5 Earliest Title Wins As Manchester City Close In on Another Premier League Crown

• Manchester City could win the league with three games to spare depending on the results next weekend
• Manchester United have the highest number of entries in the list of the earliest title wins in history
• Jose Mourinho's Chelsea surprisingly do not feature in the top five list despite his trendsetting success in West London

As it stands, Manchester City will be crowned English champions for the third consecutive time next weekend if they beat Chelsea at the Etihad.

A victory against a fumbling Chelsea at home looks guaranteed, with Pep Guardiola's side now poised to win the title with two games to spare. Or three, should Arsenal drop points against Nottingham.

At some point, it looked like Arsenal will hunt the defending champions down and take it to the last day. Winning the league with two league games remaining goes a long way in showing how competitive a league is. But as Sports Brief reports, teams in the past have won the title with a bigger number of games remaining.

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1. Manchester United - 2000/2001 - 5 games

Sir Alex Ferguson was 'HIM' during his long tenure in charge of the Red Devils. Amongst his 13 Premier League titles, he attained an unassailable lead over his closest challenger, Arsenal, with five games to spare.

2. Manchester City - 2017/2018 - 5 games

The one person who has come close to replicating Ferguson's success in the Premier League bar Arsene Wenger is Pep Guardiola. After an initial difficult season in Manchester, the revered Spanish manager quickly sorted his feet out to establish dominance.

Manchester City came close to breaking Ferguson's record of five games but Paul Pogba inspired a huge second-half comeback in the Manchester derby to postpone their celebrations. A week later, Jose Mourinho's side lost to West Brom as City beat Tottenham to win the title.

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3. Manchester United - 1999/2000 - 4 games

Most Premier League stories must always feature Ferguson. The Red Devils set a record in 2000 by winning the league with four games remaining after thrashing Southampton 3-1.

It had just come from a disappointing Champions League loss to Real Madrid but they put their woes behind them to beat, guess who, Arsenal.

4. Manchester United - 2012/2013 - 4 games

It is getting a little boring seeing United again, right? Get used to it. Such was the prowess of Ferguson. This remains the last Premier League they have won to date and coincidentally, it came in Ferguson's last year in charge.

They beat Aston Villa 3-0 to capitalise on Manchester City losing to Spurs a day earlier to run away with the league and hand Ferguson a fairytale send-off.

5. Arsenal - 2003/2004 - 4 games

Arsene Wenger's Invincibles remain one of the most decorated squads in Premier League history, alongside Ferguson's treble winners and Guardiola's centurions.

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Apart from going the whole season unbeaten and winning it with four games to spare, the Gunners did it at the home of their worst rivals - Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs needed a win to postpone Arsenal's march to the title but could only get a two-all draw.

It remains the last league title Arsenal won.

Additional information from Sky Sports and William Hill.

Honourable mentions

Jose Mourinho's Chelsea won the league twice with three games to spare during his two separate stints at the club. The current Manchester City squad can join them only if Arsenal fail to beat Nottingham Forest a day earlier before they face Chelsea.

Times teams threw away significant leads

Sports Brief has also reported that The 2022/2023 English Premier League title race is now seemingly over, with Manchester City angling to win a third consecutive title.

For long periods of the season, it was widely thought that it was Arsenal's title to lose after Mikel Arteta turned the fortunes of the Gunners.

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There was a time they held an eight-point gap over Pep Guardiola's side. They wouldn't be the first team to bottle such a significant lead should the Citizens pip them to it. Worse has happened.