Manchester City Saturday won the
Premier League for the fifth time in six seasons after second-placed Arsenal
lost 1-0 at Nottingham Forest, just as Awoniyi’s
19th-minute goal was enough to seal victory and spark jubilant scenes from the
home supporters at the final whistle.
A second consecutive defeat for the
Gunners left Mikel Arteta’s men still four points adrift of City with one game
left for them to play.
Taiwo Awoniyi’s winning goal also had
huge ramifications at the bottom of the table as Forest are now safe from
relegation in their first season back in the top flight for 23 years.
City’s title triumph could be the start of one of the three titles as Pep Guardiola’s men face Manchester United in the FA Cup final and Inter Milan in the Champions League final next month.P
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Arsenal
pushed the defending champions most of the way but crumbled in the decisive
final months of the season.
They have won just two of their last eight
games to allow City to canter over the line with three games to spare.
The visitors rarely even looked like scoring
as a raucous atmosphere at the City Ground roared Forest onto survival.
Arteta’s decision to name an
experimental back four without any recognised full-backs backfired inside the
first 20 minutes.
Morgan Gibbs-White has been central to
Forest’s recovery after winning just one of their opening 11 league games.
The England under-21 international
created the only goal as he teed up Awoniyi to dink home his fifth goal in
three games over Aaron Ramsdale.
Forest were then happy to retreat and
defend their lead, but Arsenal were a shadow of the vibrant young side that
shone in the early months of the season.
Bukayo Saka’s tame shot that was
easily saved by Keylor Navas was the closest they came to an equaliser.
Arteta’s squad is the second youngest
in the Premier League and they have run out of steam just as City have hit top
speed.
The newly-crowned champions are
unbeaten in 23 games in all competitions, including a 4-1 thrashing of Arsenal
when the sides met in a top-of-the-table clash last month.
At the other end of the table, Forest move six points clear
of the drop zone meaning two from Everton, Leeds or Leicester will join
Southampton in the Championship next season.
Taiwo
Awoniyi was the match winner for Nottingham Forest who edged Arsenal at the
City Ground by a lone goal to secure their Premier League survival and crown
Manchester City as champions.
Arsenal dominated possession but Mikel
Arteta’s men could not find a way through Forest’s spirited defence in order to
force City to win a fifth title in six years themselves.
Not that Forest and their noisy supporters
were bothered about Pep Guardiola and his team.
After what must have seemed like an
age as he paced up and down his technical area, waiting for seven minutes of
injury time to pass and the loss of goalkeeper Keylor Navas in the very last
seconds, Forest boss Steve Cooper was able to celebrate survival.
In the stand above, owner Evangelos
Marinakis was also hugged by those around him, having been rewarded for keeping
faith with Cooper during a tumultuous campaign.
Awoniyi only scored four times in his
first 23 Premier League games after joining Forest from Union Berlin – but now
has five in his past three.
And,
like the former Liverpool striker, Morgan Gibbs-White’s form has also shown a
major upturn over the past few weeks and it was little surprise the pair
combined to put Forest ahead.
There was an element of fortune given Gabriel
slid in to reach Gibbs-White’s angled pass into the penalty area first.
But given the battling qualities they have
shown in their survival fight and the phenomenal support they have received
from the stands, Forest deserved the fortune that saw the ball strike Awoniyi,
then rise above Aaron Ramsdale, who was diving to smother, and into the net.
Forest did have other chances and Gibbs-White
should have doubled their lead near the end when he found himself one on one
with the Arsenal keeper.
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