Manchester City Quietly Celebrate Their 4th EPL Title Ahead of the Last Round

With only one more round to go in the Premier League, the title race is more or less decided. It all seems like it will be Manchester City, who will be crowned the champions for the 4th time after holding off Liverpool ever since they caught up to them in the 29th round.

After a close win against Leicester on Monday, Manchester City more or less guaranteed themselves their 4th EPL title and 2nd title in a row. The match that took place at Etihad Stadium on Monday was considered by some the last chance for Liverpool to catch up to Manchester City, who had to face off against Leicester. While there is a clear difference in the quality between the two teams, Leicester has put up good performances against Manchester City before, which sparked up hope in Liverpool fans eyes. But at the end of the day, thinking Leicester can really defeat Manchester City was just a way to try and justify the excessive optimism before the Manchester City v Leicester match, which ended as expected.

The match on its own, which heavily favorited Manchester City, for obvious reasons, ended with only 1 goal, but what a goal it was! The only goal of the match and the goal which got Manchester City back at the top of the league was scored by no other than Vincent Kompany, who, on Monday scored his first goal this season and possibly one of the most memorable goals in his career. Being a goal of such importance in the Premier League title race was fittingly a spectacular goal. Kompany shot the ball from well outside the penalty box, which at first resulted in many confused faces from his teammates and fans, that soon turned into an enthusiastic expression of joy and happiness. His shot, against all the odds, went straight into the top right corner, well out of reach for Schmeichel. It was a goal, we could expect from Aguero, however this time it was Kompany who showed the world, he can not only defend but also score screamers.

In an interview after the match, Kompany remained humble and stated that even he was shocked he managed to score such a goal.

“Of course, you score some of these goals in training, and, I’ve been playing football long enough to know something like that would happen, but to do it today on such an important game, is special…”

He added:

“I could hear people saying ‘Don’t shoot, don’t shoot!’ … For 15 years, I’ve told people I’ll score one like that.”

After a stunning goal, which got Manchester City back at the top and, they are more or less considered to be the champions of 2018/19 season. If we go into details, we can say that theoretically, the title race between Liverpool and Manchester City is not yet over. If by some chance Manchester City lose against Brighton in the last round and Liverpool defeats Wolves, the title race would end in Liverpool’s favour. And while this might happen, we can safely assume it won’t.

Brighton are the 17th team in the league, who barely managed to save themselves from relegation. And while this alone does not mean much, there is also the factor of them not gaining anything from winning against Manchester City. Brighton are safe from relegation so winning or losing the last fixture won’t have any effect on their final placement. Manchester City on the other side have a lot on the line. While we could go on and talk about the chances of Liverpool winning against Wolves (which they clearly can and possibly will), the title race will end up being decided in a Brighton v Manchester City match. Should we see Manchester City losing the upcoming fixture, this would go down in history as the biggest upset in the football world. Nonetheless, Guardiola stated he does expect a tough match, and while he believes in his men, he does not feel confident enough to say the Sky Blues will have an easy time on Sunday.

Rafael West

Sports journalist, content writer and passionate football lover.