That’s the way to do it. No alarms and no surprises greeted Manchester City. It was tense, for a while, but the best team won — the match and, most probably, the league.
A point against West Ham United on Sunday will do it, given the plus-13 goal difference advantage over Liverpool. The fourth goal of the game was Manchester City’s 100th in the Barclays Premier League this season, an amazing achievement no matter the budget.
There are plenty of teams who have spent a few quid winning the title but, if the finale goes according to plan, few will have done it with as much style as City. They need four goals to overtake the 103 scored by Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea team in 2009-10.
Beat that and they would set a total unsurpassed by any team since Tottenham Hotspur’s Double winners in 1960-61. Consideration of how many subsequent campaigns were played over 42 games puts City’s prolific nature into perspective. With their tails up, they are irresistible and the final 30 minutes of this match was evidence enough of that.
Good Lord, it was a tense affair by the time the deadlock was broken. What is needed on an occasion such as this is an early goal to settle the nerves, and eight near misses inside 64 minutes isn’t quite the same.
Manchester City are new enough to this, with too much bad juju from recent years, to take victory for granted.
