Queens Park Rangers gave the blue half of Manchester the biggest scare and saddest low before the greatest high in the last 44 years. If Manchester City matched Manchester United's result they would be Champions of England for the first time in 44 years. United were away to Sunderland and everyone knew they would do their part and pick up 3 points to put some pressure on their noisy neighbours. City were expected to do the business at home, and comfortably, against a scrapping west London side in the relegation dogfight at the bottom of the table.
The form book had it down as a home win. QPR are awful away from home. City are brilliant at the Ethiad (dropping only 2 points there all season!). It was a home win banker... Or was it?
QPR were 1 nil down after a mistake from Paddy Kenny 5 minutes before half time. The stadium, an unopened pessure cooker, poked a hole in the lid and released some steam with Pablo Zabaleta's first goal of the season. That whole was stuffed closed when Djbril Cisse pounced on a Jolean Lescott mistake to fire past Joe Hart. The tension and expectation was rising again when ex-Manchester City player Joey Barton went on an idiotic spree of aggressive behaviour, elbowing Carlos Tevez in the throat (some say he might have deserved it after his behaviour this season - and the swing out at Barton moments prior) but the knee to the back of Sergio Aguero wasn't justified, neither was the attempted head butt of City captain Vincent Kompany (who didn't 'drop his spuds' as Barton accused Alan Shearer of doing when Roy Keane had a swipe at him years ago during a strange anti-Shearer rant on twitter after the game) before being escorted down the tunnel. Anyway, with that maniac off, the game could continue. What wasn't in the script was Jamie Mackie's diving header shortly after putting the away side 2-1 in front! QPR were playing with a freedom that eluded City on this, the biggest of occasion in their recent history (FA Cup winners last season). The lid on the pressure cooker that was the Ethiad was firmly tightened and the heat was turning up, and fast.
With the time ticking down and the news filtering through that United were 1-0 up at Sunderland and cruising many City fans began to fear the worst, and some even left the Stadium before the 90 minutes were up, deflated and abject that they were throwing it all away on the last day. Some will have thought they were cursed and this just wasn't their day. Those that stayed will have thought the same thing when a Mario Balotelli header was kept out from 4 yards by an excellent Kenny save (who did more than enough to atone for his earlier error). The multi-million pound squad assembled by the classy Roberto Mancini who had been so ruthless infront of goal all season was now hitting the corner flag with snap shots and seeing efforts roll harmlessly out of bounds for throw ins. Mancini on the sideline was a joy to watch. The Italians gesticulations were so emotional that the neutral couldn't help but get caught up in it all. He was marching up and down his side line with no regard for the technical area or the 4th official (who to his credit kept out of it) he was crouching, jumping, running, punching the air in disgust, swearing bloody murder (in a mixture of Italian and English from what I could lip read) and looking lost at times with what to possibly do next. Thanks to the Joey Barton affair City had 5 minutes of added on or 'Fergie time' to save themselves and their season. Another corner for City followed, the 90 minutes was up, David Silva swung in an inviting ball and Edin Dzeko did what Balotelli couldn't from 6 yards. His header was barely nestled in the back of the net before the ball was being picked out and sprinted back to the half way line with. The crowd cheered, but seemed to urge more than anything, as the occasion and energy got too much for some and they broke down in tears of raw emotion. What followed was nothing short of miraculous. On the edge of the QPR box heading centrally into traffic Sergio Aguero, the Argentinian forward who has been fantastic for City all season, played the unlikeliest of give and goes with Mario Balotelli, the Italian forward who has been fantastic entertainment all year (but not necessarily on the pitch). Aguero after passing to Balotelli, who tried to turn, kept on the move, Balotelli after almost losing control under pressure managed to poke a ball, from a seated position, into the stride of Aguero who rather than lashing at it, took a lovely first touch into space around the despairing lunge of ex-City man Nedum Onuoha (who made contact) before thumping the ball in for City's 3 goal, with their 44th shot to end 44 years of hurt and being the 'second team' in Manchester.
Cue bedlam.
City fans screamed, yelled cried, jumped, collapsed and went absolutely insane. With almost the last kick of the game, on the last day of the season in the sunshine of Manchester the noisy neighbours had done it, and done it the City way, with a struggle, but with the quality of a billion dollar organisation. Mancini and his 40+ strong backroom staff flooded forward, leaping hugging and going bananas. The day, and the title was finally theirs after 44 years of waiting.
The team who wins the league undoubtedly deserves it, and the best team in Manchester won it this season, and will plan to continue doing so for the foreseeable future, but they will never win a league in quite as dramatic a fashion as that. Incredible.
As Paul Merson narrates fantastically here...
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