After the season-long struggle between Manchester City and Liverpool to determine which club would have the slightly more perfect season and be named Premier League champion, it all came down to today, the final matchday of the season. And while it was tight there for a while, City did as expected and beat Brighton & Hove Albion to win their second consecutive league title.
Manchester City Crowned Champions Of Tightest Premier League Title Race Ever. Photo: Shaun Botterill (Getty)
Man City went to Brighton knowing that a win would seal the title. In the only other match that mattered today—the relegation, Champions League, and Europa League places were for all intents and purposes already locked in after last week’s fixtures—Liverpool hosted Wolves knowing they needed to win and to get some help from Brighton to bring their nearly three-decade title drought to an end.
This has been the best title race in years, and from a quality and consistency perspective, probably the best one ever. Though only a single point separated the two, City very much deserved to lift the trophy: the Mancs won the head-to-head matchup against Liverpool (the two matches between them finished with a draw and a City win), won 32 games to Liverpool’s 30, scored the most goals in the league, allowed the second fewest by giving up only one goal more than the Pool Boys, and, per Understat’s advanced metrics, had the far better expected goal stats.
