Cup slips away but league title still sets standard

FOR the second year in a row, Manchester City made history.

- SIMON BAJKOWSKI

And for the second year in a row, they ran out of puff after winning the Premier League.

Last year they still had enough to get past United in the FA Cup Final and then drag themselves to Champions League glory in Istanbul.

This time they had the chances in the second half to win a double Double but could not recover from a sleepwalking start that gave Erik Ten Hag some polish for a poor United campaign.

There was anger from the players and manager at Wembley, followed by disappointment. This is a team that has been defined by hating losing so much that they go on inconceivably long winning or unbeaten runs to avoid those feelings; it was 35 games before Saturday.

That has driven Pep Guardiola and the players to unprecedented success, becoming the first team in English football to win four Premier League titles in a row. That is always the bread and butter, the standard that City aspire to every year to win the right over 38 matches to be called the best in the country; as the manager said after Community Shield defeat to Arsenal in August: "We lost three in a row! But we won the Premier Leagues."