Arsenal defeat hands Man City Premier League title

Manchester City won the Premier League for the fifth time in six seasons after second-placed Arsenal lost 1-0 at Nottingham Forest on Saturday. 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. Arsenal topped the table for the majority of the season but have collapsed down the final straight, winning just two of their last eight games. "Congratulations to City for winning the championship. Obviously, it’s a really sad day for us after everything we’ve done in the season but now we have to face the reality,” said Arteta. "We should have been better as a team and in the last few weeks we have fallen short.”City’s title triumph could be the start of a treble as Pep Guardiola’s men face Manchester United in the FA Cup final and Inter Milan in the Champions League final next month. They also become just the fifth side to win three consecutive English top flight titles.City’s ascent to the dominant force of the English game since an Abu Dhabi-backed takeover transformed the club’s fortunes in 2008 has been accelerated during Guardiola’s reign. The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss has now won 11 league titles in 14 seasons as a coach.But City’s stranglehold on the title threatens to turn a league that prides itself on its competitiveness into a one-horse race. Arsenal pushed the defending champions most of the way but crumbled in the decisive final months of the season 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 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 side that shone in the early months of the season.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.Earlier, Manchester United and Newcastle are on the brink of qualifying for next season’s Champions League after Liverpool’s 1-1 draw against Aston Villa, while Everton remain in relegation danger despite their dramatic 1-1 draw at Wolves yesterday.United’s 1-0 victory at Bournemouth, combined with Liverpool’s failure to beat Villa, left Erik ten Hag’s men and Newcastle within touching distance of ensuring Premier League top four finishes. Fourth-placed United and Newcastle, in third, are both three points clear of fifth-placed Liverpool, who have only one game left. Newcastle can seal their spot with a draw or win against Leicester tomorrow or Chelsea on May 28.United take their turn at securing the lucrative top four place against Chelsea on Thursday and Fulham next weekend. Liverpool’s final game of the season is against relegated Southampton, but although they have a superior goal difference to United if they finish level on points, they are likely to have to settle for a place in the Europa League.At the Vitality Stadium, United took the lead in the ninth minute when Casemiro spun to meet Christian Eriksen’s cross with an acrobatic bicycle kick from close-range. United were unbeaten in their previous 134 league matches when leading at half-time and that remarkable sequence continued as they held firm after the interval.At Anfield, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was watching from the stands as he served a touchline ban following his recent rant about referee Paul Tierney. Villa wasted a 22nd-minute penalty when Ollie Watkins fired wide after the striker was brought down by Ibrahima Konate.Despite Watkins’ miss, Unai Emery’s team went ahead in the 27th minute through Jacob Ramsey’s volley from Douglas Luiz’s cross. Roberto Firmino and James Milner, set to leave Liverpool at the end of the season, came on for their Anfield farewells in the closing stages. And it was Brazilian forward Firmino who rescued a point with his close-range finish in stoppage-time.Yerry Mina’s last-gasp equaliser boosted Everton’s hopes of avoiding playing in the second tier for the first time since 1954. Sean Dyche’s men fell behind after 34 minutes when Adama Traore’s shot was pushed out to Hwang Hee-chan, who netted from close-range. Mina bundled in Everton’s leveller nine minutes into stoppage-time to leave the fourth bottom Toffees two points above the relegation zone. Third bottom Leeds would go above Everton with a win at West Ham today, while second bottom Leicester would also leapfrog Dyche’s team if they beat Newcastle tomorrow.Tottenham’s season to forget hit a new low with a 3-1 home defeat against Brentford. Ryan Mason’s side took the lead through Harry Kane’s 28th league goal this season, but a Bryan Mbeumo brace and Yoane Wissa’s late strike left them floundering in eighth place.In another match, Fulham and Crystal Palace shared a 2-2 draw at Craven Cottage