With 79 points, the defending champions are one step ahead of Arsenal and one game less than the Gunners.

Without Kevin de Bruyne, injured, Pep Guardiola's men had to be patient, lacking success in the first half.

Jack Grealish found Lukasz Fabianski's right post in the 30th and Rodri, well served by Erling Haaland, saw the inside of the left post deny him the opening of the scoring two minutes later.

In the second half, deliverance came after only five minutes, Angelo Ogbonna being the only defender of the Londoners not to play offside on a free kick from Riyad Mahrez that Nathan Aké catapulted to the bottom, from the head, to the second post (1-0, 50th).

But it was in the 70th minute that the event awaited by all Manchester City fans arrived, when Grealish threw Haaland into space and the Norwegian scored his 35th league goal this season with a spiked ball, a record in the Premier League era.

In his first season in the English top flight, he erased the shelves of Andy Cole and Alan Shearer who had stopped at 34 goals with Newcastle in 1993-94 for the former and Blackburn the following season for the latter. The elite of English football then had 22 teams, or 42 rounds. It has been reduced to 20 clubs and 38 rounds since the 1995–96 season.

Hedge of honour for Haaland

It took only 31 appearances for Haaland to set this new record, where his elders had played 40 and 42 games respectively.

The Premier League single-season goal record announced on the giant screen of Manchester City's Etihad Stadium on May 3, 2023. It took Erling Haaland only 31 league appearances to score 35 goals © Oli SCARFF / AFP/Archives

The Norwegian superstar in all competitions has already rattled the net 51 times since the start of the 2022-23 season, far ahead of the second top scorer in the five major European championships, Kylian Mbappé with 35 goals.

Phil Foden's goal five minutes from the end, for 3-0, is almost anecdotal, but it reinforces Manchester City's ambitions to achieve a treble league, FA Cup and Champions League that only local rivals Manchester United had managed in 1998/1999.

At the end of the match, Pep Guardiola asked all his players to make a guard of honor for Haaland, very smiling, but a little embarrassed, under the eyes of his father Alfie Haaland, present in the stands and who had worn the sky blue jersey from 2000 to 2003.

In the other match of the evening, Liverpool made an excellent operation in the race for Europe by also winning its late match of the 28th day (1-0) against Fulham.

All it took was a penalty from Mohamed Salah in the 39th minute to consolidate their 5th place with 59 points, five units better than Tottenham (6th) and Aston Villa.

If the Reds are only 4 lengths from Manchester United, 4th, and six from Newcastle, 3rd, they have respectively two and one more game.

They will probably have to settle for a place in the Europa League, but it would already be an almost unexpected epilogue after a chaotic season.

© 2023 AFP