Manchester City, against Chelsea at the Etihad party for the Premier League

Manchester’s skies are already blue well before the game starts, well before Ilkay Gundogan lifts the Premier League trophy after City beat Chelsea 1-0. And the suitably blue sky of a beautifully spring day isn’t the only reason.

Guardiola’s team have been officially champions of England for the third consecutive year since yesterday, after Arsenal’s defeat at Nottingham Forest, and the fans want to celebrate: they land en masse at the Etihad Stadium, open for the last time in 2022-23, all wearing the City shirt. They wait for the coach with the players in the square outside the stadium, and an hour and a half before the start they welcome Guardiola and his heroes as the heroes of the fifth Premier League in six years. It is at that point that the sky turns blue, lit by smoke bombs. And let the party begin.

the party

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As soon as the referee blows his whistle, the pitch fills up with fans and the air becomes acrid again from the smell of smoke bombs, like before the match. Fifteen minutes later, the stage was on the lawn ready for the ceremony with the kings of the Premier League. The cup is brought to the field by Tom O’Dell, a 19-year-old inserted in City’s charity programs. Then the members of Guardiola’s staff, including Enzo Maresca, paraded one by one, all with the number 23 shirt and the word “Champion” on their back, distributed to all the staff. It’s the same one that Guardiola has, on the pitch in the general jubilation of an audience that adores him, that considers him the genius that transformed this team into a legend, the mind behind that treble mission that all of Manchester dreams of, certain that he is the passport to the legend.

Pep is the first to receive the medal, to kiss it: it is the 11th championship triumph for him in 14 years as a coach. The players follow, one by one, with Erling Haaland winning the applause contest. The last is captain Gundogan: when he lifts the Premier League trophy, more than 4 hours after the coach’s arrival, the sky above the Etihad Stadium turns blue again and the air turns acrid with the smell of smoke bombs. This time the players dance on stage, cuddling that cup that has become such a familiar sight for veterans of this dynasty.

And the fans sing Hey Jude by the Beatles, but replace “Hey Jude” with “City”. It’s their rallying cry, one they soon hope to repeat when this incredible team, who promise to be the strongest City have ever had, have completed their mission to become the legend with the treble as they progress to the FA Final Cup on June 3 with United and the Champions League on June 10 against Inter.

the last act

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The match against Chelsea which acts as a prologue to the party with the Premier League trophy is as irrelevant as next week’s matches at Brighton and Brentford. Guardiola sent the reserves onto the field, but City controlled the game and broke the deadlock already in the 12th minute with Alvarez, served in the middle of the Chelsea defense by Palmer after a mistake by Fofana. The champions have fun, the Blues in the final take a pole with Gallagher but that’s all they can produce. The second half opened with Phillips who headed the post on a free kick from Mahrez and continued with the Var canceling Alvarez’s 2-0 in the 71st minute due to a hand by Mahrez at the start of the action.

Slowly, Guardiola brings in the big names, but the atmosphere remains festive, not for the 12th consecutive victory in the championship but in anticipation of what will come next: the trophy that Gundogan raises in the jubilation of an audience used to winning but always enthusiastic about to do so, of course, but above all of the two matches in June with United in the FA Cup final and with Inter in the last act of the Champions League.

They are the ones who can deliver City to legend. And give the blue part of Manchester another unforgettable party.