The 2023-24 English Premier League season concludes on May 19, and everything points toward Manchester City rewriting history. Since the Premier League began in 1992, only two teams, Manchester City and Manchester United (twice), have won three consecutive league titles.
Should everything pan out like the Las Vegas betting online sites predict, Manchester City will finish top of the tree and become the first-ever English club to win four top-flight titles on the spin.
Manchester City started the 2023-24 Premier League campaign as odds-on favorites to capture the title, which is no surprise considering Pep Guardiola’s men won the league at a relative canter, all while securing the coveted UEFA Champions League and the prestigious FA Cup; an unprecedented treble.
Some pundits questioned whether or not City would be the same force to be reckoned with, having seen iconic players Iklay Gundogan, Riyad Mahrez, Aymeric Laporte, and talented youngster Cole Palmer leave the club for pastures new. However, the arrivals of Mateo Kovacic, Josko Gvardiol, Jeremy Doku, and Matheus Nunes helped counteract those departures.
Manchester City Set Off at a Blistering Pace
City started the season strongly, winning all six of their opening fixtures. Such early form was problematic for the other 19 Premier League teams because City are infamous for getting off to a slow start before ending the season strongly. Guardiola’s men endured a mini blip in late September, with Newcastle United dumping City out of the League Cup and losing back-to-back Premier League games against struggling Wolverhampton Wanderers and title rivals Arsenal.
An impressive 3-0 victory away at arch-rivals Manchester United and a 6-1 demolition of AFC Bournemouth looked to have turned around The Citizens’ fortunes, but City hit another sticky patch in November and December that looked to have threatened their Premier League title-winning credentials.
A Significant Blip in Form
City drew at Chelsea in a 4-4 thriller, dropped two points in a 1-1 draw against Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, and conceded three goals in a 3-3 draw with Tottenham Hotspur. The out-of-sorts reigning champions then traveled to Aston Villa and returned home empty-handed. They struggled to beat newly promoted Luton Town 2-1 and drew 2-2 with Crystal Palace despite enjoying over 74% possession.
Guardiola’s men fell to fourth place in the table, the club’s lowest position after 15 games since the 2020-21 season.
Returning Stars Sees Return to Winning Ways
A long-term injury to talismanic midfielder Kevin De Bruyne wasn’t helping City’s cause. De Bruyne pulled a hamstring 23 minutes into City’s 3-0 victory away at Burnley in the second game of the season on August 11. The injury was not initially thought to be too severe. However, the Belgian international ultimately required surgery to fix the problem. De Bruyne sat out 29 games in all competitions and didn’t feature in any capacity in a City shirt until January 7.
Since returning to action, De Bruyne has featured in five Premier League games, scoring once and making four assists. De Bruyne is one of the greatest-ever midfield players and is a vital cog in the Manchester City machine. He has played 244 Premier League games for Manchester City, scoring 65 goals and 108 assists; he’s the man that makes the team tick.
An injury to striker Erling Haaland, which kept the Norwegian superstar out of action for 12 fixtures, didn’t help City’s cause. Haaland scored 36 goals and assisted eight others in 35 games last season, so City missed his unrivaled firepower while he recovered on the sidelines.
Since that 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace and the return of De Bruyne and Haaland from injuries, City have won 11 games in a row in all competitions, including six wins in the Premier League. The team’s impressive run of form has catapulted City to second in the Premier League table, where they trail Liverpool by two points, although City have played one less game than the leaders.
Fifteen Games Remaining to Re-Write History
City only has 15 Premier League games remaining in the current season, and it is difficult to see where they could possibly slip up and drop points. Three of those fixtures stand out from the crowd because they feature teams currently flying high near the table’s summit.
Liverpool hosts Manchester City on March 10, with City taking on Arsenal at home on March 31. City also have to travel to Tottenham Hotspur on April 20. Those three top-of-the-table clashes aside, it is unlikely City will drop points because they face the likes of Crystal Palace, Luton Town, Nottingham Forest, Fulham, and West Ham United.
It is not only the Premier League where City is gunning for glory. They have reached the Fifth Round of the FA Cup, where they take on Luton Town, and have navigated their way to the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League; City is 3-1 up after the first leg of their clash with FC Copenhagen.
Unsurprisingly, Manchester City are the firm favorites to lift the FA Cup and Champions League trophies at the end of the season, putting them on course for another treble-winning campaign.
Some pundits are questioning City’s ability to fight for trophies on three fronts, but they are wrong to do so. Last season, City came agonizingly close to securing a quadruple, having won the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League while falling at the quarter-finals stage of the League Cup.
City may have fallen in the Third Round of the League Cup this season, but they have already wrapped up victories in the finals of the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup. The fact that City has been fighting on those fronts with injuries to crucial players yet has still managed to find themselves second in the table with a game in hand shows how incredible Guardiola’s squad is.
Will Manchester City become the first Premier League team to win four consecutive titles? They almost certainly will, and will do so while adding the FA Cup and Champions League trophies to their vast trophy cabinet.
