Manchester City prove to be the best again despite an anxious Premier League finale

One of the best measures of the quality of a champion is the standards set by the next-best.

As Manchester City once again proved themselves the finest team in the most competitive domestic league in their sport, they never stopped looking anxiously over their shoulders at the tigerish, relentless pursuit of an excellent Liverpool.

City tantalised their supporters on a topsy-turvy last day of what had already been an epic English season, by falling behind, not by one goal but two, at home to Aston Villa. At that point the ghosts of their many near-miss sagas in the Champions League haunted their followers.

Trailing 2-0, they had put in jeopardy the leadership of the Premier League, with Liverpool just a point behind them at kick-off. There were a few in the Etihad fearing that, much in the way a two-goal advantage in the closing minutes of their Champions League semi-final tie against Real Madrid had been erased and City eliminated, the English title may be squandered at the very last.

But City recovered emphatically in the last 15 minutes against Villa, with a three-goal burst, two of them from Ilkay Gundogan, and although their place at the top of the table was never actually lost to Liverpool, that was only down to timing.

Villa, with goals from Matty Cash and Philippe Coutinho either side of half-time, appeared to have indirectly rolled out a red carpet for Coutinho’s former colleagues at Anfield. At that stage, Liverpool needed just one goal, to take them 2-1 ahead of Wolves, to overtake City and pinch the Premier League.

Liverpool would score two, win 3-1 to collect their three points, but by then Pep Guardiola's defending champions had produced a stunning blitz to insure against calamity. It was not quite as