Since the arrival of Sheikh Sheikh Mansour in 2008, Manchester City have invested heavily in all areas of the football club from infrastructure through to big money signings.
The Abu Dhabi United Group project, headed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed have secured their ‘holy grail’ after Manchester City secured their first ever Champions League triumph on Saturday night with a 1-0 win over Inter Milan in Istanbul. With the triumph, City became one of a handful of European clubs to complete the treble with the UCL win added to their FA Cup and Premier League titles.After 15 years under UAE control and after spending a total of 2,303 million euro in transfers, the 2022-23 is the only season that the City accounts have not ended in the red.
CITY IN PREMIER LEAGUE
Manchester City sealed the Premier League title on Saturday, as Arsenal’s shock 1-0 loss at Nottingham Forest ended any lingering mathematical probability of the north London team usurping Pep Guardiola’s side in the title race.
The Gunners are now four points behind City in the table and cannot catch Guardiola’s men with just one game and a maximum of three points left in its season.It is a result that has appeared increasingly inevitable for weeks as City’s run of 23 unbeaten games coincided with and influenced Arsenal’s slow capitulation from its perch at the top of the table, which it had occupied for 248 days of the season, the most in English top-flight history for a team which failed to win the title.
AT FA CUP
Perfection can come in many forms and be interpreted in different ways. Manchester City has produced more polished performances under Pep Guardiola this season. There have been matches where the team has scored more and created more – yet City’s ability to dominate its opponent, to do enough to win when it matters is as perfect as it gets on a soccer pitch. It is why this team continues to chase history this season.
As the 2-1 scoreline would suggest, this FA Cup match between bitter rivals City and Manchester United was a tense affair. A victory for the blue side of Manchester was never a foregone conclusion. United had opportunities, yet City had the composure.
TO A FIRST CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WIN
Manchester City scrapped and fought their way into the history books – a victory in adversity – to win their first Uefa Champions League, becoming only the second English club to claim “the treble” after this season’s FA Cup and Premier League triumphs.
On a nervous night in Istanbul, and despite losing their Belgian playmaker Kevin De Bruyne in the 35th minute to injury, City snatched the game away from Internazionale in the 68th minute with one of their few shots on target, to take the final piece of silverware.
Sheikh Mansour, attending only his second City match since taking over the club in 2008, may have to expand the trophy cabinet in his office at the ministry of presidential affairs in Abu Dhabi.
