After a historic Premier League title race, Manchester City claimed a second successive championship on Sunday. Was this triumph the greatest ever in English football history?
The 2018-19 season will surely go down as the best title battle in Premier League history. Manchester City won back-to-back championships after a phenomenal fight all season long with Liverpool for top spot.
In a strange mirror of Manchester United’s greatest ever season, 1998-99, their neighbours City could finish the season with a unique, domestic treble if they add the FA cup to their Carabo cup and the league title already secured.
United’s treble was slightly different; league, FA cup and Champions League. United also won that season’s title on the last day and by a single point, just as Manchester City did last Sunday.
So moving on from that neat historic similarity, does City’s title win this season represent the greatest ever?
To help answer this question I need to go back to the pre-Premier League era of English football. Yes there was football before then!
In 1981 the English league introduced three points for a win for the first time ever. Before then two points had been the reward for a win. This move was to try to promote more attacking football by upping the incentive.
So it wasn’t until then that it had been possible to accrue the kind of points totals that have since become much more possible.
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And it didn’t take long before that new points total was reflected in a title race. In the 1984-85 season Everton became the first English team to reach 90 points as they won the league title that season.
Since then this total has become a magic number that defines an outstanding title win in any single season.
Liverpool matched their Merseyside neighbours’ achievement in 1987-88 and following the introduction of the Premier League in 1992, Manchester United won the title with a new high of 92 points in the 1993-94 season. They again went over 90 points in the 1999-2000 season.
Arsenal managed to accumulate 90 points in their unbeaten season of 2003-04. Chelsea also did so the following season when they set a new benchmark of 95 points won.
United and Chelsea again each managed it once more and Manchester City did so setting another top flight record with last season’s total of 100 points.
My reason for all this history is to underline that since the introduction of three points for win, 90 points or more has guaranteed that you will win the title in any given season. Until this one.
Liverpool have become the first team ever to accumulate over 90 points and fail to win the English league title. And the Reds total of 97 points would have won them the title in any other season, except last year.
Of course statistics aren’t everything and I don’t want to bore readers with all these numbers.
But they do give an accurate indication of the level of performance required by City to retain their Premier League crown.
Liverpool’s challenge was unprecedented and City had to gain only two fewer points than their astonishing record-breaking campaign last time to win it. On top of all that Liverpool finished the season with just a single league defeat, at the Etihad Stadium ironically of course.
Interestingly Liverpool’s efforts this term were in some ways a little similar to what happened to them ten years ago when they were pipped at the post by Manchester United in the 2008-09 season.
That year the Merseysiders lost only two league matches compared to United’s six but just like this time round they drew too many games. Obviously if they had converted just one of those draws this season into a win they would be champions now.
This title race underlined the changing nature of English football and the premium now placed on winning games rather than ensuring you don’t just avoid defeat.
Interestingly two managers who were cutting edge in their approach and mind-set just a decade ago, Jose Mourinho and Rafa Benitez are now it seems being left behind.
Effectively Liverpool lost out on the league because they just didn’t have the killer instinct of Manchester City when it really counted.
City also showed not only their amazing capacity to keep wining football matches, but they also showed the grit, focus and consistency that marks out champions and truly great sides.
They effectively won the Premier League with a narrow 1-0 victory over Leicester City courtesy of a sublime strike from that unexpected goal-scoring source, Vincent Kompany. Such hard-earned success under pressure is what makes a title winner.
Since Pep Guardiola took over at the Etihad, City have been defined by the quality and purity of their attacking football philosophy. But this season they have shown other more basic qualities.
City let in just 23 goals this campaign, just one more than Liverpool. And they only conceded one goal in their final five Premier League games, (and that on the last day), as the title race entered its final stretch.
Such defensive miserliness proved critical as City faced a succession of sides determined to try to deny them. They weren’t scoring as freely but because of that defensive resilience they still picked up maximum points every time.
So given all this on reflection, I would have to say yes this was the greatest championship triumph ever.