Manchester City have celebrated their Premier League title win after Julian Alvarez's first-half winner saw them claim a 1-0 victory over Chelsea.
Pep Guardiola's side already knew they were guaranteed to win a third successive title before kicking off against Frank Lampard's Blues. Closest challengers Arsenal could have kept their slim hopes alive with victory over Nottingham Forest on Saturday, only for Taiwo Awoniyi to put them to the sword and guarantee safety for Steve Cooper's side.
A much-changed City side were treated to a guard of honour at the Etihad Stadium, with manager Pep Guardiola shuffling his pack after qualifying for the Champions League final in midweek. After the game, the stars of City's season joined together to celebrate their success, having chased down Arsenal to retain the title even before their win on Sunday.
Four of Manchester City's five summer signings started against Chelsea, with Manuel Akanji keeping his place and Stefan Ortega, Kalvin Phillips and Sergio Gomez joining the Swiss in the line-up. However, the fifth new man, top scorer Erling Haaland, was only on the bench as Alvarez - signed in January 2022 - led the line.
It was the former River Plate frontman who put City in front against opponents who last won the league in 2016-17. The Argentina forward escaped Thiago Silva to collect a Cole Palmer pass and fire low beyond Kepa in the Chelsea goal.
Alvarez thought he had a second 20 minutes from time, only for the goal to be ruled out for a handball in the build-up from Riyad Mahrez. Shortly after the final whistle, the title celebrations began in earnest with the victorious players lifting the trophy.
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Despite the tweaks to the team, City still had plenty of attacking threat even before Haaland was thrown on for the closing stages. Chelsea gave it their all, with former City frontman Raheem Sterling their most likely source of a goal for much of the game.
The Premier League title is the first of what could be three trophies for City. Manchester City stand in the way in the FA Cup final before Inter await as the club chase a first Champions League crown.
"We always believed we could do this," defender Kyle Walker told Sky Sports. "This group of lad are professionals and winners.
"Rest assured we are not finished. We have the FA Cup against our bitter rivals and then the Champions League. We will celebrate tonight and then move on to try and create history. The treble would be fantastic but there is a lot of football to be played.
"To say we are up there with one of the greatest Premier League teams of all time we have to conquer some of that. To go and achieve that we could then start talking about being one of the greatest teams in the Premier League."
