Locked out of their stadium for a year due to the pandemic, Manchester City fans couldn't resist gathering outside, waiting for the moment they'd be crowned champions for the third time in four seasons.
It was a result not inside the Etihad Stadium but a few miles across Manchester at their fiercest rival and nearest Premier League challengers that confirmed the title was reclaimed.
Manchester United losing 2-1 to Leicester left City with an unassailable 10-point lead with three games remaining. Whereas United started the century dominating English football, now City are the force with five titles in 10 seasons.
Within minutes of the final whistle blowing at Old Trafford a “Champions” banner was unfurled over the entrance to the Etihad.
Soon, fans were setting off blue flares and parading replica Premier League trophies. They will finally be allowed back into the stadium - up to 10,000 of them - to see City collect the real trophy after the final game of the Premier League season against Everton on May 23.
It's not the first trophy they have seen City lift this season, with a fourth successive League Cup won in front of around 2,000 spectators at Wembley last month.
And they could yet be allowed to witness, likely in Portugal, the team contesting their first Champions League final against Chelsea on May 29 when a treble could be completed.
“We have missed the fans so much,” City captain Fernandinho said. “We wanted to do this for them. We will enjoy this moment and we hope the fans do too. Rest assured we will continue to do everything we can to bring the Champions League home this season.”
Celebrating fans can be seen in the photo gallery above. To move on to the next image, simply click on the arrows or swipe on your device.
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
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