Awoniyi Hands City Premier League Title, Steer Forest to Safety

Duro Ikhazuagbe with agency report

Nigerian international, Taiwo Awoniyi, scored Nottingham Forest’s 1-0 winner against Arsenal yesterday evening to crown Manchester City Premier League champions for the third successive season.

The former Liverpool player who won the FIFA Under-17 World Cup with the 2013 Golden Eaglets grabbed his 19th minute goal against Arsenal to put an end to the Gunners’ quest for a miracle to happen in the dying minutes of the season. City are Premier League champions for the fifth time in six seasons.

The victory also steer Forest further away from the drop zone and confirmed their status as Premier League club next season.

The Gunners, top for the majority of the campaign, are four points behind City with only one game left to play.

Pep Guardiola’s side now have a chance to claim the Treble, with the FA Cup and Champions League finals to come next month.

Only Manchester United, in 1998-99,have previously achieved that feat – and it is their derby rivals whom City will meet at Wembley on 3 June, before facing Inter Milan a week later in Istanbul, where they will seek their first Champions League triumph.

City will be presented with the trophy after playing Chelsea at 4pm this afternoon.

Captain Ilkay Gundogan – who has scored four goals in the last two league games – said: “The Premier League is without doubt the most demanding and competitive league in the world, so that tells you everything about what an achievement this is.

“To have won this trophy three times in a row and five times in six years is incredible. That quality and consistency helps sum up what Manchester City stand for and ensures the club will continue to strive for success going forward.

“It has been a season I will never forget.”

City, champions for a ninth time in the club’s history, had trailed Arsenal by eight points on 7 April, although they had played one game fewer than Mikel Arteta’s leaders at that point.

It is only the fourth time that a team has been as many as eight points clear after at least 28 Premier League games and failed to win the title.

Only one team has ever had 69 points with 10 games remaining – as Arsenal did – and failed to win the title. That was Liverpool in 2018-19,when they finished on 97 points, one behind City.

But City have won 11 league games in a row – and dropped just two points from a possible 42 – to overhaul Arsenal and clinch the title with three games remaining.

City are only the fifth club to win three successive top-flight titles in England, following Huddersfield Town (1924-26), Arsenal (1933-35), Liverpool (1982-84) and Manchester United, who did it twice under Sir Alex Ferguson (1999-2001 and 2007-09).