at all times felt inevitable that it might play out precisely like this, that historical past was extra theirs to lose than the Gunners’ to thwart.
Certain sufficient, lately anointed Premier League participant of the season Phil Foden put Pep Guardiola’s facet forward with a worthy opener earlier than some followers had even reached their seats at Emirates Stadium. A second Foden strike doubled the hosts’ benefit earlier than the sport was 20 minutes outdated.
Metropolis threatened to run away with the sport at that time. However Mohammed Kudus made issues fascinating when he minimize the champs’ lead in half simply earlier than halftime, particularly with Arsenal having equalized across the similar time in North London.
Guardiola’s group was nonetheless nicely in management, and there was no manner again for the Hammers — or Arsenal — when Rodri scored Metropolis’s third across the hour mark, sealing the Sky Blues’ place in English soccer lore.
Arsenal might be proud for doing its half
There is not any query that Gunners supporters felt that, 20 years after the membership’s final league honor, this may very well be their yr. Final season’s close to miss had hardened the resolve of Arteta’s males. Reinforcements like Declan Rice had arrived to verify Arsenal’s reemergence as one in all Europe’s marquee groups.
However whereas they squandered a considerable lead and allowed Metropolis to overhaul them towards the tip of 2022-23, Arsenal was glorious down the stretch this yr. They made Metropolis earn this one, forcing Foden & Co. to publish a 9W-0L-1T report over their final 10 Prem video games. And so they shook off the worst begin possible on Sunday, understanding full nicely that they did not management their very own future. Kai Harvertz obtained the winner within the last minute of the second half:
As dominant as Metropolis has been for the final decade and extra, the day will come — maybe as quickly as subsequent season — after they do not win the title. Over the past 10 months, Arsenal has proven that it’s best positioned to problem the champions long-term, beginning once more in late summer season.
An anticlimactic last day on the backside
Most years, the relegation battle on the foot on the desk is extra compelling than the title race on the prime. This season, two of the underside three had been confirmed for the drop to the second tier lengthy earlier than Sunday’s finale.
Sheffield United’s destiny was sealed final month; the hapless Blades have since set the report for essentially the most objectives conceded in a single Prem marketing campaign. Burnley joined them final weekend. Luton City, meantime, went into its last match mathematically nonetheless alive. However the Hatters had been nonetheless clearly doomed as a sensible matter, with seventeenth place Nottingham Forest three factors forward and holding a plus-15 lead on aim distinction, which might’ve served as the primary tiebreaker had Luton and Forest completed the season even on factors.
It was moot in the long run. Luton misplaced 4-2 to Fulham on Sunday, its twenty eighth defeat in 2023-24. Meantime, Forest compounded Burnley’s distress with a 2-1 victory.
Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports activities. He was a workers author with ESPN and Yahoo Sports activities earlier than becoming a member of FOX Sports activities in 2021, and he has coated United States males’s and girls’s nationwide groups at FIFA World Cups on 5 continents. Comply with him @ByDougMcIntyre.
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