On May 22, 2022, one of the closest title races in English football history went down to the wire. Manchester City started the day a point ahead of Liverpool. Given the relentless form of both sides, it was almost a given that only victory would do. After 69 minutes, City were 2-0 down to Aston Villa. Liverpool would come from a goal down to beat Wolves 3-1. Even a draw wouldn’t have been enough for City. But from staring at the abyss, they struck thrice in the space of six minutes to seal a fourth title in five seasons.
The first goal that gave City a glimmer of hope, and the third which would ultimately seal the title were scored by İlkay Gündoğan, whose paternal grandfather had come to Germany from Turkey to work as a miner in the Ruhr valley. And it was a measure of the esteem with which Gündoğan is held within the football fraternity that one of the first messages he received on WhatsApp was from his former Borussia Dortmund manager.
“Kloppo wrote me at 9.26 pm: ‘Congratulations’ and a heart to go with it,” said Gündoğan to Germany’s Bild newspaper. “I replied: ‘Thank you! You also for the great season and good luck for the Champions League final’ – and a heart too. There are some priorities, and Kloppo is one of them.”
Gündoğan won the Bundesliga-and-DFB-Pokal double with Dortmund and Klopp in 2011-12. After moving to City in the summer of 2016 – he was, tellingly, Pep Guardiola’s first signing – he has now added five league titles, two FA Cups, and four League Cups to that collection. And only an utter fool would rule out the possibility of him adding to that with the most important trophy of all – the Champions League, which is up for grabs against Internazionale of Milan in Istanbul next Saturday.
In the first all-Manchester final in FA Cup history – the two teams first played each other in the competition in front of 11,000 at North Road in October, 1891 – it was Gündoğan’s two volleyed goals that proved decisive. The first, after just 13 seconds, caught United cold, and after a spirited fightback that included a harsh penalty call against Jack Grealish, it was Gündoğan’s precisely placed hit through a thicket of players that sealed City’s second league-and-cup double.
As of tonight, United remain the only English club to have won the near-mythical treble of league, FA Cup and Champions League, under Sir Alex Ferguson in 1998-99. You sense though that the accolade will not be theirs alone for much longer. City were far too strong for Real Madrid in their Champions League semi-final, and Inter – who have got to the final without playing any teams of that calibre – will need to play out of their skins to make a game of it.
City were nowhere close to their best at Wembley. They didn’t need to be. Erling Haaland drifted in and out of the game, and was largely well marshalled. Kevin de Bruyne has had dozens of better games in the City shirt. It’s a measure of the progress United have made under Eric ten Hag since the 6-3 drubbing at the Etihad in October that they took this game to the very end, and could well have grabbed an equaliser when Rafael Varane’s close-range shot looped on to the bar in the final seconds.
But for all that, City had 60 per cent of the possession, and five shots on target to United’s three. You always sensed, even as United huffed and puffed for a foothold, that City could find an extra gear or two and pull away. If anything made Guardiola sweat, it was the pace and directness of Alejandro Garnacho, who was quite outstanding once he came on in the 62nd minute.
United fans of a certain vintage would have been hopeful of once again ruining a bitter rival’s treble hopes. In 1976-77, Liverpool had won a third league title in five seasons, edging out City of all teams. Having suffered heartache in previous European Cup campaigns, they were into the final against Borussia Mönchengladbach. The FA Cup final against United was the prelude to that.
Goals from Stuart Pearson and Jimmy Greenhoff sandwiched a Liverpool equaliser from Jimmy Case, as Tommy Docherty, the maverick Scottish manager, masterminded a famous upset. Liverpool would go on to win the European Cup in Rome, but Docherty – who would be sacked in the summer for his affair with the club physio’s wife – had ruined their treble dream. A generation later, Ferguson’s United would rub salt into that wound.
But there would no wounds, metaphorical or otherwise, for City to deal with on Saturday. United didn’t lack for effort or endeavour, and are clearly the most cohesive they have been in a decade, but there was still a marked difference in quality and coaching. Guardiola’s reinvention of John Stones, once a centre-back slightly prone to costly errors, as an auxiliary midfielder is just one in a long line of telling tactical tweaks.
It can take players time to adjust to the Guardiola way – Jack Grealish’s struggles last season were a good example – but the frightening thing for City’s opponents is that he, Phil Foden, Julian Alvarez and Haaland are only going to get better. And there will be money to spend again in summer, funds that will be used wisely and not flushed down the drain as with other teams like Chelsea, and United in the pre-tan Hag years.
Guardiola last won the Champions League with Barcelona in 2010-11, against United at Wembley. Earlier that season, City had overcome United 1-0 in an FA Cup semi-final on their way to a first major trophy in 35 years. Back then, they were still the ‘noisy neighbours’. How times have changed. Manchester is now sky-blue, and soon that colour will envelop Europe as well. It’s likely to stay that way as long as Guardiola is in charge.