The ultimate day of one of the vital 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 12 months. 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 ultimate 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 in opposition to 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 all the time felt inevitable that it could 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 aspect 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 previous.
Metropolis threatened to run away with the sport at that time. However Mohammed Kudus made issues attention-grabbing when he lower the champs’ lead in half simply earlier than halftime, particularly with Arsenal having equalized across the similar time in North London.
Guardiola’s workforce was nonetheless properly in management, and there was no approach 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 may be proud for doing its half
There isn’t any query that Gunners supporters felt that, 20 years after the membership’s final league honor, this may very well be their 12 months. 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 every of 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 12 months. They made Metropolis earn this one, forcing Foden & Co. to submit a 9W-0L-1T file over their final 10 Prem video games. And so they shook off the worst begin possible on Sunday, figuring out full properly that they did not management their very own future. Kai Harvertz acquired the winner within the ultimate 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 — once they do not win the title. During the last 10 months, Arsenal has proven that it’s best positioned to problem the champions long-term, beginning once more in late summer time.
An anticlimactic ultimate 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 file for probably the most targets conceded in a single Prem marketing campaign. Burnley joined them final weekend. Luton City, meantime, went into its ultimate match mathematically nonetheless alive. However the Hatters have been nonetheless clearly doomed as a sensible matter, with seventeenth place Nottingham Forest three factors forward and holding a plus-15 lead on objective 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 employees author with ESPN and Yahoo Sports activities earlier than becoming a member of FOX Sports activities in 2021, and he has lined United States males’s and girls’s nationwide groups at FIFA World Cups on 5 continents. Comply with him @ByDougMcIntyre.
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