THE DAY ENDED exactly as everyone knew it would.
Manchester City are Premier League champions for the fourth season in a row. It’s a famous success that sees them become the first club in English football to win as many titles in succession.
“It’s a day of reckoning for Manchester City, a day they can make history,” presenter Dave Jones said on Sky Sports.
History has been made but that day of reckoning could still come given those 115 charges of alleged breaches of the Premier League’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations hang over them.
It was a topic of conversation that Sky broached briefly during their build up, Micah Richards declaring that an outcome needed to be reached “asap” as it was “frustrating” to have it lingering while so many good people do good work at the club.
That’s certainly one way of looking at it.
“We must stress than Manchester City refute all 115 charges,” Jones pointed out. “But it is on the lips of all football fans.”
After 79 seconds Phil Foden had those in blue purring.
His touch on the half turn to swivel clear of James Ward-Prowse on the edge of the box was sublime.
It allowed him to open his body and drive a fierce shot into the top corner from just outside the 18-yard-box.
The goal was of the highest calibre for a footballer that is pure in every sense. He has the work ethic of someone who feels as if they’re fortunate to be in the best team in the country while possessing the ability that makes it clear they are the ones lucky to have him.
Foden’s style and grace were evident again when he doubled his side’s lead on 18 minutes, this time running off the shoulder of Ward-Prowse near the halfway line and showing the intelligence to arrive in the box at the perfect moment to stride onto Jeremy Doku’s pin-point cross.
Everything was easy.
This was turning into a stroll over the finishing line after a marathon season.
Arsenal, on the other hand, were stumbling at home to Everton.
Richard Masters, CEO of the Premier League, was there at the Emirates Stadium rather than the Etihad to see it. Although maybe he only chose to head there given that Sean Dyche’s side had managed to survive relegation after the points deductions that led to fans at Goodison Park holding up ‘Corrupt’ placards earlier in the season.
Idrissa Gueye put Sean Dyche’s side 1-0 up on 40 minutes and nobody would have complained had Masters made an executive decision to throw in the white flag on Arsenal’s behalf and let City lift the trophy at half-time.
But then.
Japan international Takehiro Tomiyasu equalised on 43 minutes and in the same minute of the game in Manchester Mohammed Kudus produced a sensational overhead kick to half the deficit for West Ham going into half time.
For 60 seconds or so there was tension, drama and intrigue.
Not that it continued after the re-start.
City got back into their stride and imposed their methodical will with the kind of precision you expect.
The sequence of passing and movement in the minutes leading up to Rodri’s goal to make it 3-1 on 59 minutes illustrated perfectly how much of a stroll to the title this was.
Kevin De Bruyne teed the Spaniard up on the edge of the area and even his tame side-foot strike found its way in.
City fans started to do the Poznan at 65 minutes, facing away from the pitch and bouncing in unison.
It’s a celebration they’ve done for more than a decade and perhaps it makes sense – turning a blind eye has been crucial when you consider the 115 questions that linger over this domestic domination.
Those fans could have stayed with the pitch to their backs as nothing was happening for the final quarter – other than Guardiola being able to start taking players off to save their legs ahead of next weekend’s FA Cup final with Manchester United.
City passed the ball for fun and in a casual manner that meant West Ham just had to stick to a shape and avoid embarrassment.
It ended 3-1 and they barely broke sweat.
Indeed, the hardest and fastest most City players ran was when they sprinted down the tunnel to avoid their fans who invaded the pitch on the final whistle.
The title was City’s and it was won amid a kind of din.
But that day of reckoning will bring noise one way or another.
