Champions City!

On 11 May 1968 Manchester City won the League title and on that same day in 2021 the Blues became Premier League champions. In 2021 City won the League after nearest rivals Manchester United lost 2-1 at home to Leicester City.

It was the Blues seventh League title with their first coming in 1937.

It was an astonishing season with City already winning the League Cup that season, plus they also reached the Champions League final where they were defeated in Porto by Chelsea. Manchester’s Blues also appeared in the FA Cup semi-final season but sadly lost to Chelsea.

The League and League Cup double meant that City had won six major trophies in three seasons.

City’s trophy success in 2021 meant that domestically counting the League, FA Cup and League Cup only United, Liverpool and Arsenal have won more English major trophies. Similarly, only United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Everton havd won more League titles than Manchester’s Blues.

2020-21 was an odd season because of Covid (as was 2019-20) and no fans in the stadium (though some clubs, including those on Merseyside, were allowed a limited number of fans in earlier this season), but the football City played was breathtaking.

Apart from a difficult opening period and a few odd results along the way, City delivered week after week (or should that be weekend after midweek after weekend after midweek – it was a busy season!). They thoroughly deserved the title.

So, by the end of the 2020-21 season City had won the following major honours:

European Cup Winners’ Cup (1)

1970

League/Premier League (7)

1937, 1968, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2019 & 2021

(runners up: 1904, 1921, 1977, 2013, 2015 & 2020)

FA Cup (6)

1904, 1934, 1956, 1969, 2011 & 2019 

(runners up: 1926, 1933, 1955, 1981 & 2013)

League Cup (8)

1970, 1976, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020 & 2021

(runners up: 1974)

In 2019 the Blues became the first English men’s team to win a domestic treble. In 2020-21 City achieved a domestic double of the League Cup and the League (a feat they also achieved in 2014 & 2018). Back in 1970 they achieved a European and domestic cup double when they won the League Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup.

City’s trophy haul made them the fifth most successful English club of all time based on major domestic and European trophies won (United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea are ahead of the Blues). In addition only Liverpool and Blackburn had a greater span between their first English trophy and their most recent.

Since 2020-21 so many other trophies have come of course, including in 2023 when City became the first team ever to win the FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, UEFA Champions League, the Premier League and the FA Cup in a calendar year.