Manchester City are champions of England once more. The Citizens sealed the 2020/21 Premier League title without even kicking a ball, thanks to their rivals’ loss. Manchester United were beaten by Leicester City on Tuesday night, thus handing the title to City.
It was inevitable; now it is official. Manchester City are the 2020/21 Premier League winners. The Citizens became champions-elect through a surging mid-season run that saw them climb to the top, having once languished in the bottom half of the table. However, losses of late denied them the opportunity to secure the title at an earlier date. They received no help from Manchester United either, who, despite being out of the title race, continued to push their rivals’ celebrations to a future date.
Alas, Manchester United’s resolve was finally broken on Tuesday night, as they lost 2-1 at home to Leicester City. Their defeat meant that the gap between themselves and City became unassailable, and thus, the title returned to the blue half of Manchester. Pep Guardiola’s side returned to the top, having relinquished their crown to Liverpool last season. This is their third title in four years, meaning that they are now only behind Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Everton in terms of league titles won since the inception of the league system.
The second game in three days, followed by another two days later, meant that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was forced to make wholesale changes to the first team against Leicester City. Edinson Cavani, Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford, and Luke Shaw were all benched. Instead, Solskjaer handed a league debut to Amad Diallo – a summer signing from Atalanta who joined the club in January – and a senior team debut to Anthony Elanga. Mason Greenwood was one of the few players retained for this match, and he led the line for the Red Devils.
The relative gap between Manchester United’s first-team and their second-string side became apparent within the first few phases of the match. Leicester City – who were at full strength – took advantage of their opponents’ relatively weaker line-up and scored the opening goal of the match. A Youri Tielemans cross was converted by the young wingback Luke Thomas, who raced into the box before unleashing a fierce side-foot volley across David De Gea in goal.
Minutes later, Manchester United levelled the match. Thomas – who was the hero at one end – was culpable in the concession of the goal, as he allowed Amad to wrestle him off the ball before the Ivorian played it square to Greenwood. The teenager dribbled away from Caglar Soyuncu inside the Leicester box before slotting the ball past Kasper Schmeichel’s outstretched leg.
Solskjaer changed the personnel in the second half as Cavani and Rashford came on for Greenwood and Elanga. However, Leicester scored their second of the match seconds after the pair entered the pitch. Soyuncu, who had allowed Greenwood to escape his challenge with ease for the equalizer, made amends by scoring from a corner. The Turkish defender hammered a header past De Gea after finding a gap between Rashford and Nemanja Matic.
Leicester held onto the lead and claimed all three points in the end, much to the delight of their manager. The Foxes climbed back up to third in the table, as a result, and are now favorites to qualify for the UEFA Champions League. They are eight points above fifth-placed West Ham United, although the Hammers have a game in hand. Liverpool, who are one point further adrift in sixth place, have two matches in their bank over the Foxes.
Meanwhile, Leicester weren’t the biggest winners from their success over Manchester United. Instead, that tag belonged to Manchester City, who were declared champions of England for the 2020/21 season once the referee blew his full-time whistle. Guardiola’s men would’ve liked to secure the title much earlier, but they can take pleasure in the fact that their direct rivals handed them the crown with a loss.
