City became the first side in the entire history of the English top-flight – 136 years! - to win the men’s title in four consecutive seasons.
Manchester United managed three consecutive titles twice under Sir Alex Ferguson – 1998/99 to 2000/01 and 2006/07 to 2008/09 while Liverpool won three between 1981-82 and 1983-84 under the stewardship of Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan.
Herbert Chapman was part of both the Arsenal and Huddersfield teams who managed a trio of successive titles wins – the Gunners doing it from 1932/33 to 1934/35 with the Terriers managing it from 1923/24 to 1925/26.
But Guardiola now stands alone as the only boss to manage a quality quartet of title wins as he led City to glory across 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24.
Remarkably, it is the sixth time in seven seasons we have won the Premier League, a record that underlines our dominance under Guardiola.
On Sunday, he also became only the fourth man to win as many as six English top-flight titles, following in the footsteps of Manchester United’s Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson, Bob Paisley of Liverpool, Tom Watson with both Liverpool and Sunderland – the first manager to lead two different clubs to the League Championship - and Aston Villa’s George Ramsay – commonly known as the world’s first-ever football manager.
This season, the Premier League represents City’s third trophy having won UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup earlier in the campaign.
And the 2023/24 season isn’t over yet with Guardiola’s City now looking to become the first side in history to win back-to-back Premier League and FA Cup Doubles when we face Manchester United in the FA Cup final at Wembley on 25 May.
Remarkably, since his first season in charge of a top-flight club in 2008/09 when he began his managerial career at Barcelona, Guardiola has won more top-flight titles across the big-five leagues in Europe than any other manager.
Guardiola has emerged as the pre-eminent managerial force across the Premier League, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, Serie A and LaLiga, winning in 12 of his 15 seasons during spells in charge of Barcelona , Bayern Munich and Manchester City.
That’s six with City and three with both Barcelona and Bayern Munich – six ahead of his nearest rival, Massimiliano Allegri who triumphed five time with Juventus and once with Milan.
Carlo Ancelotti and Antonio Conte have both won five each – Ancelotti winning two with Real Madrid and one each with Chelsea, PSG and Bayern Munich while Conte lifted three with Juventus, one with Chelsea and one with Inter. Jose Mourinho has managed four – two with Inter and one with both Chelsea and Real Madrid alongside Lauren Blanc who clocked up three with PSG and one with Bordeaux.
In terms of our illustrious history, Sunday’s title win was No.10 for City – after success in 1936/37, 1967/68, 2011/12, 2013/14, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23.
The latest triumph means we now stand alone in No.4 spot, one ahead of Everton – and just three behind Arsenal who have 13, nine behind Liverpool who have 19 and ten behind neighbours United who have 20.
Here’s to more success going-forward for the classy Catalan!
