Pep Guardiola’s side sealed the championship one day before Sunday’s professional 1-0 victory over Chelsea, after second-placed Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest meant it was impossible to catch us.
The success against Frank Lampard’s side represented our 12th consecutive league win – a formidable run which saw us hunt the Gunners down before overtaking them at the table’s summit as the term reached fever pitch.
Once again, the Belgian has been a vital cog in this juggernaut sky blue team – scoring seven goals and registering a phenomenal 16 assists in the division so far.
And De Bruyne insisted the ‘best’ team were bestowed with the Premier League crown in 2022/23.
“You work 11 months to get this feeling and to enjoy this moment. The feeling is always good,” he declared.
“It’s a lot of hard work and sacrifice from the team and our families to have these days. We deserve to enjoy this and it’s great to be here.
“The league doesn’t lie – we were the best. Arsenal were incredible – especially in the first part of the season.
“In the end though we deserve it, we came back, and we’ve won a lot of games.
“We like to win, and we’re never bored of it. We’ve won a lot in the past, but we want to win again and again.
“I’m sure the future will be the same. It’s incredible – to win three times in a row, it’s hard work. We deserve it.
“The hunger is there, the mentality is good, it’s a good group. We just want to play good football. Pep makes sure that the group stays hungry. The group is very humble.”
After adding a 23rd major honour to our sparkling trophy cabinet, City have the chance win two more following the conclusion of the Premier League season, with tantalising FA Cup and UEFA Champions League finals on the horizon.
Guardiola’s men face Manchester United at Wembley on 3 June, before meeting Inter in the European showpiece event on 10 June in Istanbul.
De Bruyne, though, believes we should savour claiming our fifth league title in the past six years before resuming the hard work as we look to secure a historic treble.
He added: “We should enjoy the celebrations with everybody – the fans, our families.
“Then we keep on working. We enjoy the games against Brighton and Brentford and prepare for United and Inter and hopefully we can do something special.
“Everybody wants it. We know we need to win two games, but they are hard games, and we need to prepare ourselves the best as possible and hopefully we can win them.”
