Rewind a quarter of a century and Alex Ferguson was on the golf course when he discovered he was a Premier League champion for the first time.
Fast forward to Sunday and the Scot was at Old Trafford to see Pep Guardiola emulate him in two respects: the Catalan has now won the division and he, too, was playing golf while results elsewhere made his side champions without playing.
The seemingly ridiculous fact is that West Bromwich Albion, without hope or a manager, victorious just once in their previous 31 league games, won at Old Trafford. Manchester United, who had beaten the top team in the league eight days earlier in the Manchester derby, lost to the worst one.
City secured the title in strange fashion, albeit after a performance worthy of champions at Tottenham Hotspur the previous day. Perhaps it was not how City deserved to win it. Perhaps they will not care.
“They won because they were the best team,” Jose Mourinho said.
They sealed their success with five games to go. No one has done it earlier.
Perhaps it was an oddly anti-climatic end. Certainly United’s was an anti-climax of a performance.
“You don’t win titles with inconsistency,” Mourinho said, and this was everything their second-half display in their comeback at Etihad Stadium was not. “You could see the difference in the attitude to players compared to last week,” the Portuguese added.
They lacked urgency and inspiration, quality and a capacity to make anything happen. “I saw lots of people over the moon because we won against City.” They were complacent, he implied. “We deserve to be punished,” he added. United were.
For the second successive week, they were arguably personified by Paul Pogba. A scorer twice in the derby, he tried to punch the ball in against West Brom, was booked and then removed to ensure he did not collect a second caution.
Facing a team who had procured a solitary point from nine previous games, United mustered four efforts on target.
Ben Foster excelled with two saves from his former teammate Romelu Lukaku. But it was still an inadequate return given that, at various points, Pogba, Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez, Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford took the field.
It was little wonder that the Stretford End took to chorusing “attack, attack, attack” in the desperate hope they would be heard. As they often do, Mourinho’s United looked less than the sum of their expensive and talented parts.
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“We were masters in complication, everything was complicated,” the manager lamented.
United were incoherent. They began too cautiously, fielding three central midfielders as Mourinho, to borrow one of Arsene Wenger’s favourite phrases, had the handbrake on. They did not even offer sufficient solidity.
There were hints Albion could trouble them at set-pieces even before they struck. Then Chris Brunt’s deep corner was headed back across the six-yard box by Craig Dawson and Jay Rodriguez plunged forward to head in.
“The only way they could score,” Mourinho said.
Yet Albion showed a togetherness and a resolve that has been lacking too often. “They close every door,” Mourinho said. And the vocal fans who have had little to celebrate in the bleakest of campaigns could finally boast.
“Manchester City,” the West Brom faithful chorused . “We won you the league.”
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Transmission: ten-speed
Power: 420bhp
Torque: 624Nm
Price: Dh325,125
On sale: Now
TOURNAMENT INFO
Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier
Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi
Why are you, you?
Why are you, you?
From this question, a new beginning.
From this question, a new destiny.
For you are a world, and a meeting of worlds.
Our dream is to unite that which has been
separated by history.
To return the many to the one.
A great story unites us all,
beyond colour and creed and gender.
The lightning flash of art
And the music of the heart.
We reflect all cultures, all ways.
We are a twenty first century wonder.
Universal ideals, visions of art and truth.
Now is the turning point of cultures and hopes.
Come with questions, leave with visions.
We are the link between the past and the future.
Here, through art, new possibilities are born. And
new answers are given wings.
Why are you, you?
Because we are mirrors of each other.
Because together we create new worlds.
Together we are more powerful than we know.
We connect, we inspire, we multiply illuminations
with the unique light of art.
Ben Okri,
'Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore'
Rating: 3/5
Directed by: David Yates
Starring: Mads Mikkelson, Eddie Redmayne, Ezra Miller, Jude Law
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
MATCH INFO
Leeds United 0
Brighton 1 (Maupay 17')
Man of the match: Ben White (Brighton)
Washmen Profile
Date Started: May 2015
Founders: Rami Shaar and Jad Halaoui
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Laundry
Employees: 170
Funding: about $8m
Funders: Addventure, B&Y Partners, Clara Ventures, Cedar Mundi Partners, Henkel Ventures
Is it worth it? We put cheesecake frap to the test.
The verdict from the nutritionists is damning. But does a cheesecake frappuccino taste good enough to merit the indulgence?
My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.
The caramel version is far superior to the blueberry, too. If someone put a full caramel cheesecake through a liquidiser and scooped out the contents, it would probably taste something like this. Blueberry, on the other hand, has more of an artificial taste. It's like someone has tried to invent this drink in a lab, and while early results were promising, they're still in the testing phase. It isn't terrible, but something isn't quite right either.
So if you want an experience, go for a small, and opt for the caramel. But if you want a cheesecake, it's probably more satisfying, and not quite as unhealthy, to just order the real thing.
Business Insights
- Canada and Mexico are significant energy suppliers to the US, providing the majority of oil and natural gas imports
- The introduction of tariffs could hinder the US's clean energy initiatives by raising input costs for materials like nickel
- US domestic suppliers might benefit from higher prices, but overall oil consumption is expected to decrease due to elevated costs
Read more about the coronavirus
Top 10 most polluted cities
- Bhiwadi, India
- Ghaziabad, India
- Hotan, China
- Delhi, India
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- Noida, India
- Bahawalpur, Pakistan
- Peshawar, Pakistan
- Bagpat, India
