City favourites for title as Haaland brace secures win

A formality in the strangest of settings. In the seconds after Erling Haaland scored the goal that won this match and probably the Premier League title, you could feel the tension just evaporate.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

And that wasn’t from the away end. It was the whole stadium, as the Tottenham Hotspur fans immediately began to sing about marching in.

That was followed by a corner of the stadium doing the Manchester City fan dance of “the Poznan” and many more than standing up because they “hated Arsenal”. Finally, there was "are you watching, Arsenal?"

Up until then, there’d be a nervous energy about the occasion. Spurs supporters had almost been anxiously going through the motions of supporting their team. There was anticipation when they broke, and jeers when Ruben Dias mis-controlled the ball out of play, but it didn’t feel full voice.

That changed in the instant of the goal. It changed again when Son Heung-Min went through on goal at 1-0. Somehow, a player who is statistically the best finisher in the Premier League failed to take the chance. Sub keeper Stefan Ortega claimed his own place in City folklore. Arsenal might quip similar about Tottenham. It was all that odd. So the Premier League has one more type of storyline to add to its archive of stories, although this different type of occasion is almost certainly going to lead to the same champions. This 2-0 win means that City have it in their hands going into the final day, and that any victory over West Ham United will be enough.

Arsenal need a miracle, although they would have said similar about this match. You could definitely say it about Son missing.